Literature / The Phantom Ship (1837)

"Could I but receive on the deck of my own ship the holy relic upon which I swore the fatal oath, kiss it in all humility, and shed one tear of deep contrition on the sacred wood, I then might rest in peace."

—William Vanderdecken, Chapter IV

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 not with Captain Vanderdecken, but with his son and his quest to save the souls aboard the Flying Dutchman. Despite Marryat's writing experience and the appeal of the legend itself, reception of The Phantom Ship has been lukewarm at best.

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. Krantz is proven correct when he's mauled 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.

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 ghostly moments in the first twenty chapters barely distinguish the novel from Marryat's previous works and it isn't until Philip's fourth journey that headway is made, 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 Überwald setting and its white-furred female werewolf started a small trend in werewolf fiction. Under the name "The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains", Chapter XXXIX has regularly been reprinted as a Short Story separate from The Phantom Ship.

Note: Tropes for "The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains" that don't directly relate to the rest of The Phantom Ship are not included here.

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The Phantom Ship provides examples of the following tropes:

• Abomination Accusation Attack: In Chapter XX, Father Mathias, who is a longterm guest of the Vanderdecken household, invites himself into Amine's room when a peculiar smell and smoke alert him of witchcraft. To protect herself from the church, 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.
• Ambiguous Syntax: Father Seysen attempts to console Amine after her father's death by reminding her there are still others in her life, like her husband. Because Mr. Poots died in an attempt to poison Philip, Father Seysen's words have a difficult layer to Amine and she replies in kind that she must weep "for [she] was his daughter." She means that she weeps because her father was a greedy murderer, but it's phrased so that Father Seysen understands that she personally needs time to move on from the loss of her father and that she as his only child also has an obligation to mourn him.
• Artistic License – History: 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 peppers the story with historical events, especially in Chapters VIII and XXXVI. Liberties are taken where it benefits the story. 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. The real-life historical counterpart to this story beat seems to be events that took place in 1590-1620 and the factory president has traits of both Richard Cocks and William Adams.
• Astrologer: Amine's mother knew how to read the stars and other signs from the sky. Amine wasn't taught and she can only guess how it all works.
• Badass Boast: Upon being asked by the Goa Inquisition if they need to torture her to get her to confess, she verbally gives them the finger: "Try me. Try me, cruel men; and if you gain but one word from me, then call me craven: I am but a woman—but I dare you—I defy you." Her accusers are a bit at a loss for words after that.
• Bad Boss: Admiral Rymelandt and the Portuguese Commandant are at the top of their respective isolated hierarchies. Rymelandt would rather see everyone under his command dead than admit to a flaw in his leadership and the more he is challenged, the more unhinged and murderous he becomes. He is killed by a commodore he had condemned to death and the survivors of his fleet gladly gather under Philip's banner. The Portuguese Commandant is a miniature tyrant who thinks commanding exclusively means shouting, threatening, and punishing. He gets his comeuppance when he's stabbed to death by his soldiers.
• Barred from the Afterlife: 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 Judgment. So that's what they're up to for fifty or so years until Vanderdecken's son sets them free.
• Beast and Beauty: The beautiful and magnanimous Amine's understanding of the value of kindness gets her, and her alone, Schriften's sympathy. Schriften is an unstoppable undead man with only one, bulging eye and pale skin with a palpable hateful disposition, but ultimately he's also a victim looking for peace. Unknowingly, Amine taps into his former humanity and gets him to behave as long as she's with him.
• Because Destiny Says So: Amine, Krantz, and Philip all resign themselves to destiny, which they are aware of due to prophecy and premonition. They don't look forward to what's going to happen to them, but they find peace in the certainty laid out before them. They even make it work in their favor. Krantz knows he'll be killed by a forest animal so he has to fear nothing else. Amine knows she'll die a miserable death, but it's her own choice for marrying Philip and once it nears she doesn't have to hold back or grovel for mercy because it won't matter (it would've, in fact, made her end worse). And Philip's acceptance of destiny allows him to empathize with Schriften, which proves necessary to reach the Flying Dutchman.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Flying Dutchman and all that were doomed with it have been set free to enter the afterlife. The phantom ship will never again terrorize the seven seas. The sun is shining down on the calm ocean surface. The birds are gliding through the air and the fishes through the water. Philip Vanderdecken has just drowned after a miserable twenty to thirty years, at least half of his lifetime, and the memories of the deaths of Amine and Krantz are no less fresh than they were decades ago.
