The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain Summary – Jules Verne

The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain is an adventure novel by Jules Verne, first published in 1873, about young Dick Sand, who must take command of a ship after its captain and crew are killed and lead the survivors through a dangerous journey.

The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain Main Characters analysis

• Dick Sand — a fifteen-year-old orphan and the youngest, least experienced sailor aboard the Pilgrim. Despite his age, he is intelligent, brave, and mature enough to take command of the ship after Captain Hull and the other sailors die.
• Captain Hull — the experienced and courageous captain of the Pilgrim. He leads the ship at the beginning of the voyage but dies while attempting to hunt a whale.
• Mrs. Weldon — the wife of the owner of the Pilgrim and the mother of five-year-old Jack. She becomes a captive of Negoro and Alvez during the journey.
• Jack Weldon — Mrs. Weldon’s five-year-old son, who is traveling aboard the Pilgrim with his mother.
• Negoro — the Portuguese cook aboard the Pilgrim. He is secretly involved in the slave trade and deliberately sabotages the ship’s navigation so that it reaches the coast of Angola.
• Hercules — one of the Black Americans rescued from the wrecked Waldec. He escapes captivity and later plays an important role in rescuing Mrs. Weldon and Jack.
• Tom — an older Black American rescued from the Waldec. He travels with Dick and the other survivors before being sold into slavery.
• Bat — Tom’s son and one of the Black Americans rescued from the Waldec.
• Austin and Acteon — two other Black Americans rescued from the Waldec. Like Tom and Bat, they are eventually sold into slavery.
• Nan — Mrs. Weldon’s elderly Black nurse. She is captured with the others and dies during the forced march with the slave caravan.
• Cousin Benedict — Mrs. Weldon’s eccentric relative and a passionate insect collector. His pursuit of a rare beetle unexpectedly allows him to escape captivity.
• Dingo — a dog rescued from the Waldec. The dog becomes attached to the crew but reacts violently whenever Negoro comes near. Dingo eventually attacks Negoro.
• Harris — an American who is secretly working with Negoro. He deceives Dick and the other travelers by claiming that they are in Bolivia.
• Antonio Alvez — the owner of the slave caravan and one of the main slave traders in Kazonde. He purchases and sells enslaved people and holds Mrs. Weldon and her son captive.
• Samuel Vernon — a traveler whose death is connected to Negoro’s past. A note found near his remains reveals that Negoro had robbed and mortally wounded him in December 1871.
• Muana — the first wife of the king of Kazonde. After her husband’s death, she becomes involved in the events surrounding the attempted sacrifice of Dick.

The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain Summary

On January 29, 1873, the schooner-brig Pilgrim, equipped for whaling, set sail from the port of Auckland, New Zealand. On board were the brave and experienced Captain Hull, five seasoned sailors, fifteen-year-old junior sailor Dick Sand, the ship’s Portuguese cook Negoro, Mrs. Weldon, the wife of the Pilgrim‘s owner James Weldon, her five-year-old son Jack, her eccentric relative known to everyone as Cousin Benedict, and an elderly Black nurse named Nan.

The sailing ship was bound for San Francisco, with a stop planned at Valparaiso. All the sailors aboard the Pilgrim had known one another for a long time and got along well. The only person Captain Hull did not particularly like was Negoro, because he had not had time to investigate the new cook’s past.

The youngest and least experienced sailor on the ship was fifteen-year-old orphan Dick Sand. Despite his age, he was distinguished by his intelligence and courage.

A few days after the voyage began, little Jack spotted the ship Waldec lying on its side in the ocean with a hole in its bow. Captain Hull decided to investigate, and aboard the wrecked vessel the sailors discovered five Black men and a dog named Dingo who were dying of thirst. The unfortunate survivors were brought aboard the Pilgrim, where they received proper care. It turned out that the Black men — Old Tom, his son Bat, as well as Hercules, Austin, and Acteon — were not slaves but free American citizens. Their ship had been struck by an unknown vessel, which had then fled.

After several days of careful treatment, the rescued passengers fully recovered their strength. Dingo became a favorite of the entire crew. But whenever the dog saw Negoro, it began growling furiously for no apparent reason and seemed ready to attack him. Negoro preferred to stay out of the dog’s sight, most likely because Dingo had recognized him.

A few days later, Captain Hull and the five sailors who had decided to set out in a small boat to hunt a whale they had spotted several miles from the ship were killed.

