Upon this reef the storms had cast up many remains of marine animals, and a quantity of fungi, amongst which I noticed some exactly resembling the common sponge of the Mediterranean.
On the afternoon of the 12th, we got under way to proceed direct to Singapore, and passed through the channel between the reef off the Mangsee Islands, and those of Balambangan and Banguey.
The beach was found to be of fine volcanic sand, composed chiefly of oxide of iron, and comminuted shells; there is here also a narrow shore reef of coral.
Christ save us all from a death like this, On the reef of Norman's woe!
He would not go shipwreck now "on the reef of Norman's woe.
Dicky said to himself more than once that day: "Christ save us all from a death like this, On the reef of Norman's woe!
After leaving the Reef and clearing Cape York, you enter the Torres Straits and make for a group of islands, the most important of which is Thursday Island.
The voyage along the coast of Queensland, sailing within the Great Barrier Reef northwards to Torres Straits, is one of the most interesting voyages in the world.
As the space between them and the shore widened, the surf became stronger and higher, until by the time they reached the reef the canoe was dancing like a shell on the water.
He'll hit a reef before long that will knock a hole in his hull.
There's the Huronic out there on the reef with two hundred passengers on board and there's not a minute to lose!
On the reef off Sister Point,'" they all repeated, and started forward with as much speed as they could manage.
Still farther on was the reef where the Huronic had met her fate; the salvage crews were still at work on her.
Tell them she's struck on the reef off Sister Point," he directed.
Jammed up on a reef and completely at the mercy of the waves that battered against her side lay the great steamer that only a week before had swept so proudly through the channel.
There is the beautiful, peaceful bay known as Porth Hellick, almost closed across its mouth by a reef of rocks, so that when the sea is raging without it may be quite calm in the bay.
The last notes died away as we crossed the reef and went out to the open sea.
A terribly dangerous reef is marked by a curl of foam.
It was low tide, and we could see the formation of the reef by the lovely blue-green water inside.
It has been ascertained and deduced from the depth of the soundings that originally the Barrier Reef formed part of the coast of Australia.
There is no barrier reef whatever, and consequently no lagoon.
Nupani, Nukapu, and several other small reefislands north of Santa Cruz.
Helped much by the light wind, and much more by the current, we proceeded, though slowly, and entered near a great rock, with a reef to leeward.
On Tuesday, the 29th of August, we sighted a low round island covered with trees, and surrounded by a reef which rose above the water.
Its mouth is half a league wide, and there is a reef on the east side, but the entrance is very open.
The deep blue Mediterranean lay at their feet, its slow swells combed by a sharp reef that broke the streaming water into clouds of spray.
But they went on clinging to the reef on which they had been wrecked--perhaps beyond salvation, living on the jettison of many another who had followed the same route, only to be dashed on the same rocks and perish.
We ran on the reef one moonlight night with a light wind blowing and Pickering at the wheel.
Her timbers are now rotting on a reef in the South Pacific," said he.
The reef had a forbidding aspect; but determined to explore it--since I had come so far for that especial purpose--I rowed on till the keel of the dinghy grated upon the rocks.
I had made a bold determination on that very morning; which was, that I should take the dinghy and visit the reef myself.
The loose stones that lay near had all been used, and I was obliged to go far out on the reef to procure others.
The signal-staff had taught me this fact, as well as the reef itself.
This reef being remote, and being seldom visited by any of the boatmen, I was in hopes I should find some upon it, and I was determined to look narrowly for one.
Even in bright weather, the distance itself would have hindered me from distinguishing human forms on the shore; for from the reef to the nearest suburb of the village, it was more than three statute miles.
Nothing worth noticing occurred until the Trent, which was in chase of a vessel, ran on a coral reef off Matanzas.
We made the Swan Islands, which are small, uninhabited, and surrounded by a reef of coral, and on the morning of the third day anchored off the town at the mouth of the Belize river.
On examining the chart, we found it was the Carisford reef that had so abruptly checked the progress of His Majesty’s ship.
I called him Roger Reef when he was not prepared for the name.
I called you Roger Reef just to try you," was the answer.
It was just a little whim of mine, for I knew that if you were Roger Reef you would not stand like a post when the name was flashed behind you.
There may not be sea-room enough to lower down the sails to reef them, and to attempt to reef a cutter's mainsail in a squall when she is nearly overpowered by wind is extremely dangerous.
