1 Long Tom: Arrr! What be this devilry!
2 Dirque: It be a maelstrom cap'n! The ship'll be bein' sucked into the briny deeps!
3 Long Tom: Batten down the hatches! Abaft the beam! Bilges ahoy! Load the gunwales! Hoist the yardarm! Furl the mizzen-mast! Belay that marlinspike!
4 Wendy: Ye not be knowin' what those terms be meanin', do ye?
4 Long Tom: Arrr! It be matterin' not, neither be the crew!

Maelstrom is a cool word. I remember seeing it for the first time when I read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea as a kid. A giant whirlpool in the ocean - how cool is that?

Another cool example from fiction is Charybdis, from Greek mythology. In some accounts Charybdis is a sea monster, but in others it's merely a giant whirlpool, capable of sucking down ships.

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2024-12-08 Rerun commentary: Giant swirly things always seem to be vertical, sucking things either up or down.

What about a horizontal one, that sucks things sideways?! That'd be awesome.