• Black Comedy: Chapter VIII dedicates a few paragraphs to the history behind Dutch presence in Asia. This could've been very boring or dark, were it not for the irreverent way the events are addressed. For instance, in regards to Spanish occupation of the Netherlands, there's this bit: "[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."
• Blood from the Mouth: 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 attends her, but she only survives until the early morning hours.
• Burn the Witch!: 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 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 Captain: Philip has a talent for captaining. 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.
• Chill of Undeath: The undead pilot Schriften carries with him a cold wherever he goes.
• Companion Cube: Wilhelm Barentz loves the Vrow Katerina, a ship of twenty-eight years that used to be captained by 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.
• The Confidant: 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 stricken with typhus and in a delirious state, she 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.
• Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: To get help from a Spanish settlement for the crew suffering from scurvy, Commodore Avenhorn pretends he's an English captain who picked up several Spanish patients from another ship. The hair-raising crying and moaning below deck discourages too much snooping and the settlement delivers all the fresh food the Dort needs.
• Creepy Catholicism: 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 kindred Catholic. 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 region and gets a whole chapter dedicated to its workings.
• Cruel to Be Kind: 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 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 isn't a goal, just an approvable side-effect to the harm Schriften means to cause William Vanderdecken.
• Curse: There's a total of four in the course of the novel, most of them related to an oath.
  • 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. 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, a feat which is accomplished about fifty years later.
  • 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.
  • Hermann Krantz's father remarries after murdering his first wife and makes a wedding vow to protect his new wife lest he and his children be hunted and devoured by the beasts of the forest. Said new wife turns out to be a werewolf and kills two of the three children. Mr. Krantz kills her for it, thereby activating the debt of his vow. He is spared insofar that he dies from fever some months later, and Hermann Krantz avoids his fate for many years by becoming a seaman. Yet in the end, he's killed by a tiger in Indonesia.
  • The money aboard the Utrecht either naturally becomes cursed or the fact that the ghostly Flying Dutchman sped right through the other ship did something with it. In any case, the moment the crew of the Utrecht claims it because the ship is going down, it plays on their greed. Between the survivors getting in the lifeboats and reaching the small Indonesian isle, their numbers go down from 86 to 15 because of the money. Once at the isle, the crew becomes truly obsessed and in a series of events murders each other until only Philip and Krantz are left. They bury the treasure to be picked up by the Company later, but due to circumstances have to return with several Portuguese soldiers. Despite earlier camaraderie, the moment the money is dug up the murdering recommences. Philip is so fed up that he dubs the place the Accursed Isle.
• Damsel out of Distress: Of the four robbers that come to kill her father, rob him, and abduct her, Amine shoots down the last one personally. Before that, she arranged a distraction that gave Philip a clear shot at another robber.
• Dead Man Walking: The soldiers that come along to get the treasure of the Utrecht for the Portuguese Commandant know he intends to kill them afterwards to keep them quiet. They plan to kill him as soon as they have the treasure. For the entire multi-day journey, the Commandant is blissfully unaware of the "dark and lowering faces with which he [is] surrounded".
• Death by Flashback: Justified. Krantz has a premonition that his time is running out and it's partly because of that that he relays the events of his youth to Philip. His premonition turns out to be correct, so at least thanks to the flashback Philip knows there was more to the tiger that ate Krantz and ignored him. Incidentally, the flashback is the first and only time Krantz's first name, Hermann, is mentioned. In the rest of the story, he's only referred to by his last name.
• Death of a Child: 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. 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 having children aboard doesn't make a difference.
• Death Seeker: Starting Chapter XLI, Philip awakes from decades of grief-induced madness with only one desire: to finish his quest and be granted death. Philip no longer fears the appearance of the Flying Dutchman and actively pursues it in a lifeboat when it hails the Nostra Señora da Monte.
