Each of the schooner's crew is a pilgrim. “The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain”

Review of the book “The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain” by Jules Verne, written as part of the “Bookshelf #1” competition.

Hello everyone, dear friends! Today I will tell you about Jules Verne’s not-so-famous novel “The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain.”

The main character of the novel is Dick Sand. The young man becomes the captain of the ship "Pilgrim". Sand has many human qualities: courage, intelligence, compassion, a sense of duty and responsibility, fearlessness, perseverance, determination, hard work and heroism.

Sand's entourage included Captain Hull, Negorro, Mrs. Weldon and her son Jack, cousin Venedict, the black Hercules and other blacks.

- captain of the Pilgrim, experienced whaler, teacher of Dick Sand.

- a mysterious, emotionless cook forty years old.

— departs by ship for San Francisco. Verne describes her as "a brave woman who was not afraid of the sea." She has a five-year-old son, Jack.

- an attractive old ethnologist. Cousin is the icing on the cake for this piece. He can always defuse a tense situation.

- the main strongman of this work.

There is also a smart dog named , who was found in an almost sunken ship along with blacks Tom, Bath, Actaeon and Austin.

The book can be divided into two parts: sea (first half of the book) And land (accordingly, the second).

In the 19th century, slavery developed in many parts of Africa. The theme of slavery is one of the main ones in the book.

The heroes will have to fight whales, sleep in a termite mound, run away from cannibals and much more. They will visit open sea,Angola,Kasonde.

In my opinion, the novel is very diverse and I would like to see a modern film adaptation of this book.

A book can teach you to appreciate and respect people. By the end of the work, Dick becomes the “captain of his destiny” and not only his own!

On January 29, 1873, the schooner brig Pilgrim, equipped for whaling, set sail from the port of Oakland, New Zealand. On board are the brave and experienced captain Gul, five experienced sailors, a fifteen-year-old junior sailor - orphan Dick Sand, the ship's cook Negoro, as well as the wife of the owner of the Pilgrim, James Weldon - Mrs. Weldon with her five-year-old son Jack, her eccentric relative, whom everyone calls " Cousin Benedict,” and the old black nanny Nan. The sailboat is on its way to San Francisco with a call at Valparaiso. After a few days of sailing, little Jack notices the Waldeck ship overturned on its side in the ocean with a hole in the bow. In it, the sailors discover five emaciated blacks and a dog named Dingo. It turns out that the blacks: Tom, a sixty-year-old man, his son Bath, Austin, Actaeon and Hercules are free citizens of the United States. Having completed their contract work on the plantations in New Zealand, they returned to America. After the Waldeck collided with another ship, all crew members and the captain disappeared and they were left alone. They are transported aboard the Pilgrim, and after a few days attentive care behind them they completely restore their strength. Dingo, according to them, was picked up by the captain of the Waldeck off the coast of Africa. At the sight of Negoro, the dog, for some unknown reason, begins to growl ferociously and expresses its readiness to pounce on him. Negoro prefers not to show himself to the dog, who apparently recognized him.

