Beth On the Ice

A school project. It's the Newfoundland Sealing Disaster with all the complex and horrific stuff taken out, for children. Based on Death On the Ice by Cassie Brown.

Beth On the Ice / by jeremy Ruten Beth was a girl who lived on the province of Newfoundland. Beth's uncle was a ship captain named Wes. / One day, Wes decided to take Beth along on a seal hunt. She boarded the big wooden boat with her uncle and the sealers and left the harbour. The next day, Beth's grandfather Abe left the harbour in his own big steel ship. He was going seal hunting too. He was fast and passed Beth's ship as they both continued to head for the seals. Before they could reach the seals, Beth's ship got stuck in the ice! Beth's uncle could see her grandfather's ship in the distance, and sent Beth and the men out on the ice to walk there and maybe catch some seals of their own. When they finally arrived, Beth's grandfather took them to where the seals were and dropped them off there. / Captain Abe: "go get them seals, b'ys!" The men looked around and did not see any seals. Beth's grandfather had brought them to the wrong place, and left them there! / Meanwhile, Beth wandered off and found a family of seals who took her in, as the seals knew she wasn't there to hunt them. / Baby Seal: "you can use my pogo stick, if you want..." / Mother Seal: " are you ok? what can i get you? need to use the phone?" / Father Seal: "can't believe we're being nice to a human. if the guys find out about this..." After spending a day on the ice, the poor stranded men started to freeze into ice blocks one by one. / Fortunately, the seals kept Beth warm for the night as she used one seal as a bed and another for a blanket, and they made her a cup of tea in the morning. More and more men continued to freeze, until there weren't many left. The ones that were left were weak and began to see things that weren't really there. / Sealer: "quick b'ys! the sooner we paint the sky the sooner we'm be saved!" Mother seal told Beth how unfortunate it was that the men wanted to hunt her seal family. Otherwise they could keep the men safe and warm like they did for Beth! But soon a boat appeared. It was Grandpa Abe! They were saved! Grandpa Abe took Beth and some men aboard his steel ship. He wanted to hunt the seals that helped Beth! But Beth said, "NO, those are my _friends_!" and her grandfather let up. Soon, after saying goodbye to the friendly seals, Beth was back on her uncle's wooden ship, heading for home. / The End

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