History Literature / ThePhantomShip1837

* HonorBeforeReason: Justified. Amine refuses to confess to the Goa Inquisition and embrace Catholicism on principle that she nor her mother are evil and that should be enough. Her refusal can be linked back to her father, who converted to Islam solely to escape slavery. His religion always was nominal at best and didn't stop him from doing bad things, so Amine isn't going to dance to that tune herself. Unbeknownst to her, this spares her worse than burning at the upcoming auto-da-f&eacute, which would've happened even if she had cooperated.

* EastIndies: A significant portion of the story takes place in Asia because that's where all the ships Philip sails with go. Because Philip is Dutch, Indonesia is visited too. It's where he survives a pirate attack, where Amine is lost (she reaches shore in New Guinea), where philip and Krantz get in trouble in Ternate and Tidore, where the Accursed Isle is located, and where Krantz gets killed by a tiger.

* SupernaturallyYoungParent: Philip introduces himself to the crew of the ''Flying Dutchman'' as the son of Captain William Vanderdecken. They laugh heartily at that and ask if he doesn't mean it the other way around, because they aren't aware how much time has passed since they became ghosts. William Vanderdecken died when he was in his twenties and stayed as he was back then. Philip is probably around fifty when he reaches the ''Flying Dutchman'' and looks even older than that due to decades of gried.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The story takes place after the Treaty of Westminster was signed in 1654 and, given that the treaty is "the state of things up to the time of Philip's embarkation", before the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1665. Marryat frequently drops historical tidbits, notably spending large parts of Chapters VIII and XXXVI on the historical background of the situation. Liberties are taken where it benefits the story, sometimes blatantly so. An example is the Dutch Protestant factory president whom Father Mathias claims to have singlehandedly caused the prosecution of (Catholic) Christians in Japan. It's hinted that he got killed by the ''Flying Dutchman'' specifically for this bloodshed, so Father Mathias's reliability isn't a factor.

* EnclosedSpace: In Chapter XXIV, the raft becomes the inescapable ring of a bloody battle. Forty men are trapped on it until the next day the shore may be reached. One half just (seemingly) doomed the captain's wife to a slow and lonely death, earning his ire. He convinces the second half that the first half can't be trusted and that if they were gone, their money would be for the taking. The first half knows what the captain and the second half are up to. Come night time and bloodshed is inevitable, though courtesy of the captain's trickery only three men are lost on his side. The raft reaches shore the next day.

** Implied to be the case with Amine's parents, or at least her mother. In Chapter II, Philip refers to her as "an old decrepit woman" from about two years prior, while Amine in Chapter XIV says that her mother died young. She probably died in her 30s, because Amine was around 15 at that time. Amine's parents have led a very stressful life, so it's perfectly possible that caused them to show signs of aging well beyond their factual ages.

Upon his mother's death, Philip Vanderdecken learns that he is the son of the doomed captain of the ''Flying Dutchman'' and potentially the only one who can set the phantom ship free. That same day, he meets Amine Poots whom he marries and who becomes his first companion. Philip takes up a career as seaman and makes several journeys to the East and one to the West, during which he encounters the phantom ship from time to time but makes no progress. Hounding him along the way is a dangerous entity named Schriften, whose motivations Philip can only guess, but whom is temporarily befriended by Amine. Philip furthermore picks up a close friendship with another seaman named Hermann Krantz, his eventual second companion. All four are on board of the ''Utrecht'' when it sinks. Schriften disappears. Amine is separated from Philip and makes her way to Tidore and then Goa. Philip and Krantz make it to Tidore too, but miss her by a few days. They follow her to Goa by peroqua, although Krantz doesn't make it that far. During the trip, he tells Philip about a curse that rests on him that will kill him soon. During a stop at an island, Krantz is proven correct when he's killed by a tiger. Philip reaches Goa alone and initially can't find a trace of Amine. Meanwhile, the city is buzzing about the auto-da-fé that is to take place tomorrow, so Philip resolves to go watch it. It is there he reunites with Amine, minutes before she is to be burned at the stake for witchcraft and heresy. Philips descends into madness for a long time, coming out old and yet prematurely aged. With nothing left in life for him, his search for the ''Flying Dutchman'' is strengthened by his own desire for death. He meets Schriften one more time and declares that for the kindness he showed Amine, he forgives him for everything else. Schriften reveals himself to have been the pilot of the ''Flying Dutchman'' and killed by Philip's father. By forgiving him, Philip has risen above's Schriften's dying wish for vengeance, a secret requirement to ever reaching the ''Flying Dutchman''. Philip boards the phantom ship and returns the relic upon which his father swore his oath to sail until the Day of Judgment. As the ghosts pass on and the ship crumbles into nothingness, Philip goes down with it, satisfied and looking forward to his reunion with Amine.

