After an accident on board a whaling ship the captain is lost at sea, making the fifteen-year-old apprentice Dick Sands the acting captain. Through traitorous scheming by the ship’s cook, and bad weather, the ship is blown from the South Pacific around Cape Horn and onto the west coast of Africa. Dick continues to lead the survivors through various trials among the slave traders of Angola.

As in many of his other books, Verne touches on scientific topics like entomology, flora, and fauna. He also recounts the adventures of the notable white explorers of Africa.

Dick Sands can be read both as an adventure story, and as a condemnation of the horrible cruelties of slavery. When it was written, many countries had already banned the slave trade, but it was still active in Africa. Only when colonial explorers and missionaries started to penetrate the continent did the practice really come under pressure.