Test C - Year 6
Vessels Rush To Aid Of Sea Colossus FACT FILE:
Launched – Belfast,
Floating Palace Entire World 31st May 1911.
Thought Stunned 20 lifeboats for a full
Unsinkable capacity of 3300
Carpathia To The persons.
World’s Most Rescue Of Ill- Maiden voyage –
Famous Missing Fated Ship Southampton to New
York, 10th April 1912.
The deadliest disaster during peacetime took place
2224 passengers and
last night. The largest ship of all time, the Titanic, said
to be indestructible, took 1341 lost souls to their watery crew.
grave when it struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage to Captain – Edward
New York. Smith.
In the capable hands of the highly experienced At 11:40 pm on 14th
Captain Edward Smith, catastrophe crippled the queen April 1912 struck
iceberg 375 miles
of the seas just before midnight, en route to New York.
south of
Ten millionaires were among its illustrious passengers
Newfoundland.
as well as hundreds of emigrants from Europe, seeking a
new life in the land of opportunity. Needless to say, the
In 1985, using the
icy depths off the coast of Newfoundland, in equal
latest, undersea,
measure, showed rich and poor no mercy. In an ironic robotic technology, a
twist of fate, the naval architect, Thomas Andrews, who joint American-French
designed the Titanic, went down with his own creation. expedition found the
disintegrating hulk of
At the time of writing, the Carpathia, responding to
the Titanic. Previous
mayday calls, has rescued over 700 passengers from researchers had
lifeboats. God willing, more will be found. returned with only
More news will be released as the facts are reliably tantalising hints of its
presence. Led by Dr
confirmed. Presently, we are receiving reports, both
Robert Ballard, this
alarming and reassuring: initial optimism is giving way new team found the
to despair with the sinister news we have been receiving wreckage at a depth
since midnight. of over 12,000 feet.
Startled by the very strangeness of the shivering motion, I sprang to the floor... No
confusion, no noise of any kind, one could believe no danger imminent. Looking out into
the companionway, I saw heads appearing asking questions... All sepulchrally still, no
excitement... On either side stand quietly, bravely, the stewards, all equipped with the
white, ghostly life-preservers... The awful goodbyes ... brave American men saw us to the
lifeboat, made no effort to save themselves, but stepped back on deck. Later they went to
an honoured grave. [Extract from A. Gracie, The Truth About the Titanic (Amberley, 1912)]
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statement fact opinion
the Carpathia has rescued over 700
passengers from lifeboats
More news will be released as the facts are
reliably confirmed
we are receiving conflicting reports, both
alarming and reassuring
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narrow escape
Test C - Year 6
Hi to all beautiful and intelligent followers of my SUMMER TORTURE blog.
Before today’s update, a word of explanation about the slideshow you can
see going by above. Mum is hiding because her hair’s in a mess. That’s Dad
doing his admiral bit on the narrowboat he’s imprisoned us in this summer.
He calls it an ‘escape from the humdrum routine of city life’. Next to that is
Spider the dog. He can’t help being that scruffy. My brother, the evil one,
known from now on as Darth, is the one on the right. It’s a drawing I did
when he was looking his best. Spider is my bodyguard. Chases any vicious
ducks threatening to nibble my toes.
We’ve just taken ages to go through Bath Deep Lock – to get from one level
up to a higher level on the Kennet and Avon Canal. Dad says it’s 19 feet
5 inches deep. I sat on the roof of the boat. The walls of the lock were
slimy but fascinating. Baby frogs, newts and other unidentifiable creatures
were clinging to the stone. So now we’re leaving busy Bath and heading into
the wilderness – not a shop window in sight. I thought I saw a shop through
the trees but it could have been a mirage.
Dad keeps telling me stuff to take my mind off civilisation, such as:
The Kennet and Avon Canal was built around 1800 and took 16
years. (So a bit older than Grandad!)
It fell into disuse when they built the Great Western Railway. (Do
I have enough money for a train ticket?)
A few miles ahead is the staircase of 29 locks at Devizes – one after
another. (My friends, Millie and Radhika, have gone to an Italian
villa with an infinity pool!)
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Test C - Year 6
We stopped to collect pine cones for a fire to brew up some tea.
I hate tea [see previous blogs], but the pine cones smelled nice.
Mum said if Darth and I stopped pestering each other, she might take us
on our bikes to a Thai restaurant tomorrow night. Darth isn’t going if they
don’t do chips.
Walking to a visitor centre for an ice cream, they were almost my last
moments on Earth, thanks to the reckless steering of a short-sighted,
99-year-old cyclist. Darth was chased by a Canada Goose, who eventually
cornered his raspberry and vanilla. When we got back, Dad had got out his
guitar. And was playing it. Outside! On the towpath! In public! Spider,
being a music-lover, jumped overboard and thrashed around in an adjacent
reed bed and howled. (Spider is a menace to wildlife and a destroyer of
tranquillity, though not the only one. The other one has a guitar! Loudly!)
Midnight Blog:
We have survived death by 29 locks. But only just. We went for supper at
a nearby pub called ‘The Angry Goose’. But Mum is not talking to Dad, I
have blisters from turning the windlass *, Darth had to run for his life when
he found his old friend, the Canada Goose, waiting for him outside the pub,
and Dad is not talking to anybody because he was outvoted on the question
of whether we continued on our canal trip to Teddington. That’s 107 miles
at 4 mph. How many bad-hair days and blisters would that have been?
RESULT! That’s what I call a NARROW ESCAPE!
Here is my version of the pub sign.
Please leave your comments.
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