Level 1

CHAPTER 2 – STORM

The next day, our ship is slow because the wind is not strong.

Then the wind is strong again. We go fast. A new storm comes. This storm is bigger.

I am scared. The men are scared too. The waves are very big. The waves are like mountains. I see other ships. The ships are like toys. The waves play with the ships. I want to go home again.

The storm is very big. The men ask God for help.

Then, one man sees a hole in the ship. Water is inside. It is a bad situation.

Many men go down. They pump the water out. I am very scared. I can’t move. One man comes to me. He says, “Go down and help.” So I go down. We pump the water out.

I hear a gun. It is a signal from our captain. It is a signal that we have a big problem. Our ship is very broken. Our ship is full of water.

We work very hard. We pump the water out. But the hole is very big. More and more water is inside the ship.

The weather is better. The waves are smaller. But the ship is full of water. We need help. We see another ship before our ship. The men from the ship send a small boat. The men on the boat go to our ship. The men help us. We go on their boat.

Fifteen minutes later, our big ship goes under water. We are safe on the small boat. We see a land. We go to the land.

We see people on the beach. They wait for us. They help us. They give us some money. We can go to London or Hull. I go to London.

When I am in London, I meet a captain. The captain goes to Africa. I think that I can make some money there.

The captain tells me about the business in Africa. He tells me what to buy in England. He tells me what people in Africa need.

The journey to Africa is very good. I have a lot of money after this journey. I am happy. I want to travel more. I want to do more business. I want to learn how to control the ship. The captain teaches me how to control the ship.

I go to Africa again. The journey starts well. But soon we have big problems. We see a ship. It is not an English ship. It is a pirate ship. The pirates want to take our ship. Their ship is fast. Soon, they are near our ship.

The pirates attack us. Many pirates go on our ship. They kill our men. We can’t win. We stop the fight. Now, we are prisoners.