Carruthers
Carruthers is the narrator and protagonist of the novel “The Riddle of the Sands”. He is a fashionable, young man, as he, himself, stated several times in the first few chapters of the novel. He is very proud of himself, calling himself “a fasionable young man with a bright future” and taking great pride in knowing “all the best people” and belonging to “all the best clubs”. He also seems to take luxury for granted, judging from his appalled reaction to the prospect of doing all sorts of manual labor and sailor work on the Dulcibella.
Arthur Davies
Davies is the owner of the Dulcibella and the deuteragonist of the novel “The Riddle of the Sands”. As mentioned by Carruthers quite a few times, Davies is very brave, an attribute stemming from his well-rounded seamanship. He managed to map out entire sandbanks, sail a small yacht in bad weather, and traverse the East coast of Europe all by himself. He also loves his country, England, and is willing to risk his life to expose a traitor that poses a threat to it. However, his love for his country doesn’t overshadow his love for Clara Dollmann as he was unwilling to risk putting her in danger even for his country’s sake.
Herr Dollmann
Dollmann is the captain of the Medusa and was formerly Captain X of the English royal navy. He serves as the main antagonist of the novel. Cold and calculating, he showed no hesitation whatsoever to kill of Davies after assessing that Davies might be a threat to his undercover operation. As seen from his ability to hide his operations from the English government and his family, he is quite secretive. He also shows fear when his secrets are exposed as shown by him pushing the book with him name on it to the back of the shelf in order to prevent his allies from mistrusting him, and not telling Brüning about an Englishman who might be in on them or his attempt to murder that Englishman. He is quick on his feet too. He prominently displayed this ability when he slipped out of the Dulcibella without anyone noticing.
Clara Dollmann
Clara is Davies’ love interest and Herr Dollmann’s daughter. She is an Englishwoman raised since birth in Germany. Thus, she wasn’t aware of her nationality and was grief-stricken to find out that her father was an Englishman betraying his own country. She also loves and trusts Davies to the point of leaving her house with him in the dead of night without any explanation.
Commander von Brüning
Brüning is a German naval officer and the captain of the Blitz, a gunboat. He seems to be friendly to almost everyone as seen from his encounter with Davies and Carruthers. His remark ‘I know everybody” also suggests that is socializes quite a bit. He is also, apparently, quite conversational judging by his actions at the Dollmanns’ house.
Böhme
Böhme is an engineer working to get gold from the shipwreck at Memmert. He also takes part in the Germans’ plan to invade England via the sandbanks. He displays great teamwork with the other conspirators such as Herr Dollmann and Brüning, each doing their part in the plan to invade England and using the shipwreck at Memmert as a cover for their secret meetings.