Start in life

(Het Begin van het Leven)

1. So they cut the front mast. CRACK! It fell into the sea. But now the main mast shook terribly. It was going to break the ship apart. They had to cut that too. Now we had no masts at all. We were like a cork in the water.

2. 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.

3. My father's words came back to me. He was right. I was cursed. The storm grew worse. Even the old sailors said they had never seen anything like it. Our ship was heavy with cargo. It rolled terribly. Every few minutes a sailor would shout, "She's going to sink!"

4. I did not know what "sink" meant until someone explained it. When a ship "sinks" or "founders" 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.

5. Then I saw something that froze my blood. The captain was praying. The boatswain was praying. These hard men who feared nothing were on their knees begging God for mercy. If they were praying we were truly lost. I fell to my knees too.

6. 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.

7. 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!"

8. So I went to the pumps. I worked harder than I had ever worked in my life. We all did. Our hands bled. Our backs broke. But we kept pumping. The water kept coming in. We were losing the battle. The ship was dying.

9. The captain fired guns to signal for help. BOOM! BOOM! I had never heard ship's guns before. I thought we were breaking apart. I fainted from fear. I fell down on the deck. Another sailor kicked me aside and took my place at the pump.

10. When I woke up things were worse. The water was winning. We could not pump fast enough. The ship was going to sink. Nothing could save us. But then - a miracle! A small ship near us sent a boat.