Verne loves to write about two things: volcanoes and shipwrecks. This is one of the shipwrecks; and boy does everything happen to this woebegone lot. A daffy captain who steers the wrong course, a fire in the hold, storms, mutiny, finally abandon ship and take to a makeshift raft, starvation. How many will make it to rescue? I think that he left out pirates, otherwise if it can happen, it does.