** Early in Chapter XV, Amine and Philip have been enjoying marital bliss day to day, patiently waiting if ever a sign comes for Philip to return to sea. While out for a walk, Philip is tapped on his shoulder. It is a cold tap and he actually wouldn't have needed to turn around to know who it is: giggling, more-eye-than-man, pale-skinned Schriften, who by all accounts drowned over a year prior at False Bay. And of course, he brings a letter summoning Philip to sea. By this point, Philip and Amine are ready to admit to themselves that Schriften isn't human, but that doesn't undo the summon.
** In Chapter XXXII, Krantz and Philip have assured their safety and passage to the main land by lying about who they are how they came to be at Tidore. The most important part is that the Commandant doesn't find out Philip is Amine's husband, because he wants to marry her himself and is the sole authority on Tidore. Everything is going well, but the moment a guard announces that a Dutch sailor has arrived and wants an audience, Krantz and Philip know the gig is up. It is indeed Schriften, who with malicious glee greets them by their true names.
** Inverted in Chapter XXXIX. Philip, fresh off the boat in Goa, thinks he sees Father Mathias and goes to greet him, but the priest covers his head and walks away. Philip thinks he's mistaken, but the truth is that was Father Mathias and he wasn't at all prepared to bump into Philip, whose wife is going to be burned at the stake tomorrow due to Mathias's doing.

* TheReliableOne: Krantz always is this, but it's particularly noticeable among the shipwrecked crew of the ''Utrecht''. He's the only without a loss or anything to lose, giving him a clear head while Philip mourns Amine and the rest of the crew forego safety, loyalty, and food to be able to keep a permanent close eye on their money. Krantz is the one who secures weapons for him and Philip, destroys the crew's weapons, explores the island, gets the crew to bury their money so deep that a thief wouldn't have time to take it before being noticed thus allowing them to eat and sleep, and all around ensures they're surviving.

* RobbingTheDead: The moment Mr. Poots hears of Catherine's death, he lets himself into her house to collect the payment for her treatment. He spots the gold-set relic hanging from her neck and takes it, meaning to get permission from Philip to take it as payment even though it's worth much more than what he's owed. Philip refuses and then Poots insists he gets to keep it as pledge until he's paid. Philip, unaware Poots has the relic on him, throws him out in fury and Poots is effectively fine with that.

* SadisticChoice: Out of fondness for Amine, Schriften reveals to her what three possible futures await her. She and Philip can give him the relic and return home, where they'll live a happy life and die of old age in the presence of their children. She and Philip can continue to save the ''Flying Dutchman'', in which case there's only a few months for them left and Amine in particular will die a horrible death. Amine can also return home on her own, living a good life but knowing Philip is to suffer in all ways man can. Amine discusses the options with Philip, both feeling responsible for the other's wellbeing, but also each aware that the ''Flying Dutchman'' will lose its last hope for salvation. Philip chooses to continue and Amine refuses to leave him.
* SayingTooMuch: In Chapter XXI, Amine confronts Schriften with her understanding of his nature and gives among her arguments that he knows things only Philip is supposed to know. Schriften argues that she knows and also the holy men. Schriften never met Father Seysen and Father Mathias and can't have known they were told about Philip's quest. When Amine asks about this, he changes the subject.

%%* SceneOfWonder: Chapter XXII is the midway point
* TheScrooge: Straight to the point, the introductory description given of Mr. Poots reads "a medical man, who lived about a mile off — one Mynheer Poots, a little, miserable, avaricious wretch, but known to be very skillful in his profession." It's later explained that for the past two decades Mr. Poots has lost his wealth several times due to no fault of his own and a modern reading would ascribe him a trauma. Poots's greed is alternately used as a source of humor and as a viable threat.

* {{Seers}}: Amine and her mother have a passive capacity to knowing what's happening elsewhere and elsewhen and they have active rituals. Or rather, Amine's mother had the rituals, but she's taught Amine too little about them before she passed away. Schriften can see the possible paths the future can take due to being pseudo-dead.
* SinkingShipScenario: The ''Ter Schilling'', the first ship Philip travels on, sinks in False Bay after an encounter with the ''Flying Dutchman'' and due to Schriften's manipulation. Everyone except Philip and the bear Johannes drown, and Johannes is killed by the population at the Cape while Philip is out cold. This leaves him the only survivor.
* StockAnimalDiet: Jacob Janz Von Stroom, the supercargo of the Company, is one of only two aboard the ''Ter Schilling'' who dislike Johannes and is quick to accuse the bear of aiming to eat him. At one point, that claim comes close to being true when the supercargo's stock of honey spills out over his wigs just as Johannes walks by. The seamen stand no chance of removing him from the cabin until he's licked the wigs clean.
%%* SupernaturallyYoungParent:

%%* TogetherInDeath: Amine intends to kill herself if Philip's life comes to an end. She goes on to be murdered before Philip dies.
* TragicVillain: Philip is convinced that Schriften doesn't voluntarily make things difficult for him and the personality change Schriften undergoes once Philip forgives him does seem to corroborate that. If so, Schriften's desire for revenge at the time of his death wasn't just granted by Captain Vanderdecken's oath but enforced by it. It means that Schriften has no real choice in the harm he causes Philip and others, because that's what he has to do to make saving the ''Flying Dutchman'' a genuine sacrifice on the part of the savior. It also suggests that Amine's friendship draws out some of his true self and that makes his attempt to save her from a painful death all the more tragic.

