Het Begin van het Leven

So I went to the pumps. I worked harder than I had ever worked in my life. We all did it. Our hands bled. Our backs broke. But we kept pumping. The water kept coming in. We lost the fight. The ship died.

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

Fifteen minutes later I looked back. Our ship went under the waves. The sea swallowed it completely. Now I understood what "sinking" meant. All our cargo, all our possessions, everything - to the bottom of the sea. We were lucky that we were alive.

We couldn't reach the rescue ship. The storm was too strong. So we rowed to the coast. It took hours. Every wave tried to overturn our boat. Every gust of wind tried to drown us. People on the beach saw us coming. They ran to help.