A ship that had lost its captain and sailors could easily have become a helpless plaything of the currents and winds. Of the entire crew, only fifteen-year-old Dick Sand remained alive, and the boy now had to replace the captain, boatswain, and entire crew. The young sailor decided to take on the captain’s responsibilities and teach the rescued Black men the skills of seamanship. They gladly agreed to help him.

Everyone had the same desire: to reach any port on the American coast as quickly as possible. Despite his courage and inner maturity, Dick did not possess all the necessary navigational knowledge. He knew how to find his way across the ocean only by using a compass and a log, which measured the ship’s speed. He did not know how to determine their position by the stars, and Negoro took advantage of this weakness. He broke one compass and secretly altered the readings of the second. Then he disabled the log. His treachery caused the ship to reach the coast of Angola instead of America and eventually be thrown ashore.

Angola was one of the most dangerous regions of equatorial Africa. Savage cannibal tribes still lived there, local peoples were constantly at war with one another, and, worst of all, the slave trade was actively carried on in the region.

Thus, after seventy-four days at sea, the Pilgrim was thrown ashore and the ship was wrecked against the reefs. Fortunately, no one was injured. Dick Sand had no idea where they had ended up. Meanwhile, Negoro secretly left the group and disappeared into the thick forest. It soon became clear that he had been the first to reach the wrecked ship and had taken all of Mrs. Weldon’s money.

After some time, Dick Sand set out to find some kind of settlement. He met an American named Harris who, acting in conspiracy with Negoro, his old acquaintance, assured Dick that the travelers were on the coast of Bolivia. Harris lured them into the tropical forest, promising them shelter and care at his brother’s hacienda.

The group made its way through the forest for twelve days, covering more than a hundred miles during that time. Gradually, the truth began to become clear to Dick Sand and Tom: they were in equatorial Africa, a land of slave traders and slaves.

Realizing that they had discovered the truth, Harris hid in the forest, leaving the travelers alone, and went to a previously arranged meeting with Negoro. From their conversation, it became clear that Harris was involved in the slave trade. Negoro had also been involved in this business for a long time until the Portuguese authorities, in his homeland, sentenced him to life imprisonment with hard labor for such activities. After spending only two weeks there, Negoro escaped, took a position as cook aboard the Pilgrim, and waited for an opportunity to return to Africa.

Dick’s inexperience had worked in Negoro’s favor, and his plan had succeeded much earlier than he had dared to hope. Not far from the place where he met Harris, a slave caravan was camped, heading to Kazonde for a market under the command of one of their acquaintances. The caravan was camped ten miles from the travelers, on the banks of the Kwanza River. Knowing Dick Sand, Negoro and Harris correctly assumed that he would decide to take his people to the river and then float downstream on a raft to the ocean. That was where they intended to capture them.

When Dick discovered that Harris had disappeared, he realized that they had been betrayed and decided to follow the stream to a larger river. On the way, they were overtaken by a thunderstorm and a violent downpour. The river overflowed its banks and rose several pounds above ground level. Before the rain began, the travelers climbed into an abandoned termite mound twelve feet high. Inside the enormous anthill, with its thick clay walls, they waited out the storm.

However, as soon as they emerged, they were immediately captured. The Black men, Nan, and Dick were added to the caravan, while Hercules managed to escape. Mrs. Weldon, her son, and Cousin Benedict were taken away in an unknown direction.

During the journey, Dick and his Black friends had to endure all the hardships of traveling with a slave caravan and witness the brutal treatment of the enslaved people by the soldiers and overseers. Unable to survive the march, old Nan died along the way.

Only half of all the captured slaves reached Kazonde, the largest slave market. The enslaved people were divided among cramped barracks. The owner of the caravan, Antonio Alvez, was especially pleased with the young and strong Black men from America because he could demand a high price for them.

From Harris, Dick learned that Mrs. Weldon and Jack had died. In a burst of uncontrollable anger, the young man killed the traitor.

Alvez wanted to execute Dick immediately, but Negoro asked him to wait a little longer. On the day of the market in Kazonde, Alvez brought all his slaves out for sale. Tom, Bat, Acteon, and Austin were fortunate: they were sold to the same person.

