There are countless Jules Verne adaptations in comics. They are sometimes excellent, like recently “The Children of Captain Grant” or “Two Years of Vacation”. After his remarkable work on this last title, Frédéric Brrémaud does it again by writing “A 15-year-old captain”. Driven by beautiful values, the first volume of this initiatory journey with twists and turns is aimed at a wide readership, from 12 years old.
We are in 1873, whales are hunted in the South Pacific to recover a much sought-after oil. The brig-schooner Le Pilgrim returns to the port of Auckland with half-empty holds. The fishing has not been good which puts Captain Hull and his crew in a bad mood. Their balances are going to be thin. Fortunately for them, barely landed on New Zealand soil, Mr. Weldon, their shipowner, offers them a very well paid trip.
It is a question of driving, to Boston, some distinguished passengers: his wife Mrs. Weldon, Jack his son accompanied by a nanny, as well as his cousin Benedict: a weird entomologist. Old sea dog, the captain hastens to accept this profitable proposal, because he knows that he only needs a reduced crew to reach San Francisco: his second, four sailors, a cook and a cabin boy. , the very young Dick Sand.
“A 15-year-old captain” T1 page 3.
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With this minimal crew, the crossing of the South Pacific from Auckland to San Francisco is planned in about fifty days. The Pilgrim will then have to unload a cargo at Valparaiso in Chile, before passing Cape Horn, and heading up the American coast towards the port of Massachusetts. But the bad weather causes the ship to fall behind just as much as the discovery of a wreck.
Inside the Waldeck, the sailors discover thirsty and nearly lifeless men, as well as a large dog watching over them. They are four adults with black skin, but free, who joined the United States. They recover on the Pilgrim, until the tragic day when the ship crosses paths with a whale. Captain Hull and his sailors climb into a canoe with the aim of harpooning her, to recover her precious oil. But the marine mammal defends itself and sinks the fragile boat. All the sailors are swept away by the bottom…
“A 15-year-old captain” T1 page 5.
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The cabin boy Dick Sand, the only sailor still on board, becomes the real captain of the ship for his second campaign at sea. The responsibilities are immense, but this teenager accepts them to lead the ship to port. This is without counting on the Portuguese cook Negoro who is preparing a very bad surprise for him…
It is not the best known of Jules’s novels that Frédéric Brrémaud faithfully adapts, with at least as much talent as for ” Two years of vacation “whose qualities we have praised to you here. It’s a beautiful learning story about coming of age.
The writer from Nantes excels in the construction of initiatory journeys such as in “80 days in a balloon” or “Journey to the center of the Earth”, he takes advantage here of the peregrinations of the young foam to condemn with virulence slavery and the slave trade, and dwell on the benefits of science through the remarks of cousin Benedict.
“A 15-year-old captain” T1 page 11.
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Dangerous fishing…
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No fault of taste in the classic design of Christophe Picaud: whether in that of the ships of the XIXe century or in the aquatic movements of large cetaceans. Dynamism on the contrary, in the service of a plot with twists and the evolution of human relations within a small group subjected to multiple dangers. the second volume of this announced diptych is eagerly awaited. The work of the two authors facilitates access to readers, from the beginning of college, of an intrigue published in the form of a serial in 1878.
“A 15-year-old captain” T1 pages 24-25.
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Laurent LESSOUS (l@bd)
“A 15-year-old captain” T1 by Christophe Picaud and Frédéric Brrémaud, after Jules Verne
Editions Vents d’Ouest (€14.50) – EAN: 978-2-7493-0945-3
Publication February 23, 2022
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