• Deserted Island: The fifteen surviving members of the crew of the Utrecht gets stranded on one for a few days. Due to the multiple murders that occur there in a short amount of time, Philip dubs it the Accursed Isle.
• Deuteragonist: Amine and Krantz are the deuteragonists of the novel, best illustrated by the fact they have their own chapters: XX, XXV, XXVIII, XXXIV, XXXV, and Chapter XXXVII for Amine and XXXIX for Krantz. Amine's chapters detail her part of the adventure while Philip is away and Krantz's chapter about his youth is a short story all on its own — it's often been published separately as "The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains".
• The Dog Bites Back: Several characters get to have revenge on a superior that maltreated them.
  • 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 Judgment. 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.
  • 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 it 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. Then an opportunity comes up for eleven soldiers to nab a ship and a fortune to return to Europe with. This opportunity involves murdering the Commandant, which is not an objection in the slightest. Spokesman Pedro puts it like this to Philip: "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."
• Dramatic Thunder: In Chapter XXV, a storm breaks loose while Amine is all alone on a raft in the ocean. She rejoices, because the violence of the storm promises a kinder and more dignified death than frying in the heat of the sun has been so far. The storm actually ends up washing her to shore.
• Draw Aggro: Amine puts her father's clothes on a stick and pokes them out the window right when Philip goes to confront the robbers. The robbers shoot at the clothes upon sight, giving Philip a clear and effective shot of his own.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: 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 minutes before she's burned to death by the Goa Inquisition.
• Dream Weaver: Amine has inherited know-how of Middle Eastern magic from her mother. One ability under her power is to force a prophetic dream. She can't control what the dream is about, but can ensure that the dream is a moment of contact with higher powers so that mortals may take guidance from it.
• Drowning My Sorrows: 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.
• Due to the Dead: Krantz and Philip bury those who die on the Accursed Isle, which is first the crew of the Utrecht and later the Commandant. They all died from murderous greed and weren't great people before that, but the duo considers it the right thing to do.
• Enclosed Space: In Chapter XXIV, the raft becomes the inescapable ring of a forty-men bloody battle. 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.
• Exact Words: The Dort takes a Spanish vessel hostage, but promises that in return for provisions all passengers get to return to St. Mary unharmed. An African slave requests to stay on board. The people laying claim on him argue this goes against the agreement, but Philip tells them he said that the passengers could go. He's not a passenger if he's property.
• "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: Father Mathias tries his hardest to convert Amine to Catholicism before she perishes, pleading with her that there's only a minute left. Her reply is, "I tell you then, leave me—that minute is my own."
• Fate Worse than Death: Mentioned by Krantz in Chapter XXVI. Philip is certain Amine drowned and won't take Krantz's words of hope. Krantz therefore tries another argument, namely that if Amine had stayed with them she'd now also be stranded on the island along with the thirteen seamen that'd outnumber the three of them. There's no doubt on his mind she'd have been raped and that wherever she is now, be it dead or alive, she's at least spared that violence.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Krantz and Philip grow close because of all the danger they experience together and readily acknowledge that in Chapter XXVII.
• First-Name Basis: Philip is honored when Amine gives him her name, but takes a little longer to go from calling her "maiden" to addressing her by her name. Shortly after, she calls him "Philip" for the first time instead of "sir" and his heart does a little dance.
• Fish out of Temporal Water:
  • The sailors of the Flying Dutchman are aware that they've been out at sea for a very long time, but they have no idea how long that time is. They try to get other ships to take letters home for them, even though few of the intended recipients are still in existence.
  • Philip spends some twenty to thirty years mad from grief over Amine's death. When he's ready to leave Goa, he is aware of this and that there's nothing left for him to return to. Except maybe to his father, who is in the same predicament.
• Flaw Exploitation: 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 that Schriften is only after Philip, and regain the cooperation of the terrified Portuguese.
• Foregone Conclusion: In Chapter XV, Amine, who's been steadfastly shown to be reliable and in touch with the spiritual, remarks upon Philip's journey on the Vrow Katerina as such: "It is not this voyage which is to be fatal to you or me; but I have a dark foreboding that the next, in which I shall join you, will separate us for ever—in which way, I know not—but it is destined."
• 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 four to five years later.
