Dick Sand (Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen)

Dick Sand is the main protagonist of Jules Verne's 1878 novel Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen.
== Biography ==
Dick is a cabin boy on a whaling ship. One day, he and the rest of the crew plan to take the ship's owner's family home. On the way, they meet five black people who were shipwrecked. A certain dog named Dingo turns out to be with them. He immediately begins to react strangely to the ship's cook named Negoro (whom the ship's captain was also suspicious of). One day, the entire crew, including the captain and first mate and excluding Dick, goes to hunt a whale and dies. Dick has to lead the ship, since there are no other sailors left on the ship. Those same five dark-skinned men who, although they do not understand marine science, turn out to be very smart, come to his aid. However, due to Negoro’s machinations, the team ends up not in America, as planned, but in Africa. At first, no one has any idea what happened, and besides, Negoro, once ashore, immediately disappears. Here they are met by a man named Harris, who claims that he will lead them to the people. However, Dick immediately notices that something is wrong here. The flora and fauna typical of South America are absent. Instead, there are flora and fauna typical of Africa. Soon Harris disappears. Realizing what happened, the team decides to spend the night in an abandoned termite mound. However, the next day they are caught by slave traders. The entire team is captured, with the exception of one of the blacks, who manages to escape. Along the way, several slaves (including Nen, the nanny of the ship's owner's son) die, unable to withstand the conditions of the journey. In the city, Dick meets Harris again and kills him in anger. Suddenly, the local ruler dies from drunkenness and his eldest wife ascends to the throne. They decide to sacrifice Dick, but he and the family of the ship’s owner are saved at the last moment by Hercules, the same escaped dark-skinned man. The team decides to flee, but along the way Dingo leads them to a hut, where they find a letter written by Samuel Vernon, Dingo's owner. Here they are found by Negoro, who had a share with the slave traders (which Vernon exposed in his last letter) and who killed Samuel Vernon. It turns out that for everything he did, he went to prison and escaped, after which he got a job as a cook on the ship and deceived the crew of the ship to Africa, where they would be sold as slaves (except for the family of the ship owner, for whom he wanted to demand a ransom from the ship owner himself) . Dingo attacks Negoro and they kill each other. The team reaches civilization. The owner of the ship, in gratitude for saving his family, finds and ransoms the remaining four blacks who still remain in slavery, and monitors the fate of Dick, who is now professionally engaged in maritime affairs.
== Personality ==
Dick can be called responsible. Despite being only fifteen, he is willing to take on responsibility for the rest of the ship's crew after the main crew is killed during a whale hunt. He is also quite observant. He immediately notices that the land on which they find themselves is somehow suspiciously different from South America, in which they were supposed to find themselves, but very similar to Africa. However, even after this he does not lose hope. He continues to lead the remnants of the team to safety and does not lose spirit, even after falling into slavery. Having escaped from slavery, he successfully leads the remnants of the team to civilization.
Category:Book Heroes
Category:Selfless
Category:Male
Category:Teenagers
Category:Tragic
Category:Successful
Category:Strong-Willed
Category:Strategists
Category:Kids
Category:Wise
Category:Betrayed
Category:Big Good
Category:Leaders
Category:Fighters
Category:Adventurers
Category:Master of a Villain
Category:Friend of a Villain