A Heartbeat From Home

She was barely a day out of Madrasapattinam, a treasure trove full of glowing amber and spices, and the hearts of the sailors set for home. Double decked- triple masted, and fifty guns. The sea was a flat, dark mirror, untroubled by the swells of the Bay of Bengal. From the quarterdeck, Captain Thomas Vance watched the sails catch the evening breeze. The  Defiance was a magnificent ship. Her fresh coat of paint barely masked the scent of Malabar pepper and clove rising from the magazine. Below decks, stacked beside the spice crates, sat chests of raw, unpolished amber — a fortune that was bound for the London markets. 

His calloused hands tightened on the polished rail as the black clouds began to choke out the sun. The ocean started moving in heavy swells, turning an ugly purple color. A low hum vibrated right through the ship's wood. It was a clear warning. Then the horizon split open. A mountain of black water smashed the hull, throwing the Defiance and her fifty iron guns straight into the deep sea. Vance screamed as the deck vanished beneath his feet. The world flipped completely on its side, throwing him through the air until his spine slammed into the main mast with a sickening crack. The ocean did not just enter the ship. It attacked it. A wall of black water smashed through the gun ports, instantly drowning the men at the ropes. 

Down in the dark, pure terror broke loose. The heavy iron cannons snapped their thick ropes like thread. These multi-ton monsters rolled wild across the deck, crushing sailors' flat and splintering bones. They hit the wooden walls with the sound of a bomb going off, punching massive holes straight through the side of the hull. The sea poured into the cargo hold like a waterfall.The air grew thick and choking as millions of loose black peppercorns and sharp cloves crushed together. The rising water instantly turned into a dark, gritty, boiling soup of ruined spices. Right next to them, the iron-bound chests exploded under the pressure. Thousands of raw amber gems flooded into the black water. 

For one split second, the dark hold lit up as the golden stones swirled in the foam like a galaxy of dying stars.Then came the final death groan. The massive weight of the water and the iron guns dragged the front of the ship straight down. The stern lifted high into the storm, pointing toward the sky. The three giant masts whipped through the air and snapped like toothpicks. With a deafening roar of twisting wood, the ocean swallowed the ship whole, dragging the men, the gold, and the screams down into the freezing deep.