CHAPTER TWO

My First Days at Sea

Well, it wasn't long before I wished I had stayed on land! After only a few hours at sea, rain fell and the wind howled. The waves tossed the ship around like a toy.

"Are you all right, Robinson?" Tom had to shout to be heard in the terrible wind.

"No. I think I'm going to be sick," I cried. I had never had sea-sickness before, and I was miserable.

"It's a punishment from God. I never should have disobeyed Father!" I thought as I felt sicker and sicker.

The weather got worse. The wind blew and thunder and lightning struck the water. I felt sure we were all going to die. "Please, God," I prayed. "If you save me, I'll go home to York, and work hard at business with my father. I'll never step onto a ship again!"

Fortunately, the storm soon ended. Evening came, and the stars shone brightly in a clear sky. The wind stopped, and the water became calm. I slept deeply. The next morning, it was a beautiful day. The water was a sparkling blue and the sun shone.

As we sailed into the south, I forgot all about my fears of the storm.

I stood on the ship and watched the English coast pass us by, and I felt all the world was mine. I could go anywhere and do anything!

Tom and I became friends with the rest of the men and one of them offered us some rum. It wasn't long before we wanted another drink, then another. Soon we were all happily drunk and singing sea songs.

A few days later we were near the English city of Yarmouth. Looking at the clouds in the sky, we saw that we were heading into another storm, but I wasn't afraid. But this storm made the storm I saw on my first day at sea look like a soft, gentle rain!

For days the storm went on.

For days the waves rose high above us, throwing us this way and that. The thunder cracked, and great flashes of lightning lit up the sky. Because of the terrible wind and rain we could not stay on the ship's deck for more than a few minutes.

This time I was not the only one who was afraid! Even Tom looked terrified, and he had been sailing all his life. When one man said he had never seen a storm like this in his life, the others agreed with him.

We were gathered in the crew's rooms below the deck.

"I wonder how long this storm is going to last for?" said one man. Just then, there was a loud breaking sound and water started to come into our cabin from a hole in the wall.

"Get to the pumps! The water will drown us all!" someone cried.

A few seconds later I was pumping water as if my life was in danger, which, of course it was.

It seemed that the more water we tried to remove, the more water came through the hole in the ship. This was even worse than the storm!

"Pump faster, boys, faster!" the captain shouted. But it became clear that the water was coming in faster than we could remove it. The captain went to his cabin and came back with some fireworks.

In all that rain and wind, he was able to light one. We watched as the firework went up into the air.

"Please, God," cried a man named Jeremiah, "Let someone see our signals!"

It seemed that God wasn't going to answer Jeremiah's prayer. It looked like we were all about to die when someone shouted, "Look! A ship!"

In the distance we saw a ship sailing along. "The storm is too terrible for them to send a boat to rescue us," the captain cried.

But luckily for us, they did it. The men in the other ship sent one of their boats, and when it was beside our broken ship, we climbed into it.

Tom's father was waiting for us when we arrived on land a few days later.

After he had heard our exciting story, he said to me "Robinson, I don't think you should go to sea again. It's a very hard life. If you do, you'll find nothing but disaster, disappointment, and who knows what else!"

He handed me some money. "Here, take this money and go back to York!"

(end of section)