Your description of The Silver Curlew beguiled me, and the passage completely seals the deal--I'm going to read it.

Enjoy! I was surprised by it; I'm now going to keep an eye out in used book stores for a copy for myself.

--loved everything about that, everything, but especially "foam them away"

Farjeon writes a really good sea. There's just enough of it in The Silver Curlew to make me want to go through her other books looking for it.