* MustMakeAmends: Father Mathias regrets handing Amine over to the Goa Inquisition and does all he can to save Amine, if not from the flames of the auto-da-fé, then from the flames of Hell. However, Amine refuses to grovel or embrace Catholicism, and reminds Father Mathias every time he talks to her that this is his fault and that he doesn't have a moral high ground. A severely distraught Father Mathias does convince the executioner to lessen Amine's suffering by throwing wet straw on the pile, the smoke from which knocks her out before the flames do their worst. Philip gets badly injured in the struggle to reach Amine, upon which Father Mathias dedicates himself to his recovery. However, grief-induced insanity delays Philip's return to society by decades and the priest perishes well before Philip is ready to leave Goa.

%%* SacredHospitality: Father Mathias

%%* SceneOfWonder: Chapter XXII midway point

* TheCaptain: On his quest, Philip has to rely a lot on others, but the one talent indisputably his is the one of managing a ship. Even before he actually is put in charge, he picks up when the true captains fail. He's calm and rational when faced with disaster and cares for the survival of his crew and passengers. On some ships, this earns him respect, on others, a mutiny wouldn't have been stopped by a better captain. By no means does Philip have a perfect record, but his faults are far fewer than the difficult circumstances he faced.

* CompanionCube: Wilhelm Barentz is vocal about his love for the ''Vrow Katerina'', a ship of twenty-eight years whose primary captain assignment Wilhelm inherited from his father. Wilhelm, who is about as old as the ship, talks to her, hugs her mainmast, won't shut up about her magnificence, and has already fought three men in defense of her honor. The ''Vrow Katerina'' later burns down near False Bay, Barentz being the last to leave the ship and one of the few who survive the disaster. With no one to return to, he settles at Table Bay to stay as close to the ''Vrow Katerina'' as possible.
* TheConfidant: For two years, Amine is Philip's sole confidant regarding the fate of his father and the quest to save his soul from eternal wandering. She advises and assists him well, but in light of the possibility that Philip might die on his journey the secret weighs heavy on her. When she's stricken with typhus and in a delirious state shares much of the secret with Father Seysen, he and Father Mathias convince Philip to give them the full details too to spare Amine and find help with the Lord's servants. They're well-meaning, but far less supportive of Philip's quest. About another two years later, Philip voluntarily shares his story with Krantz. Krantz returns the trust by telling of his own fate to one day be eaten by a forest animal, courtesy of his father marrying a werewolf. The two men therefore become each other's confidant's in which Krantz shows himself to be an ally as valuable as Amine and Philip gives purpose to Krantz's final days.

* TakingYouWithMe: Played with. After the Spanish pilot murders the African man that saved the crew of the ''Dort'' from his sabotage, Philip gives the crew the decision what to do with the victim and with the murderer. The crew ties the pilot to the African man's corpse and plunges them into the sea.

* BurnTheWitch: Amine is condemned by the Goa Inquisition for practicing witchcraft and heresy. There are more than enough witnesses to it, and as luck would have it the Goa Inquisition is in need of some more people to burn during the upcoming auto-da-fé. Father Mathias can't get her to accept God in her final moments, which would've made her eligible her to be strangled first, but he still does arrange for some wet straw to be placed at her feet so the smoke gets her before the flames do.

''The Phantom Ship'' is a supernatural and nautical novel of 42 chapters by Frederick Marryat. It was originally published several chapters at a time in ''The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist'' Volumes 49 to 56 from 1837 to 1839. Hereafter the collected chapters were put to print by E.L. Carey & A. Hart in 1839. ''The Phantom Ship'' is Marryat's take on the legend of the ''Flying Dutchman'' and to this day it's an unusual take because the story concerns itself with the son of Captain Vanderdecken and his quest to save his father's soul. Despite Marryat's writing experience and the appeal of the legend itself, reception of ''The Phantom Ship'' has been lukewarm at best.

''The Phantom Ship'' stands out amidst Marryat's oeuvre as one of his rare attempts at penning a supernatural tale and this unfamiliarity may be to blame for a slow start. The first twenty chapters meet the adventurous expectations of Marryat's previous works, but the supernatural moments, even if their significance builds, are rare. It isn't until Philip's fourth journey that the novel lives up to the legend it's based on, notwithstanding that the eponymous phantom ship itself remains an elusive story beat. In its stead, Marryat introduces other sources of the supernatural with their own merits. One storyline about a cursed treasure is among the earliest instances of buried treasure in fiction. Another curse included is the one carried by Krantz, which is expounded on in a backstory that makes up most of Chapter XXXIX. This backstory is a founding work to the {{Uberwald}} setting and its white-furred female werewolf started a small trend in [[WerewolfWorks werewolf fiction]]. Under the name "Literature/TheWhiteWolfOfTheHartzMountains", Chapter XXXIX has regularly been reprinted as a ShortStory separate from ''The Phantom Ship''.