At the height of the market, His Majesty Muan-Lunga, the king of Kazonde, appeared. He looked more like an ancient gorilla. He was accompanied by numerous wives and a retinue of flatterers. Knowing that the local king was dependent on alcohol, Alvez offered him some strong punch. When the old drunkard drank the fiery beverage, his body, thoroughly saturated with alcohol, caught fire, and he died on the spot.

Muan-Lunga’s first wife, Queen Muana, was supposed to inherit the royal throne. She hurried to arrange her husband’s funeral and strengthen her position. A large pit was dug, and according to an old tradition, the king’s other wives were thrown into it. According to Negoro’s plan, bound Dick was also to be thrown into the pit, after which it would be flooded with water.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Weldon, her son, and Cousin Benedict were also living in Kazonde behind the fence of Alvez’s trading post. Negoro was holding them hostage and wanted to obtain a ransom of one hundred thousand dollars from Mr. Weldon. He forced Mrs. Weldon to write a letter to her husband that was supposed to help him carry out his plan. After leaving the hostages in Alvez’s care, he departed for San Francisco.

One day, Cousin Benedict, a passionate insect collector, chased an especially rare ground beetle. While pursuing it, he unknowingly escaped through a mole tunnel running beneath the walls of the enclosure and ran two miles through the forest, still hoping to catch the insect. There he encountered Hercules, who had remained near the caravan all this time, hoping to find some way to help his friends.

At that time, an unusually long and severe downpour for that time of year began in the village. It flooded all the surrounding fields and threatened to leave the inhabitants without a harvest. Queen Muana invited sorcerers to the village to drive away the clouds.

Hercules captured one of these sorcerers in the forest and, after putting on his clothes, pretended to be a mute magician. He came to the village, grabbed the astonished queen by the hand, and led her to Alvez’s trading post. There, through gestures, he indicated that a white woman and her child were responsible for the troubles afflicting her people. He seized them and took them away from the village. Alvez tried to stop him, but he was forced to give way under pressure from the local people. He had no choice but to release the hostages.

After traveling eight miles and finally getting away from the last curious villagers, Hercules put Mrs. Weldon and Jack into a boat. Only then did they discover with amazement that the sorcerer and Hercules were the same person.

They found Dick Sand, whom Hercules had saved from death, as well as Cousin Benedict and Dingo. Only Tom, Bat, Acteon, and Austin were missing. They had already been sold into slavery and taken away from the village.

The travelers now finally had the opportunity to travel down to the ocean in a boat disguised as a small floating island. From time to time, Dick went ashore to hunt. After several days of travel, the boat passed villages of cannibals located along the right bank. The natives realized that what was floating down the river was not an island but a boat carrying people only after it had already moved far away. Without the travelers realizing it, the natives followed the boat along the shore, hoping to capture their prey.

After several days, the boat stopped near the left bank to avoid being swept into a waterfall. As soon as Dingo jumped ashore, the dog moved forward as though it had sensed someone’s trail.

The travelers came upon a small hut where already whitened human bones lay scattered around. Nearby, two letters, “S. V.,” had been written on a tree in blood. They were the same letters that had been engraved on Dingo’s collar. Nearby they found a note in which its author, the traveler Samuel Vernon, accused his guide Negoro of mortally wounding him in December 1871 and robbing him.

Suddenly Dingo sprang forward, and a cry was heard nearby. Dingo had seized Negoro by the throat. Before boarding a steamer to America, Negoro had returned to the scene of his crime to retrieve the money he had stolen from Vernon from its hiding place.

Negoro wounded Dingo with a knife before the dog died. But Negoro himself could not escape retribution. Fearing that Negoro’s companions might be on the left bank, Dick crossed to the right bank to scout the area. Arrows flew toward him, and ten natives from the cannibal village jumped into his boat.

Dick shot through one of the oars, and the boat was carried toward the waterfall. The natives were killed, but Dick, who had hidden beneath the boat, managed to survive.

Soon the travelers reached the ocean. A true gift of fate was their encounter with a trading caravan belonging to Portuguese merchants. They reached the port in complete safety, boarded a steamer, and arrived in California without further trouble on August 25.

Dick Sand became the adopted son of the Weldon family. By the age of eighteen, he completed hydrographic courses and prepared to become a captain on one of James Weldon’s ships. Hercules became a close friend of the family.

Mr. Weldon bought Tom, Bat, Acteon, and Austin out of slavery, and on November 15, 1877, after surviving so many dangers, the four Black men found themselves once again in the welcoming arms of the Weldon family.