It is well to have a line of reef points running from the throat of the mainsail to the cringle of the third reef on the after-leach to make this arrangement snug.
To lower the mainsail of a cutter in order to reef it involves losing way and falling off to leeward.
It is always best, if possible, to reef down and make everything snug before the squall or storm comes upon you; but you cannot be continually reefing down for every threatening cloud, so this is not always practicable.
A reef pendant (earing) getting drawn into the mainsheet block, or a bit of bunting or spunyarn into the block of the peak halliards, may easily cause an accident.
Possibly this will be a sufficient reduction, and you may stand on under this canvas until you get shelter, or sea-room to reef in, or there comes a lull in the squall.
So you drop your peak, and wear, and run back under the shelter of the point, and take your third reef down.
It won't do,' you say to your mate; 'we must have another reef in.
Charles Tyrrell made no observation, for he could not but feel pain and anxiety at the thought of the king's vessel, and all that it contained, having struck upon the awful reef which they had passed so closely.
I rounded it, and beyond found a calm and pleasant bay, from whose curved and thickly wooded shores ran out a reef of rocks.
I now once more attempted to cross the reef by the narrow channel, and happily succeeding, found myself in the open sea, and speeding homewards, joyfully saw our flag flying, and heard the welcome salute you fired.
From the point of this reef rose a column of smoke, steadily and clearly curling upwards in the calm air.
That is a barrier reef; but a barrier reef is merely as it were a fragment of an encircling reef running parallel to the coast of a great continent.
Now let the coral polypes come and perch on the shore and build a fringing reef, which will stop when they come to 20 or 25 fathoms, and you will have a fringing reef like that round the island in the illustration.
I told you that the polypes which built these reefs were not able to live at a greater depth than 20 to 25 fathoms of water; and that is the reason why the fringing reef goes no farther from the land than it does.
When the outward face of the reef is examined, you find that the upper edge, which is exposed to the wash of the sea, and all the seaward face, is covered with those living plant-like flowers which I have described to you.
So long as the land remains stationary, so long as it does not descend so long will that reef be unable to get any further out, because the moment the polype embryos try to get below they die.
The Navajo also forms the impressive reef at the east edge of the beautiful San Rafael Swell, a dome, or closed anticline, now crossed by Highway I-70 between Green River and Fremont Junction, Utah.
The existence of that island was charted, but it was marked as uninhabited, desolate, completely encircled by a formidable reef and very dangerous.
Evidently there had been an opening through the barrier reef at that time.
Again making use of his boards, although he felt so much stronger that he might have dispensed with them, he swam out to the barrier reef and examined the whaleboat again.
Of course, the encirclingreef might continue below the surface without showing above, but after carefully studying the smooth water through the glass, Captain Weatherby did not think so.
They could see the white water above the encirclingreef on either side, but right in front, opposite what appeared to be a deep circular harbor, embayed and surrounded by enormous and towering cliffs, the sea ran smooth!
With that to buoy him up he stumbled across the reef and launched into the smooth waters of the lagoon.
They could see clearly a stretch of the barrierreef through the opening.
Until the earthquake and the tidal wave yesterday," continued Beekman, "the barrier reef completely surrounded the island.
The reef upon which the brig had been wrecked was one of those extending along the southward of the Virgin Isles.
The brig had now beat up so high on the reef that she remained firmly fixed upon it; and the tide having ebbed considerably, she was less exposed to the beating of the waves.
In fore-and-aft sails, which reef on the foot, the first reef is the lowest part.
That part of a sail which is taken in or let out by means of the reef points, in order to adapt the size of the sail to the force of the wind.
Don't you want us toreef that last bit of sail this very minute?
Through the exertions of Captain Norman, his officers, and crew the Firefly was towed off the reef and the horses were reshipped and taken on to Carpentaria.
Then through a number of smacks, some schooners, a brig, a coal hulk and many small boats, they ran in at the little wooden jetty that forked out over a reef of low rocks.
At the next moment the schooner struck heavily; she was on the reef in Ramsey Bay, and pitching miserably with every heave of the sea.
Either they had scrambled from the bows of the wrecked cruiser on to the reef and taken their chance in the surf or they had been washed ashore.
The end came when the Emden, already headed for the shores of the north Keeling Island, struck on the reef and remained with her bows firmly embedded in the coral.
