About the author

Gordon Cook born December 3, 1978, in Toronto is

a two-time Canadian Olympic sailor. He sails for the
Royal Canadian Yacht Club.

Cook is a graduate of the Engineering Physics

program at Queen's University. At Queen's
University, he also met his 2012 Olympic team
partner Ben Remocker, where they were members
of the university sailing team. Cook and Remocker
became the first Canadians to sail a 49er in an
Olympic Regatta at the 2008 Beijing Olympics,
where they finished 14th.

In 2009 Cook partnered up with West Vancouver

sailor Hunter Lowden and the two campaigned
together for the 2012 Olympic games. While Cook
and Lowden did not make the first round of
qualifications at the 2011 ISAF worlds in December
2011 they did qualify at the 2012 49er worlds in
Croatia making Cook the only person ever to
represent Canada twice in the 49er Class at the
Olympic Games. Cook and Lowden came third in
the first race of the 49er class in the 2012 Olympic
games, but did not qualify for the medal race.
Introduction
The narrator Gordon Cook, his wife Mary and
their children, Jonathan and Suzanne set sail
on a ship to imitate the historical round-the
world voyage undertaken by James Cook in
1768. The journey began from Plymouth,
England and headed south to Cape Town,
South Africa. It was expected to journey to
Australia through the endless Indian Ocean
and finally return to England. Unfortunately
the ship partially wrecked in the Indian Ocean
and the sailors faced death very close.
The narrative describes the near death
experience of these hapless people, their hard
work, the children’s encouraging messages,
their willingness to die with their father and
mother, hours of endurance and finally their
reaching Ile Amsterdam, a tiny island.
Important nautical
terms
Nautical terms
Voyage = a sea journey
Set sail = started a sea voyage
Seafaring = travelling on the sea
Wavewalker = was a 23 meter long boat, 30
ton wooden hulled beauty
Crewmen = men working at the ship
Gales = extremely strong winds
Mast = a tall pole in a ship that supports the
sails
Jib = a small sail/ a triangular stay sail
Knots = a nautical mile of 6080 feet
Mooring rope = rope with which a boat is
fastened with a fixed object
Stern = back end of the ship
Life-raft = life-boat
Oilskins = waterproof coverings
Crest = top
Deck = roof of the ship
Boom = bar/ long pole
Hatch = a door in the deck of a ship
Timbers = pieces of wood
Starboard = right side of the ship
Overboard = on the ship
Forestay sail = the front big sail of the ship
Dinghies = small open boats
Anchor = a heavy metal object dropped over
the side of a ship to keep it in one place
Bunk = a sleeping berth in a ship
Canvas = a rough cloth
May-day calls = SOS signals for help
SOS = save our souls
Rib frames = frames of wood
Keel = along piece of wood/ steel along the
bottom of a ship which helps it to keep upright
Rib = one of the ship’s curbed timbers
Steering = the mechanism by which one
controls the direction of a ship
Planks = long flat pieces of timber
Rigging = ropes that balance the mast of the
ship
Sextant = an instrument for measuring angles
and distances
Before the journey
Started