A few days later, Captain Gul and five sailors, who dared to go on a boat to catch a whale that they spotted a few miles from the ship, die. Dick Sand, who remained on the ship, takes over the functions of captain. The blacks are trying to learn the sailor's craft under his leadership. For all his courage and inner maturity, Dick does not have all the knowledge of navigation and can only navigate the ocean using a compass and a lot that measures the speed of movement. He doesn’t know how to find a location using the stars, which is what Negoro takes advantage of. He breaks one compass and, unnoticed by everyone, changes the readings of the second. Then it disables the lot. His machinations contribute to the fact that instead of America, the ship arrives at the shores of Angola and is thrown ashore. All travelers are safe. Negoro quietly leaves them and goes in an unknown direction. After some time, Dick Sand, who went in search of some settlement, meets the American Harris, who, being in cahoots with Negoro, his old acquaintance, and assuring that the travelers are on the shores of Bolivia, lures them a hundred miles into the tropical forest, promising shelter and care at his brother's hacienda. Over time, Dick Sand and Tom realize that they somehow ended up in the wrong place. South America, and in Africa. Harris, having guessed about their insight, hides in the forest, leaving the travelers alone, and goes to a pre-arranged meeting with Negoro. From their conversation, it becomes clear to the reader that Harris is involved in the slave trade, and Negoro is also for a long time was familiar with this trade until the authorities of Portugal, where he was from, sentenced him to lifelong hard labor for such activities. After staying on it for two weeks, Negoro ran away, got a job as a cook on the Pilgrim and began to wait for the right opportunity to get back to Africa. Dick's inexperience played into his hands, and his plan was carried out much sooner than he dared to hope. Not far from the place where he meets Harris, there is a caravan of slaves that is going to the fair in Kazonda, led by one of their acquaintances. The caravan is camped ten miles from the travelers' location, on the banks of the Kwanzaa River. Knowing Dick Sand, Negoro and Harris correctly assume that he will decide to take his people to the river and go down to the ocean on a raft. That's where they plan to capture them. Having discovered Harris' disappearance, Dick realizes that there has been a betrayal and decides to follow the bank of the stream to a larger river. On the way, they are overtaken by a thunderstorm and a fierce downpour, from which the river overflows its banks and rises several pounds above ground level. Before the rain, travelers climb into an empty termite mound, twelve feet high. In a huge anthill with thick clay walls they wait out the thunderstorm. However, having got out of there, they are immediately captured. The blacks, Nan and Dick are added to the caravan, Hercules manages to escape. Mrs. Weldon and her son and cousin Benedict are taken away in an unspecified direction. During the journey, Dick and his black friends have to endure all the hardships of traveling with a caravan of slaves and witness the brutal treatment of slaves by soldier guards and overseers. Unable to withstand this transition, old Nan dies along the way.

The caravan arrives at Kazonde, where the slaves are distributed among barracks. Dick Sand accidentally meets Harris and, after Harris, deceiving him, reports the death of Mrs. Weldon and her son, in despair he snatches a dagger from his belt and kills him. The next day there is to be a slave fair. Negoro, who saw from afar the scene of the death of his friend, asks permission from Alvets, the owner of the slave caravan and a very influential person in Kazonda, as well as from Muani-Lung, the local king, for permission to execute Dick after the fair. Alvets promises Muani-Lung, who is unable to go without alcohol for a long time, a drop of fire water for every drop of a white man’s blood. He prepares a strong punch, sets it on fire, and when Muani-Lung drinks it, his completely alcohol-soaked body suddenly catches fire and the king rots to the very bones. His first wife, Queen Muana, arranges a funeral, during which, according to tradition, numerous other wives of the king are killed, thrown into a pit and flooded. In the same pit there is also Dick tied to a post. He must die.

Mrs. Weldon with her son and cousin Benedict, meanwhile, also live in Kazonda outside the fence of the Alvets trading post. Negoro holds them hostage there and wants a ransom of one hundred thousand dollars from Mr. Weldon. He forces Mrs. Weldon to write a letter to her husband, which should contribute to the implementation of his plan, and, leaving the hostages in the care of Alvets, he leaves for San Francisco. One day, Cousin Benedict, an avid insect collector, is chasing a particularly rare ground beetle. Chasing her, he, unbeknownst to himself, breaks free through a mole hole running under the walls of the fence and runs two miles through the forest in the hope of catching the insect. There he meets Hercules, who has been next to the caravan all this time in the hope of helping his friends in some way.