* AbominationAccusationAttack: Father Seysen and Father Mathias become a thorn in Amine's side when they keep a closer and closer eye on her to prevent her from using magic to help Philip. In Chapter XX, Father Mathias, who is a longterm guest at the Vanderdecken household, invites himself into Amine's room when a peculiar smell and smoke alert him of witchcraft. To protect herself, Amine accuses him of potentially having improper intentions. She finishes the act by ordering one of her maids to her room as backup should Father Mathias again enter uninvited. The maid gossips away about it in Terneuzen and Mathias leaves for Lisbon in disgrace. The accusation comes back to bite the both of them when she and Father Mathias meet again in Tidore and Goa.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The story takes place after the Treaty of Westminster was signed in 1654 and, given that the treaty is "the state of things up to the time of Philip's embarkation", before the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1665. Marryat frequently adds historical tidbits to his work, notably spending large parts of Chapters VIII and XXXVI on the historical background of the situation. Very little of what he writes is accurate, sometimes blatantly so. An example is the Dutch Protestant factory president whom Father Mathias claims to have singlehandedly caused the prosecution of (Catholic) Christians in Japan. It's hinted that he got killed by the ''Flying Dutchman'' specifically for this bloodshed, so Father Mathias's reliability isn't a factor.

* MustMakeAmends: Father Mathias soon regrets handing Amine over to the Goa Inquisition and does all he can to save Amine, if not from the flames of the auto-da-fé, then from the flames of Hell. However, Amine refuses to grovel or embrace Catholicism, and reminds Father Mathias every time he talks to her that this is his fault and that he doesn't have a moral high ground. A severely distraught Father Mathias does convince the executioner to lessen Amine's suffering by throwing wet straw on the pile, the smoke from which knocks her out before the flames do their worst. Philip arrives just before Amine is burned and is badly injured in the struggle to reach her, upon which Father Mathias dedicates himself to his recovery. However, grief-induced insanity delays Philip's return to society by decades and the priest perishes well before Philip is ready to leave Goa.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:

* PerpetualMotionMonster: Schriften, who is pseudo-dead and powered by Vanderdecken's cursed oath, is implied to be one. From the moment Philip takes to sea for his quest, Schriften is there. He coaches the ''Ter Schilling'' into sinking at False Bay and disappears beneath the waves, but one-and-a-half year later he shows up in Terneuzen. Philip gets a chance to ask at Table Bay if the pilot came through as well, which is the only survivable means to get back to Europe from there. The settlement is certain he didn't -- only Philip came through. Another one-and-a-half year later, Philip is enjoying breakfast aboard the ''Utrecht'' when his crew saves a lone man in a small boat. It's Schriften, of course, and he claims to be the only survivor of the ship he was on. Later on, the ''Utrecht'' sinks too and Schriften antagonizes Philip so that he throws the pilot into the ocean's water and sees him go down. Guess who shows up at Ternate, safe and sound.
%%* PhoneCallFromTheDead:

%%* RiseFromYourGrave:

* TimeSkip: The first forty chapters take place over a period of four to five years. Chapter XL1, which follows on Amine's burning-at-the-stake that itself follows on Krantz's death-by-tiger, opens with the line that "years have passed". A piece of dialogue regarding one Vrow Ketser suggests it's twenty to thirty years. The time skip passes over Philip's dealings with grief-induced madness over his loss and the way it happened and the notion that to some extent Amine died because of him, reintroducing him to the audience as a prematurely aged wreck of a man whose only remaining desire is to finish his quest and then die.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Implied to be the case with Amine's parents, or at least her mother. In Chapter II, Philip refers to her as "an old decrepit woman" from about two years prior, while Amine in Chapter XIV says that her mother died young. She probably died in her 30s, because Amine was around 15 at that time. Amine's parents have led a very stressful life, so it's perfectly possible that caused them to show signs of aging well beyond their factual ages.

->''"We all must die—but how few—who indeed besides yourself—was ever permitted before his death to ransom the soul of the author of his existence!"''
-->--'''Hermann Krantz, Chapter XXVII'''

''The Phantom Ship'' stands out in Marryat's oeuvre as one of his rare attempts at penning a supernatural tale and this unfamiliarity may be to blame for a slow start. The first twenty chapters meet the adventurous expectations of Marryat's previous works, but the supernatural moments, even if their significance builds, are rare. It isn't until Philip's fourth journey that the novel lives up to the legend, notwithstanding that the eponymous phantom ship itself remains an elusive story beat. Marryat

A curious reaction to ''The Phantom Ship'' is the attention directed to Chapter XXXIX, originally published in Volume 56 of ''The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist''. In this chapter, the character Krantz relays his backstory of how he is the only survivor of a [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolf]] attack on his family a decade ago. This chapter serves to expand the sense of the supernatural present in the novel and can with a short footnote be read on its own. And so people have done. Under the name "Literature/TheWhiteWolfOfTheHartzMountains", Chapter XXXIX has regularly been reprinted as a ShortStory, at times as part of a werewolf anthology.

* MustMakeAmends: Father Mathias soon regrets handing Amine over to the Goa Inquisition and does all he can to save Amine, if not from the flames of the auto-da-fé, then from the flames of Hell. However, Amine refuses to grovel or embrace Catholicism, and reminds Father Mathias every time he talks to her that this is his fault and that he doesn't have a moral high ground. A severely distraught Father Mathias does convince the executioner to lessen Amine's suffering by throwing wet straw on the pile, the smoke from which knocks her out before the flames do their worst. Philip arrives just before Amine is burned and is badly injured in the struggle to reach her, upon which Father Mathias dedicates himself to his recovery. However, grief-induced insanity delays Philip's return to society by decades and the priest perishes long before Philip is ready to leave Goa.