The narrator describes a particular

part of his journey in the southern
Indian Ocean. He is chronological in
his approach towards the
narration. He and his wife Mary and
their two children, Jonathan and
Suzanne, who were 6 and 7 years of
age, respectively, started their
journey from Plymouth with an
estimated journey of three years in
July 1976. The first part of their
1,05,000-kilometre-long journey went
smoothly until they reached Cape
Town. From there, they hired two
crewmen – Larry Vigil and Herb
Seigler to help them tackle the rough
sea of the southern Indian Ocean.
 th
25 December:
Sailing from cape town
As they sailed out of Cape Town, they
started to experience gales which
blew continuously for the next few
weeks. The narrator was not bothered
as much about the gales as he was
about the waves. He found them to be
alarmingly high – almost as high as
their main mast. By December 25th,
they were 3500 kilometres east of
Cape Town. Despite the rough
weather, they celebrated Christmas
with joy and pomp. The rough weather
continued till the new year and
resisted change further on.
 rd
3 January:
The storm hits
On the evening of 2nd January, there
came an ominous silence – with no
wind and a big roar, what sounded like
thunder turned out to be a big wave
that wreaked havoc on the ship. The
narrator was wounded in the process,
and so was Suzanne. As the ship was
about to capsize, another wave hurled
her upright. The author asked his wife
to handle the wheel while he went to
fix the damaged starboard to prevent
water from entering the ship. This
problem was accompanied by other
issues like blocked hand pumps and a
short circuit in the electric pump. The
narrator and his crew spent the whole
night pumping, steering and working
on the radio to issue Mayday calls.
Suzanne’s injury on her head had
worsened.
 th
4 January:
The chaos ensues
The next morning the water level in the
ship was under control, and while
looking for a leak below the water
level, the narrator found the ship’s
main rib frames smashed to the keel. It
was evident that the ship would not
hold together till Australia. They
decided to reach Ile Amsterdam – a
small island a few hundred kilometres
to the east. On January 4th, after 36
hours of pumping, the water level in
the ship had come down to a few
centimetres. Owing to the severely
damaged condition of the ship, they
hoisted the storm jib instead of the
main mast and headed towards the
island.
Clouds started to form around 4 p.m.
in the evening again. A storm started
within the next hour and continued for
the next whole day. When the narrator
went to comfort his children, Jonathan
asked him if they were going to die.
The narrator assured him that they
could make it through the storm. To
this, Jonathan responded that they
would not be scared to die alone. This
response rendered the narrator
speechless. It strengthened his
resolve to survive in the face of
nature’s calamity.
 th
6 January:
On 6th January, the storm receded,
and the wind was at ease. The
narrator was working in the chartroom
trying to calculate the wind speeds,
drift, currents, etc. when his daughter
Suzanne came up to him with a card
she had made herself. She expressed
her love for her parents in it. The
narrator felt energetic on a new level
to look for a survival strategy. Around
2 p.m., he asked Larry to steer a
course of 185 degrees, hoping they
found the island and went for a nap in
his bunking bed.
He was awakened at 6 p.m. by
Suzanne, who wanted to hug him.
When he asked her why she wanted to
hug him,

Suzanne informed him that he had

found the island and was the world’s
best daddy and captain. They
anchored offshore for the night and
were welcomed by the island’s
inhabitants in the morning. As he
stepped onto the island, he found
himself grateful to Larry, Herbie, his
wife and his two children, who were
brave in the face of danger and were
not afraid to die.
Conclusion:
We’re Not Afraid to Die Summary
gives us some valuable morals. The
words spoken by Jonathan about
staying together in the face of death
inspire the narrator to do everything to
save the people on the ship. In the
face of danger, staying together can
motivate us to cope with the situation
bravely. Suzanne’s bravery and
endurance during the event also show
the importance of maintaining a strong
character in the face of adversity.
Strength in unity is an underlying
theme of the story.
Characters and their
Brave acts:

The narrator :
The narrator is a strong,determined
and a very capable captain, he was
able to push aside his near death
state and was able to steer clear of
the giant wave that damaged
wavewalker,he was determined to get
his crewmates and his family back to
safety no matter what obstacles lie in
his ways

Larry and Herb:

They were almost as determined to
save as they would continuously
pump out the water out of
wavewalker.For nearly 3 days straight
, they were working with full might to
plug up the holes in the wavewalker
Suzanne and Jonathan:
They were taken in by shock when the
ship got hit with the giant wave ,
Jonathan was not hurt too badly
however the injuries of Suzanne was
much worse as she had a arm fracture
and hit her head very hard, resulting is
a giant bruise big enough to
narrowher eyes to slits.

Even though hurt so bad they both

showed bravery by not telling others
or distracting them even thought the
pain was unbearable, Jonathan told
his father that he was not afraid to die
if it meant for them to die together
showcasing his bravery
Mary , the wife:
She also helped the crew get the ship
together by commanding the wheel on
such rough weather,she ,still
exhausted served all of them meal
they hadin 3 days