NCERT Class 11 English Were Not Afraid to Die

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NCERT Book for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 2 Were Not Afraid to Die

Class 11 English students should refer to the following NCERT Book Hornbill Chapter 2 Were Not Afraid to Die in Class 11. This NCERT Book for Class 11 English will be very useful for exams and help you to score good marks

Hornbill Chapter 2 Were Not Afraid to Die NCERT Book Class 11

We’re Not Afraid to Die... if We Can All Be Together

IN July 1976, my wife Mary, son Jonathan, 6, daughter Suzanne, 7, and I set sail from Plymouth, England, to duplicate the roundthe- world voyage made 200 years earlier by Captain James Cook. For the longest time, Mary and I — a 37-year-old businessman — had dreamt of sailing in the wake of the famous explorer, and for the past 16 years we had spent all our leisure time honing our seafaring skills in British waters.

Our boat Wavewalker, a 23 metre, 30 ton wooden-hulled beauty, had been professionally built, and we had spent months fitting it out and testing it in the roughest weather we could find. The first leg of our planned three-year, 105,000 kilometre journey passed pleasantly as we sailed down the west coast of Africa to Cape Town. There, before heading east, we took on two crewmen — American Larry Vigil and Swiss Herb Seigler — to help us tackle one of the world’s roughest seas, the southern Indian Ocean.

14 HORNBILL

On our second day out of Cape Town, we began to encounter strong gales. For the next few weeks, they blew continuously. Gales did not worry me; but the size of the waves was alarming — up to 15 metres, as high as our main mast. December 25 found us 3,500 kilometres east of Cape Town. Despite atrocious weather, we had a wonderful holiday complete with a Christmas tree. New Year’s Day saw no improvement in the weather, but we reasoned that it had to change soon. And it did change — for the worse.

At dawn on January 2, the waves were gigantic. We were sailing with only a small storm jib and were still making eight knots. As the ship rose to the top of each wave we could see endless enormous seas rolling towards us, and the screaming of the wind and spray was painful to the ears. To slow the boat down, we dropped the storm jib and lashed a heavy mooring rope in a loop across the stern. Then we double-lashed everything, went through our life-raft drill, attached lifelines, donned oilskins and life jackets — and waited.

The first indication of impending disaster came at about 6 p.m., with an ominous silence. The wind dropped, and the sky immediately grew dark. Then came a growing roar, and an enormous cloud towered aft of the ship. With horror, I realised that it was not a cloud, but a wave like no other I had ever seen. It appeared perfectly vertical and almost twice the height of the other waves, with a frightful breaking crest.

The roar increased to a thunder as the stern moved up the  face of the wave, and for a moment I thought we might ride over it. But then a tremendous explosion shook the deck. A torrent of green and white water broke over the ship, my head smashed into the wheel and I was aware of flying overboard and sinking below the waves. I accepted my approaching death, and as I was losing consciousness, I felt quite peaceful. Unexpectedly, my head popped out of the water. A few metres away, Wavewalker was near capsizing, her masts almost horizontal. Then a wave hurled her upright, my lifeline jerked taut, I grabbed the guard rails and sailed through the air into Wavewalker’s main boom. Subsequent waves tossed me around the deck like a rag doll. My left ribs cracked; my mouth filled with blood and broken teeth. Somehow, I found the wheel, lined up the stern for the next wave and hung on.

Water, Water, Everywhere. I could feel that the ship had water below, but I dared not abandon the wheel to investigate. Suddenly, the front hatch was thrown open and Mary appeared. “We’re sinking!” she screamed. “The decks are smashed; we’re full of water.” “Take the wheel”, I shouted as I scrambled for the hatch. Larry and Herb were pumping like madmen. Broken timbers hung at crazy angles, the whole starboard side bulged inwards; clothes, crockery, charts, tins and toys sloshed about in deep water. I half-swam, half-crawled into the children’s cabin. “Are you all right?” I asked. “Yes,” they answered from an upper bunk. “But my head hurts a bit,” said Sue, pointing to a big bump above her eyes. I had no time to worry about bumped heads. After finding a hammer, screws and canvas, I struggled back on deck. With the starboard side bashed open, we were taking water with each wave that broke over us. If I couldn’t make some repairs, we would surely sink.

Understanding the text

1. List the steps taken by the captain

(i) to protect the ship when rough weather began.

(ii) to check the flooding of the water in the ship.

2. Describe the mental condition of the voyagers on 4 and 5 January.

3. Describe the shifts in the narration of the events as indicated in the three sections of the text.

Talking about the text

Discuss the following questions with your partner.

1. What difference did you notice between the reaction of the adults and the children when faced with danger?

2. How does the story suggest that optimism helps to endure “the direst stress”?

3. What lessons do we learn from such hazardous experiences when we are face-to-face with death?

4. Why do you think people undertake such adventurous expeditions in spite of the risks involved?

Thinking about language

1. We have come across words like ‘gale’ and ‘storm’ in the account. Here are two more words for storm: typhoon, cyclone. How many words does your language have for storm?

2. Here are the terms for different kinds of vessels: yacht, boat, canoe, ship, steamer, schooner. Think of similar terms in your language.

3. ‘Catamaran’ is a kind of a boat. Do you know which Indian language this word is derived from? Check the dictionary.

