Vado per mare

That evening our crew begged the captain to cut our masts. He did not want to do it. A ship without masts is defenceless. But the first mate said, “If we do not cut them, the ship will sink!” In the end the captain agreed. They had to save the ship.

So they cut the front mast. CRACK! It fell into the sea. But now the main mast was shaking terribly. It was about to break the ship. They had to cut that one too. Now we had no 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 feeling of guilt. I had broken my promises to God. I had laughed at His first warning. Now He would kill me.

My father's words came back to me. He was right. I was cursed. The storm got worse. Even the old sailors said they had never seen anything like it. Our ship was very full. It rolled terribly. Every few minutes a sailor shouted, “It is going to sink!”.

I didn’t know what “to sink” meant until someone explained it to me. When a ship sinks or goes to the bottom, it fills with water and goes to the bottom of the sea. Everyone drowns. Now I understood. We would all die in this cold, dark water. Our bodies would never be found.

Then I saw something that made my blood run cold. The captain was praying. The boatswain was praying. These tough men who were afraid of nothing were on their knees, begging God for mercy. If they were praying, we were really lost. I fell to my knees too.

In the middle of the night, it got worse. A sailor came running from below deck. “We have a leak!” he shouted. “Four feet of water in the hold!” The captain jumped to his feet. “Everyone to the pumps!” he cried. It was our last chance.