• Forgiveness: While stuck in a lifeboat together, Philip and Schriften have as much of a heart-to-heart as they can within their opposing roles. Schriften challenges Philip to throw him overboard, but Philip, tired and aged, declines. He concludes that whatever their destinies have to be, long ago Schriften stepped out of his role to give Amine a choice as to her fate, and for that Philip is grateful and forgives him all else. By forgiving his enemy, "the highest attribute of Christianity", Philip breaks through Schriften's claim to vengeance, which is the secret pre-requisite to freeing the Flying Dutchman. Schriften declares himself a friend now and fades away.
• Giggling Villain: Schriften can't utter a damn line without giggling, no matter how inappropriate. It's not revealed whether he did so in life or if this is a new thing.
• 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. Days later, the duo returns with Portuguese soldiers they've befriended to give them the treasure that was left behind. They instantly turn on each other once the money's been dug up and Krantz and Philip leave them to their fate, aware there's nothing they can do.
• Heaven Above: After William Vanderdecken makes his oath to sail until the Day of Judgment, fiery letters appear at the center of a storm cloud that confirm his oath: "UNTIL THE DAY OF JUDGMENT". About fifty years later, as the prayer to free the Flying Dutchman finishes, for a moment lightning in the shape of a cross breaks through the clouds.
• His Name Is...: Downplayed. Catherine says a lot but doesn't tell Philip where the key to the locked-off room is before dying. He quickly enough deduces where it is.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • 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. Her 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 lifeboats leaves those on the raft to be murdered by pirates while they speed out of there. However, the pirates reason that those in the lifeboats wouldn't leave without whatever valuables there may be to be had and so ignore the raft to chase the lifeboats. Those in the lifeboats get slaughtered while the people on the raft are ignored.
• Honor Before Reason: 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-fé, which would've happened even if she had cooperated.
• Hope Spot: Philip initially can't find the letter in the locked-off room and reasons that those seventeen years ago his mother simply had a nightmare and wasn't actually visited by his father's apparition. His thoughts go to the bright future now ahead of him until he picks up his mother's unfinished embroidery and finds the letter underneath.
• Idiot Ball: 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 Pedro isn't a credible witness on his own. 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.
• I Kiss Your Hand: In Chapter V, Philip and Amine share their first moment of intimacy when he kisses her hand at breakfast.
• Implacable Man: Schriften drowned through Captain Vanderdecken's fault around the time the captain made his cursed oath to sail until the Day of Judgment if need be. The pilot was affected differently by it than the crew still up on the ship and rather than become part of the Flying Dutchman, Schriften's desire for revenge turned him into a ghost bound to thwart whoever attempt to free the Flying Dutchman. Philip first encounters him on the Ter Schilling, which he coaches into sinking at False Bay. He vanishes beneath the waves, but over a year later he shows up in Terneuzen. Again over a year later, Philip is captain of the Utrecht when his crew saves a lone man in a small boat. It's Schriften, who 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. Then he shows up at Ternate, creepily jovial as ever. Philip loses sight of him at Tidore, but when he and Krantz have convinced the Commandant there of some fake identities that'll get them easy passage, Schriften appears in the fort and nonchalantly reveals who they truly are. He disappears just as mysteriously as he walked in. Decades pass before Schriften and Philip meet again aboard the Nostra Señora da Monte. Schriften gets the both of them banished into a lifeboat and he tries once more to goad Philip into throwing him overboard. Philip refuses and, upon some musings, declares that he forgives Schriften. This, finally, defeats the revenge-powered pilot.
• Insane Admiral: Admiral Rymelandt is one of the most despicable people Philip encounters on his travels. By the time they meet, the crews of the five ships making up Rymelandt's fleet are all dying from scurvy. Even though scurvy is easily cured, Rymelandt refuses to stop for fresh supplies. In fact, when Commodore Avenhorn proposes a solution, Rymelandt specifically rejects it because he won't let a subordinate do a better job than he does. Avenhorn temporarily leaves the fleet to get his crew supplies and save their lives, upon which Rymelandt immediately puts Avenhorn's solution into effect now that he can take credit for it. Upon rejoining, Rymelandt condemns Avenhorn for mutiny and abandons him on an uninhabited island to die. Because Philip defends Avenhorn, Rymelandt seeks an excuse to take him down too and gives Philip the responsibility to guide the Lion and the Dort safely along the coast. They're tricked by the Flying Dutchman to run ashore and Philip sends Lieutenant Vander Hagen to Rymelandt to report. The admiral oversteps his authority by hanging Vander Hagen without trial and he would've hanged Philip if Vander Hagen's hanging wouldn't have led to subordination. Rymelandt finally meets his end at the hands of Avenhorn, allowing the remaining crewmembers to join under Philip's command.
