“We are Not Afraid to Die… If we Can All be Together” Extra Questions & Answers + Summary!

The narrator with his family wanted to go for a round-the-world sea voyage made 200 years ago earlier by Captain James Cook. He started from Plymouth, England, sailed towards Africa’s Capetown and then finally set towards Australia. He wanted to repeat the voyage sailed by Captain James Cook, a famous explorer, as he and his wife Mary had always dreamt of it.

The narrator planned to go on a round-the-world sea voyage on the same route as Captain James Cook had done 2000 years earlier. The narrator and his wife Mary had spent all the leisure time they got in the past 16 years to hone their seafaring skills in the British waters. They had also spent months fitting out and testing their boat Wavewalker in the roughest weather they could find.

Wavewalker was a professionally built, 23 metres long, 30 ton wooden-hulled boat. The narrator and his wife Mary had spent months fitting it out and testing it in the roughest weather they could find in the British waters.

Before heading towards east from Capetown, the narrator took two crewmen – Larry Vigil and Swiss Herb Seigler with him on board. He took them them to help himself and his wife from to tackle one of the world’s roughest seas, the Southern Indian Ocean.

The second day they left Capetown, they started encountering strong gales. 25th December found them 3,500 kilometres east of Capetown. The weather was quite hostile but they had a beautiful holiday. They celebrated Christmas with a Christmas tree.

The weather changed for worse on 2nd January. The waves were gigantic. As the ship rose to the top of each wave, they saw endless enormous seas rolling towards them. The screaming of the wind and spray was painful to he ears.

The first indication of the impending disaster came at about 6:00 PM of 2nd January. An ominous silence prevailed all around. The wind dropped and the sky immediately grew dark. Then came a growing roar. A huge vertical wave, almost twice the height of the other waves, came roaring towards the Wavewalker. These were sure indications of the impending disaster.

The ominous silence was the first indication of the impending disaster. The wind dropped and the sky immediately grew dark. The narrator saw what he thought as an enormous cloud coming towards the ship. He realised that it was not a cloud but a huge wave like no other he had ever seen in his life. It was almost twice the height of the other waves! The wave hit the boat and wrecked it. Water gushed into the boat from all sides.

A torrent of green and white water broke over the ship as a result of the tremendous explosion that shook the deck. The narrator’s head smashed into the wheel and He was himself flying overboard and sinking below the waves. He was almost dead and the whole ship turned to a wreck. Unexpectedly his head came out of water. Wave walker was almost capsizing. Her masts were almost horizontal.

One of the waves threw the ship upright. The narrator was able to reach its main boom. Subsequent waves tossed him around the deck like a rag doll. His left ribs cracked and his mouth was full of blood and broken teeth. Somehow he managed to find the wheel, lined up for the stem for the next wave and remained firm.

The narrator saw torrent of green and white breaking over the ship. His head struck the wheel. He flung over board and was sinking below the waves. He was losing sense. He accepted his approaching death without murmuring and felt quite peaceful. The Wavewalker was near capsizing.

The narrator was already struggling to save the ship from sinking. But more problem arose when their hand pumps started to block up with the debris floating around the cabins and the electric pump short-circuited. The water level rose threateningly. These were the problems the narrator was saying about.

The narrator could not leave the wheel to examine the damaged parts. Mary shouted that the decks were broken and they were sinking. Larry Vigil and Swiss Herb Seigler were pumping out water like madmen. Sue has a big bump over her eyes but the children said they were alright.

The given line was spoken by narrator’s daughter, Sue. She didn’t want to bother her father by crying over her injurie because she knew that his father is trying really hard to keep his family alive. She had hidden her pain because she could see her parents trying to fight a more severe problem. Thus, she decided to keep patience and not cry over her injuries so that her parents don’t lose hope and continue to fight. This shows the maturity and understanding of the speaker at such a young age of 7.

Jonathan called the narrator the best daddy and captain in the world because he and sue were very happy to have found the island, Ile Amsterdam. They were now safe from danger and had won the battle of survival, which was possible because of their daddy, the narrator who took all possible measures to save the family and crewmen.

Ile Amsterdam was a very small island made up of volcanic rock and had very little vegetation with only 28 inhabitants. However, the island provided them safety from the huge waves of the sea as well as opportunity to repair the damaged Wavewalker. The narrator called it “the most beautiful island in the world” because after fighting for hours for a chance of survival and losing hope; finding the island was not less than a heaven at that moment.

Suzanne’s head had a swollen bump. Her swelling increased with time and her blackened eyes narrowed to slits. Her head injury took 6 minor operation to remove a recurring blood clot between skin and skull. This shows that Sue’s injuries were serious.

The lesson “We are Not Afraid to Die… If We Can All Be Together” by Gordon Cook and Alan East portrays moral values such as courage, selflessness, optimism and human endurance. The most important lesson we learn from such hazardous experience is not to lose hope even if we are face-to-face with death. At times, life presents very dire situations but if one is optimistic about finding a solution and has the courage to overcome all odds, one will always be successful.