A captain of fifteen
A Captain of Fifteen (also called A Captain of Fifteen ) is a lesser-known novel by the French author Jules Verne . The novel was first published in 1878 under the French title Un capitaine de quinze ans by the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel in two volumes. The first German-language edition appeared in 1879 under the title A Captain of Fifteen Years . A preprint appeared from August 10 to November 26, 1878 in Der Collector , supplement to the Augsburger Abendzeitung . The English title of the novel is Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen . The main character is the 15-year-old orphan boy Dick Sand, who tragically becomes the captain of the Pilgrim .
action
The schoonerbrigg Pilgrim is under her captain Hull as a whaler on the way to her home port in San Francisco, California . So far the whaling trip has not been as successful as expected. On the way the sets Pilgrim in the port Waitemata from Auckland to. Captain Hull plans to change the crew as he hopes for better staff there. However, all suitable seafarers are already on duty on other ships. Captain Hull then wants to sail to Valparaíso in Chile . In Auckland, however, Priscilla Weldon embarks on the Pilgrim with her young son Jack , her cousin Benedict , an idiosyncratic entomologist, and her black servant Nan . Ms. Weldon is the wife of the shipowner of the Pilgrim James W. Weldon and plans to travel back to California from New Zealand . At sea, the Pilgrim's crew rescues the five black Americans Hercules , Tom , Bat , Austin and Acteon as well as the large farm dog Dingo from the drifting wreck of the Waldeck . Dingo tries to jump for the throat of the ship's cook Negoro when he first meets him on board the Pilgrim . When Jack plays with letter dice, Dingo steals two dice with the letters S and V , the initials of his dead master. Captain Hull suggests that SV could be the missing researcher Samuel Vernon, who wanted to cross Africa from the mouth of the Congo on the Atlantic to Cape Delgado on the Indian Ocean . The question of what connects Dingo with Negoro is only answered in the last chapter of the novel.
A short time later, the Pilgrim's crew was killed in the Pacific while hunting a beaked whale believed to be 100 tons , which the whalers sank with their dinghy before they could kill it with their harpoons. Apart from the passengers, only the 15-year-old ordinary seaman Dick Sand and the Portuguese cook Negoro remain on board. With the support of the passengers, Dick Sand takes over the duties of the captain, only Negoro does not agree, but complies. The passengers become sailors. Dick Sand plans to head for the coast of South America .
On the way, the Pilgrim gets caught in a storm. A short time later, Dick Sand caught Negoro while he was apparently tampering with the ship's compass. The second compass was destroyed beforehand and the line on which the log was attached was cut, which makes it impossible to determine the course and position. They pass what they think is Easter Island . When land comes into view after a long odyssey, they try to land by ship. The Pilgrim runs into a reef. On the beach, Dick Sand and his companions meet the American Harris . Harris explains to them that they are on the coast of Bolivia . He offers to take them to an inland hacienda from which they can easily continue their journey. You accept the offer. Negoro has left the group beforehand. Cousin Benedict, a little bespectacled man with a child's disposition, provides humor on the way. Cousin Benedict is a so-called “professional idiot” who has nothing on his mind but his insects and is constantly walking around with a magnifying glass and an insect drum.
During their march inland, the travelers see animals such as giraffes and antelopes, which are not normally found in Bolivia, but they are appeased by Harris' explanation. Harris only disappears when a lion appears during a night camp. The travelers have to realize that they did not land in South America, but in Africa, more precisely in Angola . The island they passed on the way was not Easter Island, but Tristan da Cunha . In the jungle Harris meets Negoro, who has followed the group. Indeed, Negoro manipulated the compass and brought the pilgrim to the coast of Angola. Harris and Negoro are part of a gang of slave hunters based in the village of Kazonndé . They want to sell the blacks as slaves.
Meanwhile, the travelers start their way back to the coast. They flee from a downpour into the interior of an uninhabited termite mound . When water seeps into the hill, travelers have to cut a hole in the ceiling and flee to the top of the hill. There they are overwhelmed and captured by native slave hunters who are on their way to the slave market of Kazonndé with Arab slave traders and Portuguese soldiers . The travelers are separated from each other. Along the way, Nan is killed by the slave hunters along with many other prisoners. In Kazounde be Tom , Bat , Austin , and Acteon in the slave market of the trader Alvez to Zanzibar sold. Harris brags to Dick Sand that Mrs. Weldon and Jack died of exhaustion. Angry, Dick Sand Harris stabs Harris with his own knife. Dick Sand is sentenced to death by Moini Loungga , King of Kazonndé . The alcohol addicted king asks Alvez to have a drink. Harris and Negoro prepare punch in a copper kettle that holds more than a hectolitre. The king lights the alcohol with a burning stick. He spilled a ladle with the burning liquid and caught fire. One of his ministers who wants to help him also catches fire. The king and his minister are burned alive. When the king is buried, his concubines and slaves are to be buried with him. The executioner does his gruesome work. Moini Loungga is said to be buried in a drained river bed with his slain female entourage. Thick sand is said to be drowned in the river bed that is being flooded again.
However, Mrs. Weldon and Jack are not dead, but are also held prisoner in Kazonndé together with cousin Benedict . But they are more comfortable than the others. Negoro wants to exchange Mrs. Weldon, Jack and Cousin Benedict for a ransom from the shipowner Weldon. One day, cousin Benedict disappears through a mole tunnel while hunting for a rare insect. A short time later, Mrs. Weldon and Jack are freed from their prison by Hercules, who disguised himself as a magician, in front of the people of Kazonndé . Hercules makes the superstitious population believe that the whites are to blame for the current rain disaster. Mrs. Weldon finds herself together with Dick Sand, Hercules, Dingo and Cousin Benedict on a pirogue down a tributary of the Congo. Dick Sand survived his execution. They go ashore in front of a waterfall in the Congo. In the jungle, travelers come across a hut with a skeleton in it. As can be seen from a yellowed suicide note next to the corpse, it is the corpse of the traveler Samuel Vernon , Lord of Dingo. His guide Negoro had stabbed him in the chest with a knife and left him dying. When Negoro shows up, Dingo pounces on him. Negoro and Dingo both do not survive the fight. Dick Sand wants to cross over to the other bank in the pirogue. A horde of natives storms the boat. Dick shoots the leader. He is the only one who survives the fall in the pirogue over the waterfall. The companions are finally picked up by a Portuguese trade caravan and brought to Boma . From there you can finally start your journey home. Tom , Bat , Austin and Acteon are finally found in a loincloth weaving mill in Madagascar after a long search . James W. Weldon found them jobs as textile workers in Sacramento in return .
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
- “A captain of fifteen years” as an e-book in HTML on zeno.org
- A captain of 15 years in Andreas Fehrmann's Jules Verne Collection