The sharp bows leapt through the broken water into the air, and hung for a long moment over the hollow, until the stern lifted and they were flung forward and downward.

Then came a sharp grating and a little shock, gone almost as it was felt, but it told of worse to come, maybe.

We had felt the ground.
But the next roller hove us forward swiftly, and we hardly overran it, so that it carried us safely.

Now we were so near the shore that a stone would have reached it, and but two ranks of breakers were to be passed.

I bade my two companions hold on for their lives, and set my arm round Gerda before the crash should come, and we lifted to the first of them, but it was almost as swift as we, and it carried us onward bravely.
Then the keel grated on the ground, and we lost way.