At this time, a long rainfall begins in the village, unusual for this time of year, which floods all the nearby fields and threatens to leave the residents without a harvest. Queen Muana invites sorcerers to the village so that they can drive away the clouds. Hercules, having caught one of these sorcerers in the forest and dressed in his outfit, pretends to be a mute sorcerer and comes to the village, grabs the astonished queen by the hand and leads her to the Alvets trading post. There he shows with signs that the white woman and her are to blame for the troubles of her people. child. He grabs them and takes them out of the village. Alvets tries to detain him, but gives in to the onslaught of savages and is forced to release the hostages. Having walked eight miles and finally freed from the last curious villagers, Hercules lowers Mrs. Weldon and Jack into the boat, where they are amazed to discover that the sorcerer and Hercules are one person, see Dick Sand, saved from death by Hercules, cousin Benedict and Dingo. The only things missing are Tom, Bath, Actaeon and Austin, who had previously been sold into slavery and driven away from the village. Now travelers finally have the opportunity to go down to the ocean on a boat disguised as a floating island. From time to time Dick goes ashore to hunt. After a few days of travel, the boat sails past a cannibal village located on the right bank. The savages discover that it is not an island, but a boat with people, floating along the river after it is already far ahead. Unnoticed by the travelers, the savages along the shore follow the boat in the hope of prey. A few days later, the boat stops on the left bank so as not to be pulled into the waterfall. The dingo, as soon as it jumps onto the shore, rushes forward, as if sensing someone’s scent. Travelers stumble upon a small shack in which already whitened human bones are scattered. Nearby, on a tree, two letters “S” are written in blood. IN.". These are the same letters that are engraved on Dingo's collar. Nearby is a note in which its author, traveler Samuel Vernon, accuses his guide Negoro of mortally wounding him in December 1871 and robbing him. Suddenly Dingo takes off and a scream is heard nearby. It was Dingo who grabbed the throat of Negoro, who, before boarding the ship to America, returned to the scene of his crime to get from the cache the money he had stolen from Vernon. Dingo, whom Negoro stabs before dying, dies. But Negoro himself cannot escape retribution. Fearing Negoro's companions on the left bank, Dick crosses over to the right bank for reconnaissance. There, arrows fly at him, and ten savages from the village of cannibals jump into his boat. Dick shoots the oar, and the boat is carried towards the waterfall. The savages die in it, but Dick, who took refuge in a boat, manages to escape. Soon the travelers reach the ocean, and then, without incident, on August 25 they arrive in California. Dick Sand becomes a son in the Weldon family, by the age of eighteen he completes hydrographic courses and prepares to become a captain on one of James Weldon's ships. Hercules becomes a great friend of the family. Tom, Bath, Actaeon and Austin are redeemed by Mr. Weldon from slavery, and on November 15, 1877, four blacks, freed from so many dangers, find themselves in the friendly arms of the Weldons.

On February 2, 1873, the schooner-brig Pilgrim was located at latitude 43°57′ south and longitude 165°19′ west from Greenwich. This vessel, with a displacement of four hundred tons, was equipped in San Francisco for the purpose of hunting whales in southern seas.

The Pilgrim belonged to the wealthy Californian shipowner James Weldon; Captain Gul commanded the ship for many years.

James Weldon annually sent a whole flotilla of ships to the northern seas, beyond the Bering Strait, as well as to the seas of the Southern Hemisphere, to Tasmania and Cape Horn. The Pilgrim was considered one of the best ships in the flotilla. His progress was excellent. Excellent equipment allowed him and a small team to reach the very border solid ice Southern Hemisphere.

Captain Gul knew how to maneuver, as the sailors say, among the floating ice floes that drift in the summer south of New Zealand and the Cape of Good Hope, that is, at lower latitudes than in the northern seas. True, these are only small icebergs, already cracked and washed away by warm water, and most of them are quickly melting in the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans.

On the Pilgrim, under the command of Captain Gul, an excellent sailor and one of the best harpooners of the southern flotilla, there were five experienced sailors and one newcomer. This was not enough: whale hunting requires a fairly large crew to service the boats and to cut up the catch. But Mr. James Weldon, like other shipowners, considered it profitable to recruit in San Francisco only the sailors necessary to operate the ship. In New Zealand among local residents and there was no shortage of deserters of all nationalities, as well as skilled harpooners and sailors ready to hire themselves out for one season. At the end of the campaign, they received payment and waited on the shore next year, when their services might again be needed by whaling ships. With such a system, shipowners saved considerable sums on crew salaries and increased their income from fishing.

This is exactly what James Weldon did when he equipped the Pilgrim for voyage.

The schooner-brig had just completed a whaling campaign on the border of the southern Arctic Circle, but there was still a lot of room in its holds for whalebone and many barrels not filled with blubber. Even at that time, whaling was not an easy task. Whales became rare: the results of their merciless extermination were telling. Real whales began to die out, and hunters had to hunt for minke whales, the hunt for which poses considerable danger.