4. Have you heard any boatmen’s songs? What kind of emotions do these songs usually express?


Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 11 English We’re Not Afraid to Die

Hornbill Chapter 01 The Portrait of a Lady
NCERT Class 11 English The Portrait of a Lady
Hornbill Chapter 02 Were Not Afraid to Die
NCERT Class 11 English Were Not Afraid to Die
Hornbill Chapter 03 Discovering Tut : the Saga Continues
NCERT Class 11 English Discovering Tut the Saga Continues
Hornbill Chapter 04 Landscape of the Soul
NCERT Class 11 English Landscape of the Soul
Hornbill Chapter 05 The Ailing Planet: the Green Movements Role
NCERT Class 11 English The Ailing Planet
Hornbill Chapter 06 The Browning Version
NCERT Class 11 English The Browning Version
Hornbill Chapter 07 The Adventure
NCERT Class 11 English The Adventure
Hornbill Chapter 08 Silk Road
NCERT Class 11 English Silk Road
Hornbill Writing Section Chapter 01 Note-making
NCERT Class 11 English Note making
Hornbill Writing Section Chapter 02 Summarising
NCERT Class 11 English Summarising
Hornbill Writing Section Chapter 03 Sub-titling
NCERT Class 11 English Sub titling
Hornbill Writing Section Chapter 04 Essay-writing
NCERT Class 11 English Essay writing
Hornbill Writing Section Chapter 05 Letter-writing
NCERT Class 11 English Letter writing
Hornbill Writing Section Chapter 06 Creative Writing
NCERT Class 11 English Creative Writing
Snapshots Chapter 01 The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse
NCERT Class 11 English The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse
Snapshots Chapter 02 The Address
NCERT Class 11 English The Address
Snapshots Chapter 03 Rangas Marriage
NCERT Class 11 English Rangas Marriage
Snapshots Chapter 04 Albert Einstein at School
NCERT Class 11 English Albert Einstein at School
Snapshots Chapter 05 Mothers Day
NCERT Class 11 English Mothers Day
Snapshots Chapter 06 The Ghat of the Only World
NCERT Class 11 English The Ghat of the Only World
Snapshots Chapter 07 Birth
NCERT Class 11 English Birth
Snapshots Chapter 08 The Tale of Melon City
NCERT Class 11 English The Tale of the Melon City
Woven Words Essays Chapter 01 My Watch
NCERT Class 11 English Elective My Watch
Woven Words Essays Chapter 02 My Three Passions
NCERT Class 11 English Elective My Three Passions
Woven Words Essays Chapter 03 Patterns of Creativity
NCERT Class 11 English Elective Patterns of Creativity
Woven Words Essays Chapter 04 Tribal Verse
NCERT Class 11 English Elective Tribal Verse
Woven Words Essays Chapter 05 What is a Good Book?
NCERT Class 11 English Elective What is a Good Book
Woven Words Essays Chapter 06 The Story
NCERT Class 11 English Elective The Story
Woven Words Essays Chapter 07 Bridges
NCERT Class 11 English Elective Bridges
Woven Words Poetry Chapter 01 The Peacock
NCERT Class 11 English Elective The Peacock
Woven Words Poetry Chapter 02 Let me Not to the Marriage of True Minds
NCERT Class 11 English Elective Let Me Not to the Marriage
Woven Words Poetry Chapter 03 Coming Philip Larkin
NCERT Class 11 English Elective Coming
NCERT Class 11 English Elective Haiku
Woven Words Poetry Chapter 04 Telephone Conversation
NCERT Class 11 English Elective Telephone Conversation
Woven Words Poetry Chapter 05 The World is too Much with Us
NCERT Class 11 English Elective The World is too Much with Us
Woven Words Poetry Chapter 06 Mother Tongue
NCERT Class 11 English Elective Mother Tongue
Woven Words Poetry Chapter 07 Hawk Roosting
NCERT Class 11 English Elective Hawk Roosting
Woven Words Poetry Chapter 09 Refugee Blues
NCERT Class 11 English Elective Refugee Blues
Woven Words Poetry Chapter 10 Felling of the Banyan Tree
NCERT Class 11 English Elective Felling of the Banyan Tree
Woven Words Poetry Chapter 11 Ode to a Nightingale
NCERT Class 11 English Elective Ode to a Nightingale
Woven Words Poetry Chapter 12 Ajamil and the Tigers
NCERT Class 11 English Elective Ajamil and the Tigers
Woven Words Short Stories Chapter 01 The Lament
NCERT Class 11 English Elective The Lament
Woven Words Short Stories Chapter 02 A Pair of Mustachios
NCERT Class 11 English Elective A Pair of Mustachios
Woven Words Short Stories Chapter 03 The Rocking-horse Winner
NCERT Class 11 English Elective The Rocking horse Winner
Woven Words Short Stories Chapter 04 The Adventure of the Three Garridebs
NCERT Class 11 English Elective The Adventure of the Three
Woven Words Short Stories Chapter 05 Pappachis Moth
NCERT Class 11 English Elective Pappachis Moth
Woven Words Short Stories Chapter 06 The Third and Final Continent
NCERT Class 11 English Elective The Third and Final Continent
Woven Words Short Stories Chapter 07 Glory at Twilight
NCERT Class 11 English Elective Glory at Twilight
Woven Words Short Stories Chapter 08 The Luncheon
NCERT Class 11 English Elective The Luncheon

NCERT Book Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 2 Were Not Afraid to Die

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