The Phantom Ship

The Phantom Ship is a Gothic novel by Frederick Marryat, first serialised in The New Monthly Magazine from March 1837 to August 1839. It draws on the legend of the Flying Dutchman, the ghostly ship condemned to sail forever.

The story follows Philip Vanderdecken of Terneuzen in the Netherlands. His father, captain of the bewitched vessel, was doomed after making a rash oath to heaven and killing a crew member while trying to round the Cape of Good Hope. When his mother dies, Philip learns that his father's troubled spirit can be laid to rest, and he vows to live at sea until he has spoken with him face to face and accomplished this. He sails around the world on a succession of ships in the service of the Dutch East India Company, carrying a relic of the Holy Cross with which he hopes to redeem his father. His quest brings him into conflict with earthly and unearthly powers, since the sight of the Flying Dutchman brings doom to all who encounter her.

The novel blends many supernatural elements. Its heroine, Amine, the daughter of a miser, has inherited a little Arabian magic, which lands her in the dungeons of the Inquisition at Goa. The narrative also features a demonic pilot, tales of horror in the Harz mountains, and a werewolf episode that has often been anthologised as The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains.

Critical reception was largely unfavourable. Reviewers judged the book far inferior to the sea stories that had made Marryat's name, and felt that the Flying Dutchman's repeated appearances soon became wearisome. An anonymous 1839 review, believed to be by Edgar Allan Poe, attacked Marryat's abilities as a writer. Later, S. T. Joshi called the novel an aesthetic disaster, appallingly prolix and stiffly written.