“We’re Not Afraid to Die... if We Can All Be Together” (Hornbill)

By Gordon Cook and Alan East

Honing our seafaring skills – developing and sharpening the sea skills.
Ominous silence- silence indicating coming disaster.
Mayday calls- distress calls given by a ship to get help from nearby ships.
Pinpricks in the vast ocean - tiny islands in the vast ocean
A tousled head - untidy hair.
Mooring - fastening a ship to keep it in a given position.
Life-raft - open rubber boat filled with air.
Hatch - door in the deck.

1. List the steps taken by the captain. 

(i) To protect the ship when rough weather began, the captain took the following steps (a) To slow the boat down, the captain dropped the storm jib and lashed a heavy mooring rope in a loop across the stern. (b) He then double lashed everything, and went through the life raft drill. (c) The captain then attached lifelines, donned oilskins and life jackets. 

(ii)To check the flooding of the water in the ship, the following steps were taken (a) The captain stretched canvas and secured waterproof hatch covers across the gaping holes. With this step taken, the water still seeped, but most of it was now being deflected over the side. (b) When the hand pumps started to block up, the author found another electric pump under the chart room floor and connected it to an out pipe. 

2. Describe the mental condition of the voyagers on 4 and 5 January. 

On 4th January, the mental condition of the voyagers was vacillating between hope and despair. After 36 hours of continuous pumping, water had receded but they still had to keep pace with the water still coming in. The captain's wife provided them with the first meal in two days of some corned beef and cracker biscuits. However, this respite was only short-lived. The storm started building up and the situation again became worse. On 5th January, the situation was desperate. When the captain went to his children to comfort them, the small boy asked him innocently if they all were going to die but added that he did not mind dying as long as all of the family members were together. This strengthened the captain's determination to fight all odds and survive. 

3. Describe the shifts in the narration of the events as indicated in the three sections of the text. Give a subtitle to each section. 

“We are not Afraid to Die.........” is a first person account of an adventurous ordeal that a family experiences during their voyage. There are three sections of the text. The narration of events matches the mood of the voyage. The first section describes how the voyage began with great hope and fanfare in July 1976. They were attempting to ‘duplicate the round-the-world voyage made 200 years earlier by Captain James Cook. Wavewalker had been professionally built. It was thoroughly tested in the roughest weather. They sailed down to Cape Town. The trouble started only when they left Cape Town. On January 2, the waves were gigantic. The narration of the events mirrors the hectic efforts of the captain and the crew to protect Wavewalker. 

The second section : “Search for an Island” describes their struggle for survival for the last 15 hours. On January 4, they ate their first meal in almost two days. But the respite was short lived. This also captures the highly emotional response of the children. Jon declared : "We aren’t afraid of dying if we can all be together—you and Mummy, Sue and I.” 

In the last section “Cheerful Landing” the narration shifts back to the relaxed style. The captain was sure to reach lle Amsterdam. Jon gave the good news. The island was in front of them. All the 28 inhabitants were there to cheer and help them ashore. 

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1. Who was the narrator? What adventurous task did he take on?

The narrator was a thirty-seven-year-old businessman, who along with his family, set from Plymouth, England, on a round-the-world voyage like Captain James Cook had done 200 years earlier in a 30-ton wooden-hulled boat. 

2. How did they prepare for this onerous task?

For sixteen years, they spent all their leisure time improving their seafaring skills in British waters. They bought a boat, Wavewalker, a 23-metre, 30-ton wooden-hulled vessel that had been professionally built. They spent months fitting it out and testing it in the roughest weather that they could find. 

3. How many people were there in the boat?

The four of them the narrator, his wife Mary, son Jonathan, and daughter Suzanne sailed for 105,000 kilometres to the west coast of Africa to Cape Town. They took on two crewmen with them an American, Larry Vigil, and a Swiss, Herb Seigler, before settling sail on the southern Indian Ocean.

4. What was the first indicator of rough weather?
On their second day out of Cape Town, they encountered strong winds. For the next few weeks, the gales blew continuously. The gales did not worry the narrator but the sizes of the waves were disturbing.