Upon his mother's death, Philip Vanderdecken learns that he is the son of the doomed captain of the ''Flying Dutchman'' and potentially the only one who can set the phantom ship free. That same day, he meets Amine Poots whom he marries and who becomes his first companion. Philip takes up a career as seaman and makes several journeys to the East and one to the West, during which he encounters the phantom ship from time to time but makes no progress. Hounding him along the way is a dangerous entity named Schriften, whose motivations Philip can only guess, but whom is temporarily befriended by Amine. Philip furthermore picks up a close friendship with another seaman named Hermann Krantz, his eventual second companion. All four are on board of the ''Utrecht'' when it sinks. Schriften disappears. Amine is separated from Philip and makes her way to Tidore and then Goa. Philip and Krantz make it to Tidore too, but miss her by a few days. They follow her to Goa by peroqua, although Krantz doesn't make it that far. During the trip, he tells Philip about a curse that rests on him that will kill him soon as it did his entire family years ago and that he can do no more for Philip than give him the last of his money. During a stop at an island, Krantz is proven correct when he's killed by a tiger. Philip reaches Goa alone and initially can't find a trace of Amine. Meanwhile, the city is buzzing about the auto-da-fé that is to take place tomorrow, so Philip resolves to go watch it. It is there he reunites with Amine, minutes before she is to be burned at the stake for witchcraft and heresy. Philips descends into madness for a long time, coming out old and yet prematurely aged. With nothing left in life for him, his search for the ''Flying Dutchman'' is strengthened by his own desire for death. He meets Schriften one more time and declares that for the kindness he showed Amine, he forgives him for everything else. Schriften reveals himself to have been the pilot of the ''Flying Dutchman'' and killed by Philip's father. By forgiving him, Philip has risen above's Schriften's dying wish for vengeance, a secret requirement to ever reaching the ''Flying Dutchman''. Philip boards the phantom ship and returns the relic upon which his father swore his oath to sail until the Day of Judgment. As the ghosts pass on and the ship crumbles into nothingness, Philip goes down with it, looking forward to his reunion with Amine.

* HeavenAbove: As the prayer to free the ''Flying Dutchman'' finishes, for a moment lightning in the shape of a cross breaks through the clouds.

%%* MacGuffin: Captain Vanderdecken makes his oath to round the Cape upon a fragment of the Holy Cross. It becomes key to although a way out is granted if Vanderdecken's son is willing to give his life to return the upon which Vanderdecken swore.
* MadeASlave: Mr. Poots backstory is that he was captured as a boy by Moors and sold as a slave to a physician named Hakim in Egypt. Hakim thought him the trade because Poots had the intelligence for it and Hakim needed an assistant. After several years, Poots converted to Islam to regain his freedom and profit from his own labor.
* MadEye: Schriften, a vengeful and cursed man stuck on the doorstep of death, barely passes for alive or otherwise normal. His major physical oddity is that his right eye socket is empty, while his remaining left eye is "protuberant, clear and water" and without surrounding eyelashes. It's such a sight that Schriften is described as one eye with a man rather than the reverse.
%%* MagicKiss:

%%* MercyKill: last gambler
* MistakenForUndead: Philip returns to Terneuzen after barely half a year at sea due to the sinking of the ''Ter Schilling''. He reaches his cottage at night and catches Amine's attention just as the moon's light gets obscured by a cloud. Amine, aware that Philip's pseudo-dead father visited his mother two decades ago, warmly greets what she thinks is her husband's ghost. Philips awkwardly has to explain he's still alive.
* MistakenForThief: When Philip goes digging through a cabinet to a secret compartment to find the key to the locked-off room, Father Seysen comes in to check on Catherine. He asks if Philip is seriously willing to disturb his mother's final moments by robbing her. Philip corrects him that she's already died, so anything here is his anyway, but he's only looking for a hidden key. Father Seysen knows that Philip must be speaking the truth, so he requires no further explanation. He does advice Philip to cease for now, because he'll send the neighbors over to take care of Catherine's remains and they'd be harder to convince Philip's acting in good conscience.
* MoodDissonance: Chapter III has a funny way to refocus from the romance to the impending quest: "At first, he recalled to his mind the scene we have just described, painted in his imagination the portrait of the fair girl, her eyes, her expression, her silver voice, and the words which she had uttered; but her pleasing image was soon chased away by the recollection that his mother's corpse lay in the adjoining chamber, and that his father's secret was hidden in the room below."
* MoralityPet: Amine is this to her father and to a lesser extent to Philip. Mr. Poots's pursuit of monetary gain is limited only by Amine's well-being and opinion of him. This doesn't mean he won't risk them if the odds look good, but she does get through to him beyond what anyone else can. In case of Philip, he already is morally sound, but he yields to religious mandate. Amine isn't beholden to any specific religion and helps Philip make his own decisions.

