The Phantom Ship

The Phantom Ship

The Phantom Ship, by Frederick Marryat, opens near Terneuse on the Scheldt, where young Philip Vanderdecken lives with his ailing mother in a cottage containing one sealed, long-shut room. As she is dying, Philip's mother reveals the family secret: his father, Captain Vanderdecken of the ship *Amsterdammer*, cursed himself while trying to round the stormy Cape by swearing a blasphemous oath on a holy relic that he would succeed even if it took until the Day of Judgment. He appeared to her as a spectral visitant seventeen years earlier, explaining he is now doomed to sail in "living judgment," and left a sealed letter before vanishing. Philip's mother dies moments after telling this tale. Searching the shut chamber, Philip retrieves a key and eventually the letter, which states that the only way to lift the curse is for someone to bring the sacred relic aboard the phantom ship, kiss it, and shed a tear of contrition on it. Philip vows before Heaven to fulfill this mission using the relic itself, worn on a chain. He also discovers his mother had hidden a fortune in the house. That night Philip saves the household of the miserly physician Mynheer Poots — who had stolen the relic off his dead mother's corpse — from robbers, aided by Poots's beautiful, courageous daughter Amine, of Arab descent. Philip and Amine fall in love; he tells her the family secret, and, undeterred, she marries him, embracing his fate. Philip ships out on the *Ter Schilling* under Captain Kloots to learn seamanship and pursue his vow, with the one-eyed, malevolent pilot Schriften aboard, who seems to know Philip's secret and torments him. Off the Cape, the crew sights the Flying Dutchman itself, sailing unnaturally in a calm sea. A storm follows; drunken sailors mutiny in fear, the ship wrecks in False Bay, and most of the crew, including Kloots and Schriften, perish. Philip survives with the aid of the ship's tame bear, is rescued by Hottentots, and eventually finds passage home to Amine. Back home, Mynheer Poots, coveting Philip's wealth, attempts to poison him but drinks the poisoned wine himself by mistake and dies; Philip and Amine conceal the true cause of death and inherit Poots's hoarded gold and jewels. After a period of domestic happiness, Philip ships out again, this time on the *Batavia*, carrying troops to the East Indies, oppressed by guilt that his mission dooms his shipmates to share his father's peril. The text breaks off as the *Batavia* prepares to sail, with Philip regretting not having confided fully in Father Seysen before departing.

By Frederick Marryat · First published 1839 · Genre: Adventure, Gothic, Historical Fiction · 42 chapters · 169,168 words

First lines

About the middle of the seventeenth century, in the outskirts of the small but fortified town of Terneuse, situated on the right bank of the Scheldt, and nearly opposite to the island of Walcheren, there was to be seen, in advance of a few other even more humble tenements, a small but neat cottage, built according to the prevailing taste of the time. The outside front had, some years back, been painted of a deep orange, the windows and shutters of a vivid green. To about three feet above the surface of the earth, it was faced alternately with blue and white tiles. A small garden, of about two rods of our measure of land, surrounded the edifice; and this little plot was flanked by a low hedge of privet, and encircled by a moat full of water, too wide to be leaped with ease. Over that part of the moat which was in front of the cottage door, was a small and narrow bridge, with ornamented iron hand-rails, for the security of the passenger.

What this Textopian page supports

The Phantom Ship is listed on Textopian as a novel by Frederick Marryat, dated 1839 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Good citation fit

Discussion starters

Similar titles

Genres

Tags

adventure · mystery · sea · ghost · shipwreck · sailing · supernatural · maritime · 19th century · exploration · suspense · nautical

Contents

More by Frederick Marryat