The Flying Dutchman, a legendary ghost ship, brings despair and death to all who encounter her. Cursed by the captain's deadly sins, the seventeenth-century ship and its crew are doomed to sail and suffer for all eternity ― unless a holy relic can be brought to them. Philip Vanderdecken, the captain's son, vows to rescue the ship from its living hell. In the employ of the Dutch East India Company, young Vanderdecken sets sail for a gripping series of adventures, from sea battles and shipwrecks to an encounter with a werewolf.
Captain Frederick Marryat (1792–1848) served for many years in the British Royal Navy. A pioneer of the seafaring novel, Marryat wrote several memorable books, including the semiautobiographical Mr. Midshipman Easy. Maritime authors Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville, and Alexander Kent have cited his influence, and Virginia Woolf observed that "Marryat has the power to set us in the midst of ships and men and sea and sky, all vivid, credible, authentic."