• Ironic Echo: Amine has a loaded gun ready when she lets Philip in to prepare for the robbers, but she keeps it hidden and never aims it at him. He gains her trust and she hands the gun over willingly, prompting him to quip "So this was meant for me, Amine?". After the robbers are dealt with, Philip opts to keep guard outside the Poots' home just to be safe. At dawn, Amine taps him on the shoulder, startling him and making him draw his gun as he turns around. Her response is "And that pistol was intended for me." Incidentally, Philip had just shortly before mused that he isn't as coolheaded as Amine.
• It's All My Fault: Philip worries that the reason the Ter Schilling encountered the Flying Dutchman was because he was on board and it was his fate to find the ship. If so, then all that perished when it sank perished because of him. Before boarding the Batavia, wondering if he's dooming that crew too, he invests his money so that he at least pays back the Company for their material loss. The Batavia doesn't encounter the Flying Dutchman, but another ship does. Philip considers this proof that's he's not jinxed, but all the same he never quite feels free from responsibility for the lives lost.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The relationship of Philip and Amine is built on a mutual desire for each other's happiness in spite of the fact that Philip is choosing certain death by going to save his father's soul. Philip wants to spare her marriage to a doomed man, which Amine counters with her own wish for him not to face the dangers alone. So they marry. After that Philip's ability to give up on his quest and Amine's ability to give up on Philip come up several times. Philip cannot abandon his father, but he considers it for Amine. She doesn't want to be the cause of the misery that's certain to follow if he ignores his father's plight and so sticks by him even when she knows hers will be a painful death.
• The Jinx: Philip and Schriften accuse each other of being the jonah aboard the Nostra Señora da Monte. They both make compelling arguments, so the crew does the sensible thing and abandons the both of them in a lifeboat.
• Like Brother and Sister: Played with in Chapter VI. Philip is romantically interested in Amine, but as he doesn't know if he'll survive trying to save his father's soul, he refuses to emotionally burden her with an engagement and instead makes Amine his property caretaker and heir on the argument that she's like a sister to him. Amine knows that's a bare-faced lie and two months later they do get married.
• Love at First Sight: Philip is instantly smitten by Amine. Amine doesn't seem to have felt the same way but all the same she quickly warms up to him.
• MacGuffin: Captain Vanderdecken makes his oath to round the Cape upon a fragment of the Holy Cross. It becomes key to his and his crew's salvation. On instruction of a spirit, he visits his wife Catherine and gives her the relic and the instruction that it has to be returned to him so that he may kiss it and cry on it in remorse. Philip takes up the task and carries the locket around his neck for the duration of the novel. Aside from a handful of attempted thefts by Mr. Poots and Schriften, it plays no role in the narrative until it is returned to Captain Vanderdecken.
• Made a Slave: 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 taught 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.
• Mad Eye: Schriften, a vengeful and cursed man stuck on the doorstep of death, barely passes for alive. His major physical oddity is that his right eye socket is empty, while his remaining left eye is "protuberant, clear and watery" and without surrounding eyelashes. It's such a sight that Schriften is described as one eye with a man rather than a man with one eye.
• Magic Kiss: Part of relieving Captain Vanderdecken from his oath is the requirement that he kisses the relic upon which he swore said oath. As he does so, the Flying Dutchman/Amsterdammer breaks down into nothingness and likewise the crewmembers disappear into the afterlife.
