Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Drifting

Charmain Boarding School was the largest school in Auckland, New Zealand at the time.It has over a hundred students from the colonial nation's most prominent families.Its curriculum and management are exactly the same as those in the UK. On the afternoon of February 15, 1860, a group of boys who were as happy as birds flying out of their cages walked out of the campus accompanied by their families.The holidays have begun, which means they will have two months of independence and freedom.And for some kids, it means the realization of a dream they've talked about countless times over the past few months.How jealous the other kids were that they could sail around New Zealand!Friends and relatives of the children chartered a sailboat and packed it with essentials for six weeks.The sailboat belonged to the father of one of the children, William Garnett, an old merchant captain whom everyone trusted.Parents bear the full cost of the trip.There's no better way to get on vacation with kids in tow.

The lucky boys are all between the ages of 8 and 14.Except for the French Bryant brothers and the American Gordon, the rest are all British. The fathers of Donagan and Cross were both well-known and wealthy landowners in New Zealand.They were cousins, both a little over 13 years old, and both in fifth grade.Donagan was a top student.He is smart and hardworking.With his love of learning and strong character, his academic performance has always been among the best.His aristocratic arrogance earned him the nickname "Master Donagan".His competitive character made him try to give orders everywhere.It was this rivalry between him and Bryant, a rivalry that had intensified since the beginning of the tour, that greatly increased Bryant's influence among his peers.Cross was one of those perfectly ordinary boys who admired everything he said and did.

Baxter was also a boy in fifth grade.He was 13 years old, a calm, thoughtful and brilliant young man.His hands can make almost anything.He was the son of a well-to-do merchant. Webb and Wilcox are both 12 and a half years old and in fourth grade.None of them are particularly bright and are often seen as troublemakers.Their parents are rich and have a very high status among the New Zealand local security officers. Garnett and Sauvis, both in third grade, were both 12 years old, the son of a retired merchant marine captain, and the father of a very rich man.The relationship between the two families is very close.Garnett and Sovis are inseparable friends.They are good-natured children.They are not very industrious, but, as the French say, once they have the key to a field, they never let it lie in their pocket.Garnett has an unusual hobby, he loves to play the accordion.He also brought his violin aboard the sailboat, and spent his free time like a true sailor's son.Sauvis was the humorist on campus, the liveliest and noisiest person in the crowd, and his head was full of traveler stories that he had already memorized by heart.He admired the adventure hero Robinson Crusoe and the Swiss Robinson family very much.

In this group of children, two are only 9 years old.One was Jenkins, the son of the secretary to the New Zealand Royal Household; the other was Evanson, the son of the vicar of St. Paul's Cathedral.Jinkens was in the third grade, and Evanson was in the second grade. Both of them were very well-behaved children.Thone and Costa are one year younger than Evanson, and both come from military officer families.These are two little naughty ghosts.Tori is very stubborn, and Costa is very greedy. Both are in the first grade and have just learned to read and write. Of the other three, Gordon is an American and about 14 years old.His thin build made him look less American.He was a little slow and clumsy, which put some distance between him and the other fifth graders.Although he was not particularly bright, he was a clear-headed and well-informed boy.He has no-nonsense taste, a witty character and a calm disposition.Even when doing small things, he has always been orderly, just like the neat items on his desk.All the thoughts in his mind are also in order.For what he learned, he immediately classified, summarized, and recorded it in different notebooks.His companions all liked him and thought he was both good in character and learning.Gordon is from Boston.He was an orphan, an orphan who had no parents but was cared for only by his guardians.His guardian was an advisor to the consul, and he had the good fortune to settle in New Zealand after earning a fortune.

The Bryant brothers were the sons of a French engineer.Their father applied for a job in New Zealand to manage the swamp for two and a half years.Bryant was 13 years old, a bright little guy who didn't study hard.The grades are often ranked in the bottom of the fifth grade.But as long as he works a little harder, his grades can rise very fast in the class.This is due to his quick-witted understanding and amazing memory.He is brave, aggressive, positive, responsive, and has a bright and easy-going personality.Everyone likes him.When the ship encountered difficulties in navigation, most of the children, except a few people, followed his orders.He learned these basics of natural science on his journey from Europe to Australia.Although he is still young, he is already a "real French man".

His younger brother Jack is also a humorous person.Without Sovis, Jack would have become a star on campus.He spends most of his time making all kinds of pranks on his classmates.He also got into a lot of trouble for this.But for some reason, his behavior on the boat this time was completely different from usual. This is a group of children stranded on the Pacific coast by a storm.During the voyage around New Zealand, the ship was commanded by Garnett's father.The ship has been away from the southernmost Cape Tesmany on the Australian coastline several times, all the way to the Tornes Strait, and even visited the Moluccas and the Philippine Islands, which are known as the danger zone for giant ships.The boat is so light and strong, and well constructed that it can withstand all kinds of bad weather at sea.

