Shipwreck of Belorussia

The mast together with the captain, the worn-out red-green flag goes down under the water.

The ship with the long-faded inscription Belorussia on board wrecked. It was an old ship that had not been properly repaired for 26 years. The rusty bottom has a hole; the kerosene once stolen in one of the ports ran out; the engines died out; the helm was out of order; the captain yelled at the crew, ordering the sailors to ply the oars. He tried to convince everybody that propeller, engine, and kerosene were not necessary for a safe voyage; oars alone are enough to put on full steam and reach the blessed shore.

The sailors were sweating and exhausted, but they plied the oars. However, no one knew the destination. If anybody complained or showed dissatisfaction with absurd orders and ideas, he was simply thrown overboard.

The captain sometimes came out on the bridge and hysterically gave orders: to swap the bosun and the XO, repaint the pipe, throw the cook overboard. He shouted something about enemy submarines that wanted to sink the ship, terrible sharks that supposedly chewed the anchor, cruel pirates who wanted to seize the ship and sell all the crew and passengers into slavery. Finally, he appointed himself Admiral, awarded himself the Order of Heroic Merit, closed himself in his cabin and began to stuff silver, money and even leftovers from yesterday's banquet into his pockets. After it, he got under the bed and began to mutter something about a mutiny aboard...

At one moment, the passengers even rushed to save the ship: someone was busy with the propeller; someone ran to fix the helm; someone rushed to the radio room to send SOS. The captain called the passengers rats, ordered the crew to lock them up on the lower deck for "them not to interfere with the constructive organization of the rescue measures within the ship's regulations".

In the end, having lost the last hope to save the ship, the passengers hoisted the boats out, plied the oars and swam away from the inevitable collapse, leaving the ship to the hysterical captain and his crazy crew...

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The people in the lifeboats watched from a respectful distance as the ship sank. The ship's hull had already gone underwater; only the masts and trumpet sticking out. Those who until recently had praised the captain, his course, the ship and smeared mud on the passengers were drowning in the arriving waves. Having climbed up one of the masts, the captain was beating off with his oar from those once so loyal crew members. They did not yet drown and tried to cling to the still sticking out parts of the ship. The captain kept shouting at people in lifeboats and called them traitors, accused, threatened, intimidated them... Shortly after, the mast, the captain and the worn-out red-green flag went under the water.

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People in lifeboats in the middle of the ocean encouraged each other, supported the weakened, shared water and food, bandaged the wounded... The sun was rising. Soon the liner appeared on the horizon in the first rays of dawn. A red sun reflected in the white rays of dawn. Salvation was at hand. People only had to ply their oars a little harder. A new day was beginning.

Denis Dudinsky, Facebook