''In Search of the Castaways'' (french: Les Enfants du capitaine Grant, lit=The Children of Captain Grant) is a novel by the French writer

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the '' Voyages extra ...

, published in 1867–68. The original edition, published by Hetzel, contains a number of illustrations by

Édouard Riou Édouard Riou (; 2 December 1833 – 27 January 1900) was a French illustrator who illustrated six novels by Jules Verne, as well as several other well-known works. Life Riou was born in 1833 in Saint-Servan, Ille-et-Vilaine, and studied ...

. In 1876, it was republished by

George Routledge & Sons Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

as a three volume set titled ''A Voyage Round The World''. The three volumes were subtitled ''South America'', ''Australia'', and ''New Zealand''. As often with Verne, English translations have appeared under different names; another edition has the overall title ''Captain Grant's Children'' and has two volumes subtitled ''The Mysterious Document'' and ''Among the Cannibals''.

Plot summary

The book tells the story of the quest for Captain Grant of the ''Britannia''. After finding a bottle the captain had cast into the ocean after the ''Britannia'' is shipwrecked,

Lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage ...

and Lady Glenarvan of Scotland contact Mary and Robert, the young daughter and son of Captain Grant, through an announcement in a newspaper. The government refuses to launch a rescue expedition, but Lord and Lady Glenarvan, moved by the children's condition, decide to do it by themselves. The main difficulty is that the coordinates of the wreckage are mostly erased, and only the

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north ...

(37 degrees) is known; thus, the expedition would have to circumnavigate the

37th parallel south The 37th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 37 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, Australasia, the Pacific Ocean and South America. This parallel approximates that latit ...

. The bottle was retrieved from a shark's stomach, so it is impossible to trace its origin by the currents. Remaining clues consist of a few words in three languages. They are re-interpreted several times throughout the novel to make various destinations seem likely like

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

, Southern Tip of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, at some times

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

and even the Northern Most Part of

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

(to which they never sailed). Lord Glenarvan makes it his quest to find Grant; together with his wife, Grant's children and the crew of his

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

, the ''Duncan'', they set off for

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

. An unexpected passenger in the form of French geographer

Jacques Paganel Jacques Eliacin François Marie Paganel is one of the main characters in Jules Verne's 1867-68 novel ''In Search of the Castaways'' (original title ''Les Enfants du capitaine Grant''). Paganel represents the absent-minded professor stock charac ...

(he missed his steamer to India by accidentally boarding the ''Duncan'') joins the search. They explore

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...

, Tristan da Cunha Island, Amsterdam Island, and Australia (a pretext to describe the flora, fauna, and geography of numerous places to the audience). There, they find a former quartermaster of the ''Britannia'', Ayrton, who proposes to lead them to the site of the wreckage. However, Ayrton is a traitor, who was not present during the loss of the ''Britannia'', but was abandoned in Australia after a failed attempt to seize control of the ship to practice

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

. He tries to take control of the ''Duncan'', but by sheer luck, this attempt also fails. However the Glenarvans, the Grant children, Paganel and some sailors are left in Australia, and mistakenly believing that the ''Duncan'' is lost, they sail to

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

, New Zealand, from where they want to come back to Europe. When their ship is wrecked south of Auckland on the New Zealand coast, they are captured by a

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

tribe, but luckily manage to escape and board a ship that they discover, to their astonishment, to be the ''Duncan''. Ayrton, made a prisoner, offers to trade his knowledge of Captain Grant in exchange for being abandoned on a desert island instead of being surrendered to the British authorities. The ''Duncan'' sets sail for Tabor Island, which, by sheer luck, turns out to be Captain Grant's shelter. They leave Ayrton in his place to live among the beasts and regain his humanity. Ayrton reappears in Verne's later novel, ''L'Île mystérieuse'' (''

The Mysterious Island ''The Mysterious Island'' (french: L'Île mystérieuse) is a novel by Jules Verne, published in 1875. The original edition, published by Hetzel, contains a number of illustrations by Jules Férat. The novel is a crossover sequel to Verne's f ...

