- Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen
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Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen Author(s) Jules Verne Original title Un capitaine de quinze ans Translator Ellen Elizabeth Frewer, anonymous Illustrator Henri Meyer Country France Language French Series The Extraordinary Voyages #17 Genre(s) Adventure novel Publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel Publication date 15 December 1878 Published in
English1878 Media type Print (Hardback) ISBN N/A Preceded by The Child of the Cavern Followed by The Begum's Fortune Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen (French: Un capitaine de quinze ans) is a Jules Verne novel published in 1878. It deals primarily with the issue of slavery, and the African slave trade by other Africans in particular.
Contents
Themes
Themes explored in the novel include:
- The painful learning of adult life - the hero, Dick Sand, must assume command of a ship after the disappearance of its captain.
- The discovery of entomology
- Condemnation of slavery
- Revenge
Plot
Dick Sand is a fifteen year old boy serving on the schooner "Pilgrim" as a sailor. The crew are whale hunters that voyage every year down to New Zealand. After an unsuccessful season of hunting, as they plan to return the wife of the owner of the hunting firm, Mrs Weldon, her five year old son Jack Weldon and her cousin, Bénédict, an entomologist ask for a return passege to San Francisco. Several days into the journey they save five shipwrecked passengers from another ship and a dog who was with them at the time (Tom, Actéon, Austin, Bat, Nan and Dingo (the dog)). Towards the end of their passage, they notice a whale and the crew, hoping for some profit after a bad season, decide to hunt it. Captain Hull reluctantly leaves Dick responsible for the ship. But the hunt goes awry and all the crew members are killed. Now Dick is left in charge of the ship with no experienced sailors to help him. He tries to teach the five survivors of the shipwreck and tries to reach the coast of South America, but Negoro, the ship's cook manages to trick them, breaking one of their compasses and their speed measuring device and eventually, after making sure the rest were lost, leads them to equatorial Africa.
List of characters
These names are as given in the original French version:
- Dick Sand
- Actéon
- Alvez
- Austin
- Bat
- Cousin Bénédict
- Coïmbra
- Dingo
- Halima
- Harris
- Hercule, a recurring Verne character, here given the pseudonym Mgannga
- Howik
- Captain Hull
- Ibn Hamis
- Moina
- Moini Loungga
- Munito
- Nan
- Negoro
- Tipo-Tipo
- Tom
- Samuel Vernon
- Jack Weldon
- James-W. Weldon
- Mrs. Weldon
Full text
- Dick Sands the Boy Captain at Project Gutenberg, English translation by Ellen E. Frewer published in 1879.
- Dick Sand; or, a Captain at Fifteen at Project Gutenberg, a different English translation published in 1878.
Sources
- This article incorporates information from the revision as of September 27, 2007 of the equivalent article on the French Wikipedia.
Works by Jules Verne Other works NovelsThe Waif of the Cynthia (1885) · The Lighthouse at the End of the World (1905) · The Golden Volcano (1906) · The Thompson Travel Agency (1907) · The Chase of the Golden Meteor (1908) · The Danube Pilot (1908) · The Survivors of the "Jonathan" (1909) · The Secret of William Storitz (1910) · The Barsac Mission (1919) · Paris in the Twentieth Century (1994, written 1863)
CollectionsShort stories"A Drama in Mexico" (1851) · "A Drama in the Air" (1851) · "Martin Paz" (1852) · "Master Zacharius" (1854) · "A Winter Amid the Ice" (1855) · "The Count of Chanteleine" (1864) · "The Blockade Runners" (1865) · "Dr. Ox's Experiment" (1872) · "An Ideal City" (1875) · "The Mutineers of the Bounty" (1879) · "Ten Hours Hunting" (1881) · "Frritt-Flacc" (1884) · "Gil Braltar" (1887) · "In the Year 2889" (1889) · "Adventures of the Rat Family" (1891) · "Mr. Ray Sharp and Miss Me Flat" (1893) · "The Eternal Adam" (1910)
Non-fictionHistoire des grands voyages et des grands voyageursCharacters and universe CharactersAouda · Tom Ayrton · David Farragut · Phileas Fogg · Lord Glenarvan · Captain Nemo · Jacques Paganel · Jean Passepartout · Cyrus Smith
UniverseBook:Jules Verne ·
Category:Jules Verne ·
Portal:Literature
Categories:- 1878 novels
- Novels by Jules Verne
- Novels set in Africa
- Novels about slavery
- Novel stubs
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