Travel grants
Travel Grants is a novel by the French author Jules Verne . The novel was first published in 1903 by the Pierre-Jules Hetzel publishing house in Paris in two volumes under the French title Bourses de Voyages . Volume I appeared on July 3, and Volume II on November 9, 1903. The first German-language edition appeared in 1904 under the title Reisestipendien . The English title of the novel is Traveling Scholarships .
action
At the end of a school year, a special award is given at the “Antilian School” in London . The "Antilian School" was founded as a "teaching institution for the sons of the colonists of the Greater and Lesser Antilles ". The best students have won a donated trip, the destination of which has not yet been announced. The eight winners are announced to the great applause of the other fellow students. It is a group of students whose members come from several nations (Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden).
The trip was donated by millionaire Mistress Seymour. She lives alone in Barbados and wants to act as a benefactor. The whole school is now excited to see what destination the group of winners will travel to. There are many different rumors among the students about the destination of the trip. The final destination of the trip is a tour of the islands of the Antilles, from which the 9 winners come. The students had actually hoped for a different travel destination, but they accept this travel destination. The journey with a sailing yacht across the Atlantic and then from one island to another is a satisfaction of your youthful thirst for adventure. At the end of the trip, a visit to the founder Mistress Seymour is planned. She intends to personally hand out a £ 700 travel grant to each of the winners .
Since the young people between 14 and 20 years of age should not travel alone, the director of the “Antilian School” chooses a confidante from among the school staff to lead the group. The principal chooses the school's weird administrator, former Latin teacher Patterson.
The voyage is to begin with the sailing ship "Alert" under the command of Captain Paxton in the port of Queenstown, Ireland, in the Bay of Cork . The little "Alert" with a crew of ten promises an interesting passage. That is entirely up to the adventurous taste of the young passengers. The project also received a lot of attention from the press and the readers of the newspapers played a major role in the preparations for the trip.
The news in the newspapers is also read by ten mutineers who have broken out of Queenstown prison under the leadership of Harry Markel. The escaped convicts were sentenced to death for various bloody crimes. Their daring leader Markel immediately recognized the alert waiting for the students in the harbor as a suitable escape route for the gang. Shortly afterwards the mutineers board the yacht and his people murder the entire crew. You want to flee by ship . However, a lull prevents their departure. They cannot leave the port without wind. The next morning the students and their guide Patterson are transferred to the ship. Markel spontaneously decides that his people should take on the role of the murdered original crew. They plan to get rid of the pesky passengers as soon as they are out at sea.
Patterson tells Markel about the prospect of travel grants, whereupon Markel changes his plan. After all, at the end of the trip, each and every student is worth £ 700. The criminals continue to play their part as the Alert's crew. When the wind comes up, they can leave the port and the journey across the Atlantic to the Antilles begins. As planned by Mistress Seymour, several islands of the Greater and Lesser Antilles will be visited on a round trip. The travel program is being processed professionally by the wrong crew. Markel does not allow his men to go ashore in order to avoid giving themselves away if they visit a harbor bar. Finally the destination of the trip has been reached: Barbados. At the end of the visit to Mistress Seymour, the scholarships are handed over to the students, Patterson and the fake Captain Paxton. The passengers' hours now seem to be numbered.
However, the old lady has another wish. The well-known boatman Will Mitz is to travel back to England with the Alert to start his new wages in Liverpool . Markel cannot refuse this offer. Mitz comes on board. On board he overheard the plan of the criminals to want to murder all passengers during the night on the high seas. Mitz decides to venture out in the ship's dinghy together with the other passengers . However, this escape fails. After several hours of wandering in the fog, the dinghy collides with the alert. The refugees are desperate. However, they manage to re-enter the "Alert" without being noticed and to lock the mutineers' crew in the hold. They want to go back to the Antilles because they consider the trip across the Atlantic with a team of lay people to be too risky. However, a calm and a subsequent storm make a quick return journey impossible. Suddenly a fire breaks out in the ship, obviously brandy has ignited. The students flee the ship with Patterson and Mitz in the dinghy. Shortly afterwards, the fire and the sinking of the yacht set the murderer Markel and his crew. After a short time, the group on the dinghy is rescued by a passing ship and can return to Great Britain .
literature
- Heinrich Pleticha (ed.): Jules Verne manual . Deutscher Bücherbund / Bertelsmann, Stuttgart and Munich 1992.
- Volker Dehs and Ralf Junkerjürgen: Jules Verne . Voices and interpretations of his work. Fantastic Library Wetzlar, Wetzlar 2005.
- Volker Dehs: Jules Verne . Jules Verne. A critical biography. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2005. ISBN 3-538-07208-6
Web links
- “Travel grants” as an e-book in HTML on zeno.org
- Travel grants in Andreas Fehrmann's Jules Verne Collection