On board was a first mate, six sailors, a cook and a child named Moko.Moko is a 12-year-old black kid whose family has served a prominent family in New Zealand for many years.Worth mentioning is an American dog named "Little Mi".It is Gordon's pet, and he stays with him all day long. They set sail on February 15th.The boat is moored at the end of the trade pier.When the little passengers boarded the ship on the night of January 4, the staff had not yet arrived on board.Captain Garnett will not arrive until the time of sailing.The first mate and Moko received Gordon and the relatives and friends who came to see him off.After the staff on board checked the number of passengers, all the children went to bed early to ensure that they would be full of energy when sailing early tomorrow morning.The mate was going to town to find his sailors.He put Moko in charge of the ship, but Moko was so tired...

No one knows what happened after the first mate left.But whether by chance or on purpose, the ship weighed anchor without anyone knowing. It was a dark night, and the sea was very rough, and the waves pushed the boat out to sea.When Moko woke up, he found that the boat was drifting in the sea. His screams woke Gordon, Bryant, Donagan and some other children in the cabin.They were helpless, and they shouted for help in despair, but the lights of the harbor were long gone.Their boat was out of the harbour, and was more than three miles from the shore. At the suggestion of Bryant and Moko, the children decided to raise the sails and let the wind blow the boat back to the port.But the sail was too heavy for them to pull.Moreover, at this time, the bow of the ship has turned from facing downwind to the stern facing forward.The ship quickly rounded Colville Point, sailed through the channel between Great Barrell Island, and left the mainland.Then the sailboat sailed straight east, miles away from New Zealand.

This is bad.Now they have no help from land.Even if another boat came to rescue them, it would take hours to catch up to their boat, and it was difficult to find them in the dark.Even after dawn, it is not easy to find such a small sailboat on this endless sea.If the wind remained constant, any hope of returning to port would be in vain.The only chance of rescue was to call for help from other ships traveling to and from New Zealand.In order to attract the attention of other ships, Moko hastily hung a lamp on the bow.Next, we can only wait for the dawn. Many of the younger ones were still fast asleep, and the older ones thought it best not to wake them.

They tried many times to turn the sailboat around, but all in vain.The bow always turned back immediately and drifted eastward. Suddenly, a light appeared two or three miles away.It was a white mast light, which meant that there was a ship in the distance.Immediately afterwards, the red and green lights on the side of the ship floated up from the horizon.The presence of all these lights showed that the ship was coming in the direction of their ship. The children cried out for help.The sound of the waves and the sound of the boat's motor intertwined, and the roaring wind muffled the voices of the children.If the other party can't hear the call, is it possible that they can see the light in the bow?This is the last hope.But unfortunately, in the shock after shock, the mast broke and the lamp fell into the sea.There is no indication of the position of the ship.And the passing boat was coming at 12 knots.

In seconds, the two ships will collide.The kids' boat could be sunk if they don't turn around in time.Fortunately, their boat had time to turn around a little bit, and the two boats touched slightly. Since it was only a slight touch, the passing big boat didn't feel anything at all and continued to move forward.The children's boat is abandoned at the mercy of an approaching storm.Originally, the people on that boat could stop and rescue the encountered boat without any effort.Unfortunately, due to various reasons, the people on board did not feel the impact of the two ships, nor could they notice the existence of another ship in the darkness. The sailboat drifts on the sea with the wind.Children know they are lost in the sea.It was daylight, and the vast horizon was blank, and in the Pacific, the ships sailing from America to Australia, and from Australia to America, were a little further south or north than the boys' ship.They couldn't see any ships.The wind blowing from the west never stopped, although it would occasionally ease. How long the drift at sea will last, Bryant and his partners have no way of knowing.They tried in vain to sail the sailboat back to New Zealand waters.It was during this period of time that even Donagan had to be convinced by Bryant's supernatural ability and his charisma to his partners.Even with Moko's assistance, he was unable to turn the ship west.He could only keep the ship sailing.Bryant did not dare to relax at all. He waited and watched all day and night, scanning the sea level constantly, hoping to have a chance of being rescued.He also dropped into the sea several bottles containing notes recording what had happened to their sailboat.Although there is no doubt that the hope of rescue is slim, but he does not give up. A few hours after the boat left Hauracco Bay, the storm picked up.For the next two weeks, there were heavy rains and heavy waves.Hundreds of times the ship escaped the danger of being submerged by mountainous waves, and finally ran aground on an unnamed island in the Pacific Ocean. What will be the fate of these children who died?If they cannot save themselves, where will they get help? Their families all thought they had died at sea long ago.The alarm was raised the moment the boat was discovered missing.There is no need for a long read to describe the shock of loved ones at the news. Mr. Garnett, the owner of the boat, swiftly dispatched two small boats to search the bay and the surrounding sea area for several miles.The boat searched all night in rough seas, but found nothing.After daybreak, the boat sailed back to Oakland, and their return dashed every hope of survival for every poor parent.The sailboat was not found.But people near the Ecuadorian capital found a part of the ship's hull that had been torn off by the impact—part of the boat the children were on—but people in Quito knew nothing about it. There are still three or four letters of the ship's name on the hull plates. It appeared that the ship had indeed been wrecked.It sank in the ocean several nautical miles from New Zealand, and there were no survivors.