• Magic Mirror: In Chapter XX, Amine mentions visions she obtained under her mother's guidance by pouring a black liquid in her hand and peering into it. In Chapter XXXV, she performs this ritual with the help of a 12-year old boy. This ritual is a reference to a (purported) magical practice in Cairo first mentioned in Noctes Ambrosiana No. LVII, published in August in 1831 in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and collected in Volume XXX later that year. The invocation of Turshoon and Turyo-shoon suggests Marryat specifically referenced the ritual as mentioned in An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians from 1836. In both accounts, the ritual's seer has to be a young Muslim boy, but in The Phantom Ship, only the part about being young seems to be required. After all, Amine is a girl and Pedro is a Catholic.
• Mercy Kill: Krantz shoots the last remaining crewmember of the Utrecht on the Accursed Isle. This man has personally killed several of his colleagues to claim the entirety of the treasure of the Utrecht for himself, but he's psychologically so far gone that once Krantz and Philip leave he'll die of starvation surrounded by his gold. Krantz's decision to make his end kinder has the additional benefit of making it safe for the two men to go bury the dead.
• Mistaken for Undead: 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 undead 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.
• Mistaken for Thief: 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.
• Mood Dissonance: Chapter III takes a funny path from first love to dead people: "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."
• Morality Pet: Amine is this to her father and to a lesser extent to Philip. Mr. Poots's pursuit of monetary gain is all-consuming but for his relation with his daughter. This doesn't mean he won't risk tension 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.
• Morton's Fork:
  • With poverty on the horizon, Philip tells Catherine either he'll go to sea with his uncle, whom has already agreed to give him a job, or she tells him about the locked-off room, which in a delirious state she once confided holds treasure. Catherine doesn't want Philip to go to sea or know about the contents of the locked-off room because either would put him in the path of the supernatural.
  • The Spanish officers at St. Mary do not want the African man to join the crew of the Dort because he knows their plan and the actual value of the provisions the Dort has taken. They argue to Philip that he promised to let all the passengers go, and he retorts that if the man is a slave, as they say he is, he is property and not a passenger and thus doesn't fall under the promise to be let go. At that point, the officers can't keep the African man from leaving because as property Philip can take him on board, and as a passenger he's free to change ships.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: 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 either of them could be Amine's husband. He'll remove the obstacle if he has to, but it'd be cleaner if the husband has drowned. Without Krantz's quick deductions and equally quick lies, Philip would have revealed his identity and gotten them both killed.
• Must Make Amends: 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 desperate 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.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Initially, Father Mathias feels vindicated over catching Amine in an act of witchcraft and handing her over to the Goa Inquisition. Not only is it his obligation as a good Catholic, but a year or so prior Amine had humiliated him by insinuating that he had unpriestly intentions towards her to conceal her witchcraft in Terneuzen. Then, the vindication makes way for memories of the hospitality he enjoyed at the Vanderdecken household, of how he owes Philip a life debt, of how Amine's witchcraft was performed only to benefit her beloved husband, and of the simple fact that Amine is a good person with bravery to spare, kindness to share, and moral standards few can match. Soon enough, he recognizes he made a mistake with grave consequences.
• The Napoleon: The Portuguese Commandant at Tidore is short of stature, very aggressive and, by the admittance of his soldiers that don't like him, a brave man. A point is made that his height is short enough that the sword in his scabbard rattles over the ground while he walks, as happens when he inspects the troops and dishes out threat after threat.
• Not Good with Rejection: Amine has to lie to the Portuguese Commandant at Tidore that his feelings aren't unrequited to escape him. People who know him and witness his behavior later affirm that he would've abused his authority to prevent her from ever leaving Tidore. The Commandant even has several conversations with Krantz, unaware of who he is, and talks about his and Amine's romance. Krantz can tell from all that he's saying that he's delusional and that Amine was pushed to desperation to get away from him.
• Odd Friendship: Amine, Philip's spiritually inclined and loyal wife, and Schriften, the pseudo-dead pilot vengeful after Philip's father murdered him, grow quite close during their time on the Utrecht. The "quite" is in the fact that Schriften doesn't reveal who he is, so Amine isn't capable of interacting with him on equal grounds, but she knows enough to appreciate the oddity of his concern for her.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • 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 and the cold of it is enough for him to know who it is: creepy Schriften, who by all accounts drowned over a year prior at False Bay. Unsurprisingly, 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 and a worrisome enemy.
  • In Chapter XXXII, Krantz and Philip have assured their safety and passage to the main land by lying about who they are and how they arrived 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 the priest's doing.
