Hornbill

Ch–2- We are not Afraid to Die - If we call can be Together

(Gordon Cook and Alan East)
SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
(to be answered in about 40 words each)
Q1. Who was the narrator? What adventurous task did he take on?
Ans: 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.
Q2. How did they prepare for this onerous task?
Ans: 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.
Q3. How many people were there in the boat?
Ans: The four of them the narrator, his wife Mary, son Jonathan, and daughter Suzanne
sailed for 105,000 kilometers 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.
Q4. What ordeal awaited them on 2 January?
Ans: After they celebrated Christmas, the weather changed for the worse. On the early
morning of 2 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.
Q5. How did the narrator get back to the ship after having been thrown into the sea?
Ans: After the narrator felt he was losing consciousness, his head suddenly popped out
of the water. A few meters 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.
Q6. What injuries did Sue sustain? What does it reveal about her?
Ans: Sue had bumped her head and there was a big bump above her eyes. She had two
black eyes, and a deep cut on her arm. She showed remarkable maturity for a seven-
year-old when she said that she didn’t want to worry them when her father was trying to
save all of them.
Q7. What did Jon say that left the narrator speechless?
Ans: 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.
Q8. Why did the narrator feel that it was the most beautiful island?
Ans: The narrator saw lie 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.
LONG ANSWER QUESTIONS
(to be answered in about 120-150 words each)
Q1. List the steps taken by the Captain.
(i) To protect the ship when the rough weather began.
Ans: To slow the boat down, he dropped the storm jib. They tied heavy ropes looped
across the stern. They double lashed everything, attached life-lines, put on oil skins and
life jackets, went through life-raft drill.
(ii) To check the flooding of water in the ship.
Ans: He first ordered his wife to steer the wheel Larry and Herb pumped water like
madmen.
With hammer, screws and canvas, the captain tried to make repairs. He stretched the
canvas across the gaping holes in the ship. It deflected the water over the side.
The hand pumps started to block up with debris floating around the cabins and the electric
pump short-circuited. Water was rising ominously. The captain found two spare hand
pumps had been wrenched over board, but he found another electric pump under the
chart room, connected it to an out-pipe and stopped the water. On the morning of January
3, the pumps had the water level under control.
Q2. Describe the mental condition of the Voyagers on 4 and 5 January.
Ans: On January 4, the voyagers had fought with the storm for thirty six continuous hours
and pumped out all the water. They now had to fight with the water still coming in. They
ate their first meal of corned beef and cracker biscuits in almost two days. But the weather
continued to deteriorate.
On January 5, their situation was desperate, but when the writer went to comfort his
children, his son Jon asked him if they were going to die. He told his father, “We aren’t
afraid of dying if we can all be together—you and mummy, Sue and I.” It speaks of the
courage and faith of the child in his father. He held his wife Mary’s hand in the evening,
as more and more water came in through the broken planks of the ship. They both felt
that the end was near.
All the voyagers fought the danger till the end, did not panic and were ready to meet their
fate, whatever it was going to be.
Q3. Describe the shifts in the narration of the events as indicated in the three sections of
the text. Give a subtitle to each section.
Ans: There are 3 sections to the story
“We are not Afraid to Die”
It deals with an account of an ordeal that a family faces during a voyage.
SECTION-1: SETTING SAIL ON OUR VOYAGE
This section begins with the captain setting sail on July 1976, with his family on a round
the world journey to repeat the round-the-world voyage made 200 years ago by Captain
James Cook. He and his family had used all their Ieisure time in improving, perfecting
their seafaring skills. They had tested their professionally built boat “Wave Walker” for
every kind of rough weather. They reached Cape Town in December where they took in
two Crewmen—American Larry Vigil and Swiss Herb Seigler—to help them through the
very rough Southern Indian Ocean.
SECTION-2: STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL
This section deals with how all the voyagers faced the furious waves which smashed their
boat, injured the narrator and his daughter. It depicts how everyone fought, like one
person, the life threatening danger. They pumped out water continuously, on January 4
and 5, Mary steered the wheel. Sue and Jon never complained even when Sue was badly
injured. Jon told his father he was not afraid of death, if they all died together, a very
emotional scene. They did not give up their attempts to reach the nearest island, the
Amsterdam.
SECTION-3: SAFE AT LAST!
At 2 pm on January 6, his son appeared on the deck and asked for a hug. Before the
bewildered father could understand why he called him the “best daddy” and the “best
captain” in the world. His daughter stunned him by saying, “you found the island.” To his
utter amazement he saw the stark outline of the Ile Amsterdam before his eyes. The 28
inhabitants of the island welcomed them the next morning. Larry and Herbie, cheerful and
optimistic under extreme danger, Mary steering the wheel at crucial hours, a seven year
old girl with head injury but not worried, and a six year old who was not afraid to die,
passed through days of extreme danger and landed safely!