5. What ordeal awaited them on 2nd January?

After they celebrated Christmas, the weather changed for the worse. On the early morning of 2nd January, the waves became huge. As the ship rose to the top of each wave, they could see the vast sea rolling towards them. The wind seemed to be howling. 

6. What measures did they take to counter this ordeal?

They dropped the storm jib and lashed a heavy mooring rope in a loop across the stern to slow the boat, and then double-lashed everything, went through their life-raft drill, attached lifelines, put on oilskins and life jackets. 

7. What happened on the evening of 2nd January?

On the evening of 2nd January there was a lull before the storm. As the sky grew dark, they heard a growing roar, and saw a massive cloud rising at the rear of the ship. To their dismay, it was a huge wave, almost twice the height of other waves, with a fearsome breaking top. 

8. What happened when they tried to ride over the wave?

When they tried to ride over the wave, there was a loud blast that shook the deck. Water gushed over the ship, the narrator’s head hit the wheel and he was thrown overboard into the water. He accepted his impending death, and while he was losing consciousness, he felt peaceful. 

9. How did the narrator get back to the ship after having been thrown into the sea?

After the narrator felt he was losing consciousness, his head suddenly popped out of the water. A few metres away, he saw Wavewalker, nearly overturned. Then, a wave threw it upright. He grabbed the guardrails and sailed through the air into Wavewalker’s main boom. The waves tossed him onto the deck like a rag doll. 

10. How did they manage to throw out water from the ship?
With the narrator’s wife, Mary, at the wheel, the narrator half-swam, half-crawled into the children’s cabin, where he found a hammer, screws and canvas, and struggled back on deck. He secured waterproof hatch covers across the wide-open holes. With Herb and Larry’s assistance, he managed to throw out the water.
11. What were the difficulties that they faced that night?

The night was bitterly cold, and they were pumping water out of the ship, steering the ship and working the radio. Moreover, they were getting no replies to their calls for help, as they were in a remote corner of the world. 

12. After the water level receded, what was their next concern? What did they decide to do?
Having survived fifteen hours since the wave hit, the narrator checked the charts and calculated that there were two small islands a few hundred kilometres to the east. One of them was Ile Amsterdam. Knowing Wavewalker would not hold for much longer, they aimed to reach the island.
13. After the water level receded, what was their next concern? What did they decide to do?

Having survived fifteen hours since the wave hit, the narrator checked the charts and calculated that there were two small islands a few hundred kilometres to the east. One of them was lie Amsterdam. Knowing Wavewalker would not hold for much longer, they aimed to reach the island. 

14. “But our respite was short-lived.” Why does the narrator say so?

By 4 January, they ate their first meal in almost two days after pumping out most of the water. But their breather was short-lived. Soon after, black clouds gathered and the wind rose to 40 knots; the sea kept getting higher. The weather deteriorated and by dawn on 5 January, the situation turned hopeless, again. 

15. What did Jon say that left the narrator speechless?

When the narrator tried to comfort and reassure the children, Jon said that they were not afraid of dying if all four of them could be together. The narrator could find no words to respond, but he left the children’s cabin determined to fight the sea with everything he had. 

16. What action did the narrator take, after having decided to fight the sea?
To protect the weakened starboard side, he decided to heave to with the undamaged port hull facing the oncoming waves, using an improvised sea anchor of heavy nylon rope and two 22-litre plastic barrels of paraffin.
17. How did the narrator make his calculations to find out their position on 6th January?

The Wavewalker rode out the storm and by the morning of 6th January, the narrator worked on wind speeds, changes of course, drift and current in an effort to calculate their position. 

18. What instruction did the narrator give Larry? What did he expect?

At about 2 p.m., the narrator asked Larry to steer a course of 185 degrees and said that if they were lucky, they would see the island at about 5 p.m. He was not optimistic himself so he went below, climbed on his bunk and slept off. 

19. Why did the narrator feel that he was not the best captain? What was the surprise in store for him?
When Jon called him the best daddy in the whole world and the best captain, the narrator was dejected for not being able to locate the island, so he refuted the statement. The truth was that the island was just in front of them.
20. Why did the narrator feel that it was the most beautiful island?
The narrator saw Ile Amsterdam. It was an unwelcoming piece of volcanic rock, with little vegetation, but to them it was the most beautiful island in the world because it held for them the hope of their survival.