A review by paul_cornelius
The Phantom Ship by Captain Marryat
5.0
A ghost ship, a nuatical adventure, a tale of a werewolf, all against the background of a grand theological discourse. Each element is present in Frederick Marryat's pioneering sea tale that is among the first literary works to make use of the legend of the Flying Dutchman in its pages. No wonder Joseph Conrad was impressed and influenced by Marryat. Like Conrad, Marryat does much more than tell a simple tale of the ocean and the men in ships that ply its waves. He leaves the readaer with a melancholy story that bespeaks of vengeance, love, greed, and, finally, redemption through forgiveness. Quite a work. Along with Conrad, Melville also found it influential.
The novel is an epic one. It crosses through two lifetimes and looks back on a world even older than that. It spans the entire globe in its setting. And best of all, for an adventure novel, it gives a psychological dimension to its developing characters, Phillip Vanderdecken, his wife, Amine, Krantz, the mate, and Schriften, the demonic representative of all that causes pain and sorrow. There is something of a medieval morality play in it as well. For something penned in the first half of the nineteenth century, The Phantom Ship still has the power to teach and pull in the reader of the this century--if they are willing to listen.
The novel is an epic one. It crosses through two lifetimes and looks back on a world even older than that. It spans the entire globe in its setting. And best of all, for an adventure novel, it gives a psychological dimension to its developing characters, Phillip Vanderdecken, his wife, Amine, Krantz, the mate, and Schriften, the demonic representative of all that causes pain and sorrow. There is something of a medieval morality play in it as well. For something penned in the first half of the nineteenth century, The Phantom Ship still has the power to teach and pull in the reader of the this century--if they are willing to listen.