• Old Friend: "Friend" is a stretch, but "friendly acquaintance" will do. One of the seamen manning the Flying Dutchman comes aboard the Nostra Señora da Monte to deliver letters. He is surprised to find Schriften aboard, noting that he thought he'd "gone to Davy's locker, long enough ago". It's the last hint given before Schriften confirms he's the pilot Captain Vanderdecken killed just prior to his damning oath.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted with Pedro the Portuguese soldier at Tidor and Pedro the Portuguese 12-year old boy at Goa.
• Our Genies Are Different: Invoked in the sense of djinn as the Islamic counterpart to Christianity's demons. Amine, who is of Arab heritage, defines Schriften as one by calling him a ghoul and an afrit.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: In his prophetic dream in Chapter XIV, Philip imagines Amine as a mermaid of the Apparently Human Merfolk variety. She owns a shell that rides itself across the waves and together they go in search of the Flying Dutchman. The dream is recalled in Chapter XXI.
• This Page Will Self-Destruct: William Vanderdecken was allowed by a pitying spirit to hand his wife a letter with the instructions to save him from living death. Philip reads the letter and accepts the task, upon which he finds that the letter has vanished from his grasp.
• Phone Call from the Dead: As per the legend, the crewmembers of the Flying Dutchman try to get the Nostra Señora da Monte to take letters home for them. On Schriften's advice, the letters are refused because that's inviting certain doom, though Philip does step forward to comment on the intended recipients. He explains in detail how every address, business, or person listed no longer is around until a letter from his father for him is pulled from the pile. Before he can read it, Schriften throws all of the letters overboard.
• The Plague: Philip's journey on the Batavia ends when he returns to the typhus-ridden landscape of Zeeland if not the entire Netherlands. More than two-thirds of the population in Terneuzen have perished or fled and even Amine's been infected. She's struggling between life and death when Philip comes home, but makes a recovery.
• Plot Armor: Invoked in the story. Amine argues that Philip may never return to her, but if his quest is ordained by the supernatural itself, he'll live at least as long as to see it through. She's proven correct.
• Poison Is Evil: Mr. Poots, while a talented physician, also knows his way around poisons and has on occasion played hitman. His last attempt to murder another is his own son-in-law to get his money, but he's thwarted by Amine's mistrust. That same night, he ingests the poison by accident and when Amine finds his corpse she knows she was right in her assessment. She tells her father's corpse that were he not her dad, she'd spit on him.
• Portent of Doom: Ships that are passed by the Flying Dutchman will suffer one way or another. At times, the Flying Dutchman is portrayed as merely an omen, other times it's actively involved in the misfortune. The Ter Schilling is lost in a storm and the Vrow Katerina goes up in flames after having been passed by the Flying Dutchman, while the unnamed ship Father Mathias travelled on is fired upon by the ghost ship and the Dort is tricked onto the rocks by it.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Amine has very light skin, dark hair, dark eyes, and red lips. Philip immediately falls for her beauty.
• Red Baron: The ship Captain Vanderdecken left the Netherlands with is the Amsterdammer. Once it becomes a phantom ship, the sailors who encounter it dub it the Flying Dutchman.
• The Reliable One: Krantz is coolheaded and clever. This is particularly advantageous while stuck on the Accursed Isle as he's the only one who doesn't succumb to his emotions. Krantz is the one who secures weapons for him and Philip, gets rid of 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 freeing them to eat and sleep, and all around ensures they're surviving.
• Rise from Your Grave: In Chapter XLI, the Flying Dutchman rises out of the water to meet the Nostra Señora da Monte. It prompts the captain to comment that he has "known ships to go down, but never to come up before."
• Robbing the Dead: 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 doesn't dare to inform him of his error.
• Sacred Hospitality:
  • Philip invites Father Mathias to his home where he may stay as long as he pleases, even when Philip goes back to sea and only Amine is home. The both are nothing but welcoming, while Father Mathias slips into being a poor guest. As a man of God in a Christian landscape, he can't let Amine perform witchcraft and barges into her room when there are signs of it. Amine doesn't throw him out for his trespassing, not to mention trying to control her in her own home, but she does protect herself by insinuating to him and the maid that he went into her room with lecherous intentions. The maid's gossiping provokes Father Mathias to leave Zeeland in shame but on his own accord. When about two years later Father Mathias hands Amine over to the Goa Inquisition, the memory of his hospitable stay at the Vanderdecken household is one of the reasons he regrets condemning her.
