Het Begin van het Leven

So they chopped down the front mast. CRACK! It fell into the sea. But now the mainmast shook terribly. It would break the ship apart. They had to chop that down too. Now we had no masts at all. We were like a cork in the water.

Then I saw something that made my blood freeze. The captain was praying. The bosun was praying. These hard men who feared nothing were on their knees and begged God for mercy. If they were praying, we were really lost. I also fell on my knees.

In the middle of the night it got worse. A sailor came running from below. "We have a leak!" he screamed. "Four feet of water in the hold!" The captain jumped up. "All hands to the pumps!" he shouted. This was our last chance.

My heart stopped. I fell back on my bed. I could not move. Water was coming in. We would sink. I would die here in the cold dark sea. But the sailors pulled me up. "You too!" they said. "Everyone must pump or we all die!"