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The creature drilling through this ship is a clam

The name gives you the wrong picture. A naval shipworm, Teredo navalis, is a bivalve: a relative of clams and mussels, with an unusually long body.[1]

Its shell has become a tool. Two small, ridged valves at the buried end grind and tear wood fibres, opening a tunnel through submerged timber. The long body follows inside; siphons near the entrance exchange water with the sea.[2][3]

Cutaway of a submerged timber containing an elongated shipworm, with small shell valves at the buried head and siphons at the entrance.
An illustrative cutaway: shell valves at the boring end, siphons near the water.
AI-generated explanatory reconstruction, not a photograph. · Source

A sound-looking plank can hide a maze of burrows. The Ocean World describes ships, piles and sea defences damaged from within, long before the destruction was obvious on the surface.[4]

Remastered Teredo navalis illustration from The Ocean World.
Teredo navalis in The Ocean World, a remastered historical illustration.
Historical book illustration, AI-assisted colour remaster. · Source

The striking part is the redesign: a shell that seems too small to protect the animal makes the tunnel that shelters it.[5]

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