The First Voyage of Sindbad

Notable Characters

  • Sindbad
  • The captain
  • The other sailors and merchants

Plot Summary

Sindbad lived very well, eating and drinking plenty until he lost everything. He decided to set out on a journey across the sea, so he bought goods and joined a ship carrying other merchants to sell their goods.

They sailed to an island, and once they were on that island the captain said that it was actually a giant fish and that the fires they had lit woke it up, so it would soon sink under the water. The captain and about half the sailors and merchants made it back to the ship, which sailed away and left the others, including Sindbad, to drown.

Sindbad survived by holding onto a large wooden tub the passengers had been using to wash themselves. He arrived at an island and found a strange man waiting near a mare tied to a tree on the shore. The man explained that a horse from the sea would impregnate her, and the offspring would be special. This man and his companions brought Sindbad to their kingdom, where he stayed until he encountered the same captain he originally set sail with.

The captain explained that he had some goods from a sailor who drowned, and he got very upset when Sindbad tried to explain that that sailor was actually him. He had to tell the captain about encounters that only happened between them to convince him that what he said was true. Sindbad finally returned home to Baghdad with the same crew of people he had journeyed with before.

Sindbad rejoiced in his survival and lived very well, forgetting all about the hardship he had suffered during his first voyage.