'', 1874).

Adaptations

* 1877: '' Los sobrinos del capitán Grant'' ("Captain Grant's nephew and niece"), a three-act, spectacular Spanish

zarzuela () is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular songs, as well as dance. The etymology of the name is uncertain, but some propose it may derive from the name of ...

by Manuel Fernández Caballero to a text by Miguel Ramos Carrión. *1914: ''Les enfants du capitaine Grant'', a French silent film and the last film Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset worked on before his untimely death. * 1936: ''

The Children of Captain Grant ''In Search of the Castaways'' (french: Les Enfants du capitaine Grant, lit=The Children of Captain Grant) is a novel by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1867–68. The original edition, published by Hetzel, contains a number of ill ...

'' (''Дети капитана Гранта'', ''Deti kapitana Granta''),

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, directed by

Vladimir Vajnshtok Vladimir Petrovich Vajnshtok (russian: Владимир Петрович Вайншток; 2 March 1908 – 18 October 1978) was a Soviet film director and, under the name Vladimir Vladimirov, screenwriter. Selected filmography Director * ...

and starring Nikolai Cherkasov, film score composed by

Isaak Dunayevsky Isaak Osipovich Dunayevsky (russian: Исаак Осипович Дунаевский ; also transliterated as Dunaevski or Dunaevskiy; 25 July 1955) was a Soviet film composer and conductor of the 1930s and 1940s, who composed music for operet ...

. The film was released in the United States as ''Captain Grant's Children''. (see ). * 1962: '' In Search of the Castaways'', United States, a film directed by

Robert Stevenson Robert Stevenson may refer to: * Robert Stevenson (actor and politician) (1915–1975), American actor and politician * Robert Stevenson (civil engineer) (1772–1850), Scottish lighthouse engineer * Robert Stevenson (director) (1905–1986), Engli ...

and starring

Maurice Chevalier Maurice Auguste Chevalier (; 12 September 1888 – 1 January 1972) was a French singer, actor and entertainer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including " Livin' In The Sunlight", " Valentine", " Louise", " Mimi", and " Thank H ...

Hayley Mills Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills (born 18 April 1946) is an English actress. The daughter of Sir John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell, and younger sister of actress Juliet Mills, she began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising ...

, and George Sanders. Songs by the

Sherman Brothers The Sherman Brothers were an American songwriting duo that specialized in musical films, made up of Robert B. Sherman (December 19, 1925 – March 6, 2012) and Richard M. Sherman (born June 12, 1928). Together they received various accolades i ...

were: "Castaway", "Enjoy It!", "Let's Climb", "Merci Beaucoup". (see ). * 1985: '' In Search of Captain Grant'' (''В поисках капитана Гранта'', ''V poiskakh kapitana Granta'', ''Децата на капитан Грант''),

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

and the

, a TV miniseries directed by

Stanislav Govorukhin Stanislav Sergeyevich Govorukhin (russian: Станислав Сергеевич Говорухин; 29 March 1936 – 14 June 2018) was a Soviet and Russian film director, actor, screenwriter, producer and politician. He was named People's Artis ...

and starring Nikolai Yeryomenko, Jr.,

Lembit Ulfsak Lembit Ulfsak (4 July 1947 – 22 March 2017) was a prominent Estonian stage and film actor. Ulfsak starred in the 2014 film ''Tangerines'' which was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards. It was also among the ...

Aleksandr Abdulov Aleksandr Gavrilovich AbdulovАбдулов Г. Д.
Ферганский г� ...

, Kosta Tsonev, and Anya Pencheva.See .

Maps

3 Maps Showing ''The Duncan's'' crew's search in

and

References

External links

* * * *
177 illustrations by Édouard Riou
from ''Les Enfants du capitaine Grant'' (1865–66) {{DEFAULTSORT:In Search Of The Castaways 1868 French novels Castaways in fiction French novels adapted into films Novels adapted into operas French novels adapted into television shows Novels by Jules Verne Novels set in Australia Novels set in New Zealand Novels set in South America Novels set on ships