Captain Gul was forced to do the same, but he expected to go on his next voyage to higher latitudes - if necessary, right up to the lands of Clara and Adele, discovered, as is firmly established, by the Frenchman Dumont d'Urville, no matter how much this was disputed American Wilkes.

Pilgrim was unlucky this year. In early January, at the height of summer in the Southern Hemisphere and, therefore, long before the end of the fishing season, Captain Gul had to leave the hunting site. The auxiliary crew - a collection of rather shady personalities - behaved impudently, the hired sailors shirked work, and Captain Gul was forced to part with it.

The Pilgrim headed north-west and on January 15 arrived at Waitemata, the port of Auckland, located deep in the Hauraki Gulf on the east coast. north island New Zealand. Here the captain landed the whalers hired for the season.

The permanent crew of the Pilgrim was unhappy: the schooner-brig did not receive at least two hundred barrels of blubber. Never before have the results of fishing been so disastrous.

Captain Gul was most dissatisfied. The pride of the famous whaler was deeply wounded by the failure: for the first time he returned with such meager booty; he cursed the loafers and parasites who ruined the fishery.

He tried in vain to recruit a new crew in Auckland: the sailors were already employed on other whaling ships. Thus, it was necessary to abandon the hope of additionally loading the Pilgrim. Captain Gul was about to leave Auckland when he was approached with a request to take passengers on board. He could not refuse this.

Mrs. Weldon, the wife of the owner of the Pilgrim, her five-year-old son Jack, and her relative, whom everyone called “Cousin Benedict,” were in Auckland at the time. They arrived there with James Weldon, who occasionally visited New Zealand on trade matters, and intended to return to San Francisco with him. But just before leaving, little Jack became seriously ill. James Weldon was called to America on urgent business, and he left, leaving his wife, sick child and cousin Benedict in Auckland.

Three months passed, three difficult months of separation, which seemed endlessly long to poor Mrs. Weldon. When little Jack recovered from his illness, she began to get ready for the journey. Just at this time, the Pilgrim arrived at the port of Auckland.

At that time, there was no direct connection between Oakland and California. Mrs. Weldon had to first go to Australia to transfer there to one of the transoceanic steamships of the Golden Age Company, connecting Melbourne with passenger flights to the Isthmus of Panama via Papeete. Having reached Panama, she had to wait for an American steamer plying between the isthmus and California.

This route foreshadowed long delays and transfers, especially unpleasant for women traveling with children. Therefore, having learned about the arrival of the Pilgrim, Mrs. Weldon turned to Captain Gul with a request to take her to San Francisco along with Jack, cousin Benedict and Nan, an old black woman who also nursed Mrs. Weldon.

Take a journey of three thousand leagues on a sailing ship! But Captain Gul's ship was always kept in impeccable order, and the time of year was still favorable on both sides of the equator.

Captain Gul agreed and immediately made his cabin available to the passenger. He wished that during the voyage, which was to last forty or fifty days, Mrs. Weldon should be surrounded by as much comfort as possible on board the whaling ship.

Thus, for Mrs. Weldon, traveling on the Pilgrim had many advantages. True, the schooner-brig had to first call for unloading at the port of Valparaiso in Chile, which lies away from the direct course. But from Valparaiso to San Francisco itself, the ship had to sail along the American coast with favorable onshore winds.

Mrs. Weldon, an experienced traveler who had often shared the hardships of long journeys with her husband, was a brave woman and was not afraid of the sea; she was about thirty years old and in enviable health. She knew that Captain Gul was an excellent sailor, whom James Weldon completely trusted, and the Pilgrim was a good ship and had an excellent reputation among American whaling ships. An opportunity presented itself - we had to take advantage of it. And Mrs. Weldon decided to sail on board a small-tonnage vessel. Of course, Cousin Benedict had to accompany her.

The cousin was about fifty years old. Despite his advanced age, he could not be allowed out of the house alone. More lean than thin, and not exactly tall, but somehow long, with a huge tousled head, with gold glasses on his nose - that was Cousin Benedict. At first glance, one could recognize in this lanky man one of those respectable scientists, harmless and kind, who are destined to always remain adult children, live in the world until they are a hundred years old, and die with an infant soul.

