Kingdom schools
English grade 10
Abdulmohsen alhokair1
The wreck of the Hesperus
As a young girl, it is a great honor that my father, the captain of the schooner Hesperus, invites me to join him on his voyage. But it was not as I expected and always dreamed about.
It was a cold windy night, as we enter the ship, we sat a heading. While setting our heading, an old experienced sailor told my father: “I pray thee, put into yonder port,“For I fear a hurricane”. At that moment I was terrified, but my father was not worried at all! I was confused, should I worry, or my father knows what he was doing. I saw him laughing at the sailor and smoking his pipe with no fear or worries from the hurricane, as if he was challenging the weather. √
My Father did not take his sailor’s advice and sailed to open water. The cold and loud wind started to blow. All of a sudden, it started to snow. I was really cold; I thought that I’d freeze to death. My father gave me his seaman’s coat. The wind was the roughest that my Father ever saw, but his pride did not allow him to go back to shore.
After a while, the wind started to make the ship drift. My Father was afraid that I’d fall off the ship. I was horrified and did not know what’s going on. In my head, I asked myself, will I die or will I survive? What if the ship crashes, will I be able to resist the freezing water? Am I strong enough? A lot of questions were in my mind, but the most important question in my mind: will I die.
When my father tied me to the mast, I couldn’t move. I saw the crew working and my Father yelling. Everyone was busy and afraid. They all feared death. But still, my Father was smoking his pipe as if nothing was wrong. It was a strong storm, I’ve heard of that kind of storm, ships could never escape from it. My head was full of questions and thoughts. I was thinking while everybody else was working. Lucky me!
My Father froze to death. No one was steering the ship, so it crashed to Norman’s woe. The mast that I was tied in fell overboard into the cold water. Unfortunately, I could not breathe and froze to death. I was floating in the water until sunrise. A horrified fisherman finds me and got me out of the sea into shore. My father’s pride killed me, and killed him.
Reference: The Wreck of The Hesperus by Henry Long Fellow
451 words