Jules Verne 
Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen (Annotated) 

• This edition includes the following editor’s introduction: Jules Verne and ‘Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen’

First published in 1878, ‘Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen’ is a Jules Verne novel.



The plot of ‘Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen’ takes place in 1873. Dick Sand, a fifteen year old boy, wants to be ship captain someday. Aboard a whaling ship headed to San Francisco, he and the crew rescue five people and a dog, survivors from the wreck of another ship. After a whaling accident killed the captain and the rest of the crew, and being tricked into landing the ship at Africa, Dick must lead the survivors and find their way home. This coming of age story deals with the pressures of suddenly undertaking an adult responsibility, leadership, revenge, pain of betrayal, and confrontation of the unjustifiable rationale behind the slave trade, set against the stunning backdrop of the African wilderness.



‘Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen’, the epic of the slave trade, a perfect picture of the wilds of Africa, its adventures and its dangers, the savage hunting both of beasts and men, has always been a favourite among Verne’s readers.