* MurderTheHypotenuse: The Portuguese Commandant at Tidore relentlessly tries to win Amine over and to get away from him she tells him that if she finds prove at the mainland that her husband is dead, she'll return to marry him. The Commandant accepts this and becomes agitated when later two shipwrecked Dutchmen, Philip and Krantz, arrive at Tidore, because one of them could be Amine's husband. Not that he's not ready to remove the obstacle, but it'd have cleaner if he had drowned. Without Krantz's quick deductions and equally quick lies, Philip would have revealed his identity and gotten them both killed.
%%* MustMakeAmends:

Upon his mother's death, Philip Vanderdecken, aged 20, learns that he is the son of the doomed captain of the ''Flying Dutchman'' and potentially the only one who can set the ghost ship free. That same day, he meets Amine Poots, aged 17, whom he marries and who becomes the most valuable companion he meets during his quest. Philip takes up a career as seaman and makes several journeys to the East (and once the West), during which he encounters the ghost ship from time to time but makes no progress. Hounding him along the way is a dangerous entity named Schriften, whose motivations Philip can only guess. He also picks up a close friendship with another seaman named Hermann Krantz. Following the sinking of the ''Utrecht'', Amine is separated from Philip.
%% Goa Inquisition

* BarredFromTheAfterlife: The crew of the ''Flying Dutchman'' cannot pass on because Captain William Vanderdecken swore that he'd round the Cape in defiance of the storm even if he'd have to sail until the Day of Judgement. So that's what they're up to for fifty or so years until Vanderdecken's son sets them free.

* BurnTheWitch: Amine is condemned by the Goa Inquisition for practicing witchcraft and blasphemy. There are more than enough witnesses to it, and as luck would have it the Goa Inquisition is in need of some more people to burn during the upcoming auto-da-fé. Father Mathias can't get her to accept God in her final moments, which would've made her eligible her to be strangled first, but he still does arrange for some wet straw to be placed at her feet so the smoke gets her before the flames do.

** Captain Vanderdecken is so set on getting past the Cape that he is willing to sacrifice his crew for it. After nine weeks, his pilot Schriften has enough and convinces the crew to bind the captain and head back to Table Bay. In fury and due to bad timing, Vanderdecken punches him overboard, where he drowns. Vanderdecken isn't remorseful and makes his oath that he will round the Cape even if it'll take until the Day of Judgement. This oath turns Schriften into an undead creature tasked by his grudge to sabotage any attempt to save the ''Flying Dutchman'' from living death. He gets a good run until he too is freed.

%%* Forgiveness:

* {{Greed}}: Greed is what kills the surviving crew of the ''Utrecht''. First they refuse to put their coins in bags to serve as anchors even though they're assured they'll get them back. By sacrificing part of the raft (with Amine on it), the crew makes it to shore anyway, where they commit to gambling until only three winners are left. The losers kill them for the money and go back to gambling. A subsequent brawl leaves only three standing. Two team up to kill the third, and of the two remaining one kills the other. Krantz shoots the last man standing to spare him from starvation because he's not allowed on Krantz's and Philip's raft.
%%* HeavenAbove:

** Mr. Poots attempts to poison Philip to get his money. His son-in-law falls lightly ill and Mr. Poots hands Amine a cure to be mixed with warm wine. She doesn't trust the way the mix looks and pours Philip another cup. Het father personally feeds it to Philip and then retreats to let the poison do its work. What remorse he has he seeks to soften with alcohol and unbeknownst to him he drinks from the poisoned cup. He dies as a result.
** In Chapter XXIII, the part of the crew in the life boats leaves those in the ship to be murdered by pirates while they speed out of there. However, the pirates reason that those in the life boats wouldn't leave without whatever valuables there may be to be had and so ignore the raft to chase the life boats. Those in the life boats get slaughtered while the amount of valuables the pirates uncover is so great that they don't think any is left on the raft and therefore don't bother with it.

* IdiotBall: In Chapter XXXV, Amine experiences an uncharacteristic lapse in judgement for the benefit of the plot. She wants to know if Philip is still alive and therefore performs the ink mirror ritual with Pedro, the young son of her host. She's in Catholic territory, literally staying across the Goa Inquisition, Father Mathias knows of her heresy, and her ritual requires a child's hand, meaning there's a witness to her un-Christian magic. This isn't the idiot moment. Her emotions are running high and as a child Pedro isn't a credible witness without proof. The idiot moment comes when Pedro, who was deeply disturbed by Amine's magic and begging her to stop, asks her to do it again shortly after. Not for a moment does it occur to her that this is a trap.

%%*Irony -Chapter XXVI "Yes, once more at least we shall meet again. Providence! I thank thee."

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Philip and Amine have a back-and-forth relation regarding each other's happiness. Firstly, Philip denies his feelings because he has to go to sea and might perish and doesn't want to put Amine through the anguish of being a seaman's widow. In turn, Amine takes that risk in order to give him someone to rely on. After two years, Philip has made little progress and two priests convince him to give up his quests unless he receives another sign. Amine is happy for herself with this development, but fears that Philip is being deceived and forges a spiritual dream for him to get a sign through if one exists. To Amine's delight, the dream's message amounts to "not yet".
%%* TheJinx: Nostra Señora da Monte

* LoveAtFirstSight: Philip is instantly smitten by Amine. Amine doesn't seem to have felt the same way but all the same she quickly warmed up to him.
%%* MacGuffin, although a way out is granted if Vanderdecken's son is willing to give his life to return the fragment of the Holy Cross upon which Vanderdecken swore.

