At that moment, the storm gathered force, and the winds pushed the helpless ship toward the rocky coast and the prospect of certain death for her crew. Serrano faced every captain’s nightmare as razor-sharp rocks sawed into her hull, and she began taking on water. Luck was with her crew, since Santiago washed ashore before breaking up. One by one, her crew of thirty-seven crawled to the end of the jib boom and jumped to a rocky beach. As soon as they had abandoned ship, Santiago broke up, and the storm carried away all her life-sustaining provisions—wine, hardtack, and water, to say nothing of
...more
