Inizio della vita

"We are all lost!" the captain continued to whisper. "We are all dead men!" When the captain said those words my courage died. This man had sailed for thirty years. If he was afraid we were doomed. I stayed in my cabin. I was frozen with fear.

That evening our crew begged the captain to cut our masts. He didn't want to do it. A ship without masts is defenseless. But the boatswain said: "If we don't cut them the ship will sink!" The captain finally agreed. They had to save the ship.

So they cut the foremast. CRACK! It fell into the sea. But now the mainmast was shaking terribly. It was about to split the ship. They had to cut that too. Now we had no more masts. We were like a cork in the water.

I cannot describe my terror. I was young. I had never seen death so close. But worse than the fear of death was my guilt. I had broken my promises to God. I had laughed at His first warning. Now He would kill me.