* BurnTheWitch: Amine is condemned by the Goa Inquisition for practicing witchcraft and blasphemy. There are more than enough witnesses to it, and as luck would have it the Goa Inquisition is in need of some more people to burn during the upcoming Auto-da-fé. Father Mathias can't get her to accept God in her final moments, which would've made her eligible her to be strangled first, but he still does arrange for some wet straw to be placed at her feet so the smoke gets her before the flames do.

** Captain Vanderdecken was so set on getting past the Cape that he was willing to sacrifice his crew for it. After nine weeks, his pilot Schriften had had enough and convinced the crew to bind the captain and head back to Table Bay. In fury and due to bad timing, Vanderdecken punched him overboard, where he drowned. Vanderdecken wasn't remorseful and made his oath that he would round the Cape even if it'd take until the Day of Judgement. This oath turned Schriften into an undead creature tasked by his grudge to sabotage any attempt to save Vanderdecken and the rest of the crew from living death. He gets a good run until he too is freed.
** When Commodore Avenhorn is condemned to be left to die of starvation and exposure on an uninhabited island by Admiral Rymelandt. Officially, it's because Avenhorn deserted. In reality, they both know it is because Avenhorn has proven himself a far better leader. Avenhorn takes in stride, prophesizing that Rymelandt's bones will lay beside his. Rymelandt's ship runs aground shortly after and within walking distance of where Avenhorn was abandoned. Avenhorn attacks Rymelandt at a moment his guard is down and they both plummet to their deaths.
** The Portuguese soldiers at Tidore have long suffered under the Commandant's cruel reign and never had a chance to escape. Due to Krantz's and Philip's arrival and their interest to escape the Commandant, a plan is established in which eleven soldiers have an opportunity to get a ship and fortune to leave. The soldiers plan on their own to kill the Commandant, among others because he was planning to kill them for the fortune, to which Philip objects. Spokesman Pedro puts it like this: "You do not know the treatment which we have received from his hands; and sweet as the money will be to us, his death will be even sweeter."

* DrawAggro: Amine gives Philip a better chance at not getting shot by the robbers by putting her father's clothes on a stick and poking it out the window right when Philip goes to confront them. The robbers shoot at the clothes upon sight, giving Philip a clear and effective shot of his own.
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: After being separated from Amine, Philip dreams that she is safe and waves at him from afar, promising that they'll meet on this earth once more. As it turns out, she did survive being adrift and they meet each other again shortly before she's burned to death by the Goa Inquisition.

* DrowningMySorrows: Mr. Poots pours himself a large cup of wine to drown out his guilt over poisoning his own son-in-law. Because his daughter didn't trust him and left the poison in the cup Mr. Poots went to pick for his own use, he ends up poisoning himself this way.
* DueToTheDead:
* EnclosedSpace: In Chapter XXIV, the raft becomes this. Forty men are trapped on it until the next day the shore may be reached. One half just (seemingly) doomed the captain's wife to a slow and lonely death, earning his ire. He convinces the second half that the first half can't be trusted and that if they were gone, their money would be for the taking. The first half knows roughly what the captain and the second half are up to. Come night time and bloodshed is inevitable, though courtesy of the captain's trickery only three men are lost on his side.

%%* FacingTheBulletsOneLiner:

* FireForgedFriends: Krantz and Philip grow close because of all the danger they experienced together and openly acknowledge that in Chapter XXVII.

%%* FishOutOfTemporalWater:
* FlawExploitation: The Portuguese at Tidore are much more impressed by Schriften's ghostly qualities than Philip and Krantz after all his previous appearances and disappearances care to be. This allows Krantz to claim they have control over Schriften, which is half true but leaves out Schriften is only after Philip, and regain the cooperation of the terrified Portuguese.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Philip meets Amine when he tries to burn down her father's house, unaware anyone but him lives there. He loses her when she's burned at the stake.

* AbominationAccusationAttack: Father Seysen and Father Mathias become a thorn in Amine's side when they keep a closer and closer eye on her to prevent her from using magic to help Philip. In Chapter XX, Father Mathias, who is a longterm guest at the Vanderdecken household, invites himself into Amine's room when a peculiar smell and smoke alert him of witchcraft. To protect herself, Amine accuses him of potentially having improper intentions. She finishes the act by ordering one of her maids to her room as backup should Mathias again enter uninvited. The maid gossips away about it in Terneuzen and Mathias leaves for Lisbon in disgrace. The accusation comes back to bite the both of them when she and Mathias meet again in Tidore and Goa.

