We’re Not Afraid to Die… if We Can All Be Together Summary Class 11 English
22 Aug 2023
This chapter talks about how Gordon Cook showed a lot of bravery and skill. Gordon Cook’s family and crew were fighting for their lives against the water and waves. In July of 1976, the writer, his wife Mary, his son Jonathan, and his daughter Suzanne set sail from Plymouth, England, to re-create Captain James Cook’s trip around the world from 200 years earlier. They went on the trip in a ship called the Wavewalker, which was built by professionals, with two sailors. Larry Vigil, an American, and Herb Sailor, a Swiss, took on the Southern Indian Ocean, which is one of the roughest oceans in the world.
The first part of the trip, which is about 1,050,000 km and ends in Cape Town, was a lot of fun. On the second day after leaving Cape Town, they ran into strong windstorms. Storms with a lot of wind didn’t bother the narrator. But the waves were up to fifteen metres high, which was as high as the ship’s main mast. The writer’s ship gets to the southern Indian Ocean on December 25. This is about 3,500 kilometres east of Cape Town. On the ship, the family rang in the New Year.
At first light on January 2, the waves were very big. The sailors had to slow down the ship, drop the storm jib, and take other precautions because of the bad weather and big waves. The risk was so clear that the sailors did a life-raft drill, hooked up the lifeline boats and life jackets, and did a life-raft drill. At 6 p.m., the Wavewalker was rocked by a huge explosion, and the writer was thrown overboard. The Wavewalker was about to flip over when another big wave hit it and pushed it back up. The writer was thrown back onto the deck and hit his head and ribs against the Wavewalker’s walls. Even though there were a lot of injuries, the writer decided to handle the situation on his own. Larry and Herb started to pump water out of the ship with a hand pump.
The author found a way to cover the holes in the canvas so that water couldn’t get into the ship. In addition, both the hand pumps and the electric pumps stopped working at the same time. The writer was lucky to find a spare electrical pump that still worked. Everyone worked all night, pumping, steering, fixing, and sending radio signals for help. The author looked at the charts and found that their last chance was He Amsterdam, a French scientific base.
Sue and Jon were hurt badly. But when they were all together, they didn’t care if they died. Sue’s head swelled up, and she had a deep cut. Also, the author was even more determined to see how brave his children were. They could finally touch the lie Amsterdam. It was a volcanic island with 28 people already living there.
We can say that the sailors’ ability to work together and their unwavering faith made it possible for them to stay alive and escape death.