روی صخره‌ها

CHAPTER ONE

Ship on the Rocks

It was the seventh day of the storm. We didn’t know where we were. Everyone on the ship believed that death was very near. My wife and my four young sons moved close to me.

‘My dear children,’ I said, ‘I don’t think we’re going to die.’

Then, above the noise of the storm, I heard a cry: ‘Land! Land!’

And the ship hit the rocks.

We heard someone shout, ‘There’s no hope now. Let down the boats.’

‘No hope,’ cried the children.

‘Be brave, my boys,’ I said. ‘The land isn’t far away. We’ll save ourselves - we’ll find a way. I’ll see what we can do.’

I left our room and looked around, but there were no sailors on the ship. They were all in boats on the sea. We were alone!

I returned to my family. ‘It’s all right,’ I said. ‘The front part of the ship is between two rocks, so it’s above the water. Tomorrow the sea will be calmer and we’ll be able to reach the land.’

The children immediately became happier, but my wife understood the danger of our position. She prepared a meal and the boys went to bed, but my wife and I stayed awake and watched.

The next day, it was not as windy and the sky was clear. We could see that we were near land.

‘Now,’ I said, ‘let’s go round the ship. Let’s look for things that will help us to reach the land. We need food and water too. Then we’ll meet again here.’

Fritz, my oldest boy, brought back guns and gunpowder. My second son, Ernest, found a box of tools, a lot of nails, a big knife, some small knives and some other things. The box was very heavy, but Fritz helped him with it.

When my third son, Jack, opened the door to one of the rooms, two big dogs jumped out at him. They were quite friendly and he brought them with him.

Then my wife came with Franz, our youngest son.

‘Good news,’ she said. ‘A donkey, two goats, a pig, six sheep and some chickens are still alive.’

I said, ‘Those will all be useful - but not the dogs. They’ll eat too much.’

‘But Father,’ said Jack, ‘they’ll help us to catch animals for food when we reach the land.’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘but we haven’t reached it yet. We need to make a boat. Let’s get some barrels and some pieces of wood.’

So we started to work and we made a boat. We used one of the pieces of wood to hold the sail.

At last everything was ready, and we lowered the boat into the sea. It was too late to leave the ship that night so I tied one end of a long rope to our boat and the other end to the ship. Then we had a meal and went to bed.