I read an account long long ago where an old salt was asked how he had never had his windows
stove in while similar boats in the same seas had theirs smashed in.
His solution that he had been using for many years was simply outside screen frames screwed in for storms. It was a thick screen in robust frames.
The "scientific" explanation by others that investigated and tested it (yea, someone did that for this article) explained that it is the air trapped and mixed with the water that hit the windows allowed a compression/absorption of the energy.
Any hoo, that is what they said back then.
I have no idea where I read/saw it.