%%* BecauseDestinySaysSo:

* BlackComedy: Chapter VIII dedicates a few paragraphs to the history behind the Dutch's presence in Asia. This could've been very boring or dark, were it not for the irreverent way the events are addressed. For instance: "[Philip II of Spain] therefore took away from the Hollanders most of their liberties: to make amends, however, he gave them the Inquisition; but the Dutch grumbled, and Philip, to stop their grumbling, burnt a few of them."
* BloodFromTheMouth: Catherine is so overcome with stress about the locked-off room's secret that she, already of at the end of her health, falls over while blood pours out of her mouth. It's enough that the snow-white planks of the floor get crimsoned with her blood. Philip takes care of her and gets help, but she only survives until the early morning hours.
%%* BurnTheWitch: Amine Auto-da-fé
* TheCaptain: On his quest, Philip has to rely a lot on others, but the one talent indisputably his is the one of managing a ship. Even before he actually is put in charge of ships, he picks up when the true captains fail. He's calm and rational when faced with disaster and cares for the survival of his crew and passengers. On some ships, this earns him respect, on others, a mutiny wouldn't have been stopped by a better captain. By no means does Philip have a perfect record, but his faults are far few than the difficult circumstances he faced.
* ChillOfUndeath: The pseudo-dead pilot Schriften carries with him a cold wherever he goes.
* CompanionCube: Wilhelm Barentz is open about his love for the ''Vrow Katerina'', a ship of twenty-eight years whose primary captain assignment Wilhelm inherited from his father. Wilhelm, who is about as old as the ship, talks to her, hugs her mainmast, won't shut up about her magnificence, and has already fought three men in defense of her honor. The ''Vrow Katerina'' later burns down near False Bay, Barentz being the last to leave the ship and one of the few who survive the disaster. With no one to return to, he settles at Table Bay to stay as close to the ''Vrow Katerina'' as possible.
* TheConfidant: For two years, Amine is Philip's sole confidant regarding the fate of his father and the quest to save his soul from eternal wandering. She advises and assists him well, but in light of the possibility that Philip might die on his journey the secret weighs heavy on her. When she's stricken with typhus and in a delirious state shares much of the secret with Father Seysen, he and Father Mathias convince Philip to give them the full details too to spare Amine and find help with the Lords' servants. They're well-meaning, but far less supportive of Philip's quest. About another two years later, Philip voluntarily shares his story with Krantz. Krantz has his own curse hanging over him to one day be eaten by a forest animal, courtesy of his father marrying a werewolf, so he takes it well and becomes an ally as valuable as Amine.

* CreepyCatholicism: Catholicism is portrayed as powerful and corrupt, especially in the final ten chapters or so. Its followers aren't judged as harshly, but only so as to emphasize the damaging influence of Catholicism. Father Mathias is a good man, but his faith makes him hostile towards Amine and the one to turn her over to the Goa Inquisition. The nuns at the Ursuline convent are perverse and immoral, but also only innocent maidens put there for the reputation of their families. Good seamen are turned into cowards who can only pray when the seas get rough and the only reason they listen to Amine's advice is because they think she's a Catholic woman. Even Catholic children will trick you if you give them a chance. And then there's the Goa Inquisition, which cruelty, greed, deceit, bigotry, and selfishness oppresses the whole of Goa.
* CruelToBeKind: Zigzagged. While on board of the ''Ter Schilling'', Schriften attempts to steal the relic Philip needs to save his father's soul. Along with everything else Schriften does, this seems like malice and sabotage. Schriften later admits to the sabotage, but not the malice towards Philip. If he'd gotten the relic, Philip would not have been able to continue his quest and returned home, where he could've lived a blessed life due to his inheritance. Yet, Philip's benefit would've simply been an approvable side-effect to the harm Schriften meant to cause William Vanderdecken.

** There's, of course, Captain William Vanderdecken of the ''Flying Dutchman''. After nine weeks of trying to get around the Cape, he accidentally but through his own making kills his pilot, Schriften, and swears that he'll conquer the Cape even if he has to sail until the Day of Judgment. The ''Amsterdammer'' is lost in the storm and it and its crew can't pass on due to Vanderdecken's oath.
** In Chapter XVIII, Commodore Avenhorn is officially punished for desertation but really for being a better leader than Admiral Rymelandt. Avenhorn is to be left to die of starvation along the uninhabited coast of the Strait of Magellan. He accepts his fate, but prophesizes that he won't die alone and, in fact, he and the admiral shall lie side by side. Indeed, intervention by the ''Flying Dutchman'' causes the ''Lion'' to run aground within sight of Avenhorn. Many of its crew die from exposure, intoxication, or accidents while exploring. The admiral is found dead grappled together with the commodore, whom the survivors reckon walked over and ambushed the admiral. In the struggle, the two fell and plunged to their deaths on the rocks below.

* DamselOutOfDistress: Of the four robbers that come to kill her father, rob him, and abduct her, Amine personally kills one-and-a-half. The last robber she shoots personally, while one that went down earlier was shot by Philip but with a distraction arranged by her giving him a safe opportunity.

* DeathOfAChild: Aboard the ''Vrow Katerina'' are entire families. Many men die when the ship goes up in flames and sinks, while the women and children are put on a makeshift raft and the surviving men in lifeboats. Not long before reaching the coast, the raft falls apart and all on it drown. Horrible as the event is, it isn't presented as necessarily worse then everything else Philip experiences. Plenty of boats don't make it back to shore and children aboard doesn't make a difference.
%%* DeathSeeker:
* DesertedIsland: The sixteen surviving members of the crew of the ''Utrecht'' gets stranded on one for a few days.