Captain Grant's Children

The story begins on 26 July 1864, when the crew of the pleasure yacht Duncan catches a hammerhead shark in the channel between Ireland and Scotland. Inside, they discover a bottle containing three letters, all with the same content but each written in a different language – French, English, and German. What's more, they are significantly damaged by water, making them even more difficult to decipher.

The letters contain a message about the shipwreck of the Britannia at 37° 11´ south latitude. The yacht's owner, Lord Glenarvan, doesn't hesitate for a second and sets off on an adventurous rescue mission with his wife, Captain John Mangles, Major Mac Nabbs, the absent-minded geographer Jacques Paganel, and Mary and Robert Grant. This essentially means circumnavigating the globe along the 37th parallel south.

The author has woven a great deal of geographical, natural history, and ethnographic knowledge into this elaborate and adventurous story.