This isn't just a wave coming in, or the rising tide. The water is alive, and is fighting everything in its path.

This is Lord Frederick Leighton's "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it", a piece that caught my eye when I was looking for something else (which is often the case).

This is Edd Cartier's cover for Unknown Fantasy Fiction, December 1939, and is a striking piece in both execution and in idea.