Exactly, as I pointed out earlier that both flounder and founder express what could happen to a ship.
I don't remember which was meant in the Clavell novel, so I can't agree or disagree with Barnacle's first post.

Covert is a word that recently changed pronunciation, from cov-ert to co-vert.
Cov-ert, meaning a thicket, or something under cover, seems meaningless to me when it is pronounced co-vert.