The people on board the ship were actually fishermen, and although they had come out to see in search of some fresh fish to catch, they had to make a quick change of plans in order to help the cubs from drowning.
The closer they got, the more they realized just how tired the cubs looked as they were struggling to swim and keep their heads above water. This may not have been in the fishermen’s plans when they set out for that days catch, but they decided they couldn’t leave the cubs to potentially drown.
Paddling Furiously
The baby cubs were having an extremely difficult time. It’s hard to imagine how they might have been feeling realizing their lives were in real danger.
We must assume that they have been terrified and paddling furiously to save their lives. Just as they were starting to lose hope, their fortunes were about to change...
Human Saviors
Just at the moment where all hope seemed to be lost, and the cubs could potentially drown, a boat appeared to save the day! Any human would have been shouting to the people aboard the boat to come and save them, but the cubs couldn’t do that.
Luckily, the people on board the ship could see exactly what was going on and were there to help. At the same time, the cubs caught sight of the boat and started swimming towards it, possibly thinking that this could be their saviors.
Motherly Instincts
The fishermen sprang into action, but before they set about rescuing the cubs, they realized that the mother bear was still in the vicinity.
Despite her having left her cubs to swim on their own, the fishermen were concerned that if she saw humans interfering, her motherly instincts may still kick in and then who knows what would have happened. eventually, the fisherman waited for the mother bear to continue on before they went about rescuing the cubs.
No Time to Think
As the fishermen waited for the mother bear to leave the premises of the cubs, they began to think about how to actually rescue the tired cubs out of the freezing waters.
Despite the many questions of how to rescue the cubs, and what to do with them if they did manage to get them onto the ship, they didn’t have much time to think about it all too much as this was a desperate situation and there was no time to waste.