“Cousin Benedict” was called not only by family members, but also by strangers: such simple-minded good-natured people as he seem to be everyone’s relatives. Cousin Benedict never knew what to do with his Long hands and legs; it was difficult to find a more helpless and dependent person, especially in those cases when he had to resolve ordinary, everyday issues.

Captain Jules Verne

Alternative descriptions

Carey (born Archibald Alexander Leach) (1904-1986) American actor, Suspicion, Notorious, North by Northwest, Poison, Wine and Old Lace

Ulysses Simpson (1822-1885) 18th President of the United States (1869-1877), Republican

American six-shooter 22 and 32 caliber revolver

British actor: "9 Months", "4 Weddings and a Funeral"

Allocation of funds to cultural, scientific and other similar institutions

The hero of the novel by J. Verne, captain

Financial resources allocated on a competitive basis for scientific work

18th President of the United States

Money for science

. "prize" for scientific developments

Type of subsidy

Cash grant for the implementation of the project received through a competition

American Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the North civil war 1861-65

English traveler, colonial officer, African explorer

English traveler who discovered in 1860-63. (with J. Speke) source of the Victoria Nile from Lake Victoria

The captain the children were looking for

English actor named Hugh

English actor who played the main role in the film “Four Weddings and a Funeral”

Cash grant for scientific work

Jules Verne's captain, burdened with children

Russian unit of weight

American on the banknote

Internship scholarship

Vernovsky captain

The captain they were looking for (lit.)

American at 50^

An actor named Hugh

Hollywood actor Hugh...

Eighteenth President of the United States

Hugh from the cast

Captain from the 37th parallel

Actor Hugh...

Captain from Verne's novel

Scholarship for a scientist

The Lost Captain by Jules Verne

Subsidy for a scientist

Which Hollywood sex symbol bought dinner with USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev at a charity auction?

Jules Verne's captain's surname

Subsidy for the gifted

James Augustus... (1827-1892) English traveler

The captain his children were looking for

50 dollar US President

Vern's children are looking for him.

18th President of the United States, American statesman and military leader, general (1822-1885)

Grant, subsidy, gratuitous loan, scholarship

Type of subsidy

American actor (1904-1986)

English traveler (1827-1892)

English actor (“Four Weddings and a Funeral”, “Sense and Sensibility”)

. "Prize" for scientific developments

Carey (born Archibald Alexander Leach) (1904-1986) American actor, Suspicion, Notorious, North by Northwest, Poison, Wine and Old Lace

English actor who played the main role in the film "Four Weddings and a Funeral"

British actor: "9 months", "4 weddings and a funeral"

Hollywood actor Hugh.

One time subsidy

Which Hollywood sex symbol bought dinner with USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev at a charity auction?

Captain J.Verna

M. German. coarse, clean sand, debris

CHAPTER FIRST. Schooner brig "Pilgrim"

The Pilgrim belonged to the wealthy Californian shipowner James Weldon; Captain Gul commanded the ship for many years.

On the Pilgrim, under the command of Captain Gul, an excellent sailor and one of the best harpooners of the southern flotilla, there were five experienced sailors and one newcomer. This was not enough: whale hunting requires a fairly large crew to service the boats and to cut up what was caught here. But Mr. James Weldon, like other shipowners, considered it profitable to recruit in San Francisco only the sailors necessary to operate the ship. In New Zealand, among the natives and deserters of all nationalities, there was no shortage of skilled harpooners and sailors ready to hire out for one season. At the end of the campaign, they received payment and waited on the shore for the next year, when whaling ships might again need their services. With such a system, shipowners saved considerable sums on crew salaries and increased their income from fishing.

This is exactly what James Weldon did when he equipped the Pilgrim for voyage.

The Pilgrim headed north-west and on January 15 arrived at Waitemata, the port of Auckland, located deep in the Hauraki Gulf on the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. Here the captain landed the whalers hired for the season.

The permanent crew of the Pilgrim was unhappy: the schooner-brig did not receive at least two hundred barrels of blubber. Never before have the results of fishing been so disastrous.

Each of the schooner's crew is a pilgrim. “The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain” – Jules Verne

CHAPTER FIRST. Schooner brig "Pilgrim"