Waves burst with increasing menace over the breakwater unleashing icy shards onto the boats huddling below. The groans and creaks of metal hulls permeated the upper decks as if the ships were being crushed from below. The rigging on one of the small pleasure boats snapped like a pencil, smashing onto a nearby vessel. Despite this there was no time for thoughts of personal safety among the men who earned their living from the sea. Instead the fishermen focused on action; clambering, straining, tying, locking down, doing everything necessary to outwit the monster rolling in from the Atlantic.