Jules Verne

Dick Sand A Captain at Fifteen Jules Verne

Dick Sand is a fifteen-year-old boy that serves on the schooner Pilgrim, a whaler that normally voyages across the Pacific in their efforts to find targets. However, this time the hunting season has been unsuccessful, and as they plan to return home three people request passage to Valparaiso: Mrs Weldon, the wife of the hunting firm's owner, her five-year-old son Jack, his old nanny Nan and her cousin Bénédict, an entomologist. With not much of a choice, the captain accepts. Several days into their journey north-east, the Pilgrim encounters a shipwreck, with only five African-American survivors (Tom, Actéon, Austin, Bat and Hercule) plus a dog (Dingo), all of whom are brought into the ship and offered passage to America. It is as they get closer east that they encounter a whale, and the captain and crew decide to hunt it, in an attempt to make some profit off the season. Captain Hull reluctantly leaves Dick responsible for the ship in his absence while the rest of the crew approaches the whale on a smaller boat. However, the whale, while defending itself, destroys the boat and kills the crew, leaving Dick in charge of a ship with no experienced sailors to help him: only the shipwreck survivors are well enough to help him.