My name is Sheean MacDuffy. I live in a small fishing village named Shelburne in Nova Scotia. My family makes a living by fishing. The sea around Nova Scotia is full of lobster, deep sea crabs, cod, haddock, and other fish. We often see whales and dolphins in the water too.

When I was 12 years old, Dad asked me to go with him to Halifax. It was a foggy morning when we sailed the boat out of the Bay of Fundy towards the Atlantic Ocean. We sailed the boat around the south part of Nova Scotia to the capital (Halifax). I was on "look out" duty, so I climbed the mast. From my high perch, I could see icebergs large enough to crush our small boat. I warned Dad so he could steer clear of them. At sunset we docked in the main port of Halifax, ready to sell our catch the following morning. The date was April 10, 1912, a day that I will always remember.

Close to 9 pm, we decided to bed down in the cabin. My father told me that he would wake me so I could the largest, fastest, and safest passenger ship ever built. The brand new Titanic would pass offshore in the middle of the night. I went below, crept into my hammock, and fell into a deep sleep.

It seemed that I had only slept for a few minutes when my father shook me and shouted that we were leaving the port. "The great and unsinkable Titanic hit an enormous iceberg. The ship is sinking in these freezing waters. We're going out to rescue as many as possible," he screamed.

I jumped into my clothes and ran up to the deck. It took our boat several hours to arrive at the scene. It was dark and we had to be very careful that we didn't hit any icebergs. At first we saw nothing, but then we heard screaming and shouting coming from the water. As we slowed down, I could make out some lifeboats floating in the dark water.

We dropped our rope ladders over the side so the people could climb aboard. The first person to climb up was a girl about my age. Her fancy party dress was in shreds and she had tears flowing down her face. She immediately began screaming, "Mommy, daddy where are you?" I covered her trembling body with a blanket and led her down below.

All night, we rescued young and old. Some were too cold to even climb the ladder. By morning the sea was full of rescue ships searching for survivors. Later we found that 1,523 persons died when the unsinkable Titanic sank into the ocean. Only 715 people were saved from the lifeboats.

Map of Nova Scotia. Halifax is the capital.