Début dans la Vie

So I went to the pumps. I worked harder than I had ever worked in my life. We all did it. Our hands were bleeding. Our backs were breaking. But we continued to pump. The water continued to enter. We were losing the battle. The ship was dying.

One by one we jumped into their boat. I was so scared that I could barely move. The sailors had to throw me in like a sack of potatoes. I landed hard and stayed there shaking. The small boat was full of men. The water came over the sides.

Fifteen minutes later I looked back. Our ship was going under the waves. The sea swallowed it whole. Now I understood what "sink" meant. All our goods, all our possessions, everything - at the bottom of the sea. We were lucky to be alive.

We could not reach the rescue boat. The storm was too strong. So we rowed toward the coast. It took hours. Each wave tried to turn over our boat. Each gust of wind tried to drown us. The people on the beach saw us coming. They ran to help.