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First published in 1897,  «Captains Courageous»  is an «initiation story»

whose main character is Harvey Cheyne Jr., the only son of a wealthy American businessman.

He is crossing the Atlantic to finish his education in Europe, but «Education isn’t begun yet.» […]

«That boy gets two hundred [dollars] a month pocket-money, he told me. He isn’t sixteen either.»

Harvey falls overboard and, against all odds, does not drown. A Portuguese fisherman saves him from certain death and takes him to the schooner «We’re Here.» He tells the skipper, Disko Troop, that he must take him to the nearest port, because his father is very rich. Very sensibly, Troop says he cannot risk the season’s earnings, and offers him the choice to join the crew as second boy, since they have a job vacancy: the former incumbent disappeared in a gale.

After an interesting discussion, Harvey accepts the harsh realities of his new life, and very quickly starts to learn the skills a sailor needs. Being smart enough, «it occurred to him that this was a vast improvement on being snubbed by strangers in the smoking-room of a hired liner.»

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