  • Amine herself proves a poor guest in the house of the widow and her 12-year old son in Goa. She cajoles the boy into helping her out with a magic ritual when his mother is gone and this is what gets Father Mathias to prove she truly is practicing witchcraft. Amine argues that he's barging into her room again, but then there's also the boy seeking the safety of his mother's arms, so nothing is right here and Amine gets executed some months later.
• Sadistic Choice: 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 only has one hope for salvation. Philip chooses to continue and Amine refuses to leave him.
• Saying Too Much: In Chapter XXI, Amine confronts Schriften with her understanding of his ghostly nature and gives among her arguments that he knows things only Philip is supposed to know. Schriften counters 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.
• Scatterbrained Senior: Starting Chapter XI, Mr. Poots is noted as wasting away in both body and spirit. Amine explains that he's "at one time almost imbecile, at others, talking and planning as if he were in the vigour of his youth."
• Scene of Wonder: Chapter XXII marks the encounter of the Utrecht with the Flying Dutchman. At first, the Utrecht fears it's going to be rammed in half by another normal ship, but at the moment of impact the other ship passes right through. The crew realizes they're dealing with the Flying Dutchman and reactions vary. Philip and Amine take the opportunity to look around the phantom ship, noting how little the phantom crew itself cares for the encounter, and for the first time since toddlerhood Philip beholds his father, who at that point is about the same age as he is. This scene marks a turning point in the narrative, because Philip won't see his father again until he's about double his age.
• The Scrooge: Mr. Poots is introduced as "a little, miserable, avaricious wretch." 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 portryaed as a source of humor and as one of danger.
• Seamless Spontaneous Lie: Krantz proves an absolute champion at coming up with cover stories when he has to fool the Portuguese Commandant at Tidore into thinking that they're nobodies. This includes parrying every single emotional exclamation pulled by Philip in regards to his wife Amine, whom the Commandant seeks to marry and needs Philip dead for to do so.
• Seen It All: The Poots Family has been through some stuff, but where it did damage to her parents, 17-year old Amine came out levelheaded, observant, and not easily impressed. For her, it started when her family had to leave everything behind and flee when her father failed to save the son of a bey. They lived for a while with the Bedouins, due to which they witnessed severe violence, before word came to them that the bey was dead and Mr. Poots could return to Cairo. He became wealthy again, drawing the ill-intended attention of the new bey, forcing them to flee to Spain. It's implied the same story of gaining and losing wealth occurred again in Spain, leading the family to try again in Middelburg for a year. Presumably, they left because of how the city was affected by the First Anglo-Dutch War and relocated to Terneuzen. Amine's mother died shortly after, just short of two years ago.
• 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 of the future due to being undead.
• Sinking Ship Scenario: The Ter Schilling, an unnamed Indiaman, the Vrow Katerina, the Utrecht, and several more ships only referenced all sink after encounters with the Flying Dutchman. Only a few people survive each time, the rest dying either during the sinking or from events that occur while trying to reach civilization in the lifeboats. In case of the Ter Schilling, there's even only one survivor: Philip.
• Stock Animal Diet: Jacob Janz Von Stroom dislikes 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.
• Supernaturally Young Parent: 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 grief.
• Taking You with Me:
  • 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.
  • Averted. Amine wants to rat out Father Mathias to the Goa Inquisition after he got her incarcerated by them. She's ready to tell of his approval of Philip's quest, which the Inquisition would see as the devil's work, but holds her tongue when she realizes that revealing all that would also endanger Philip.
• Time Skip: The first forty chapters take place over a period of four to five years. Chapter XLI, 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.
• Traumatic Haircut: Averted. When Amine is imprisoned by the Goa Inquisition, the first thing they take from her is her hair. Amine doesn't care not because her hair doesn't matter to her, but because she spits on cruel and selfish people like those working for the Inquisition.
• Together in Death: Amine repeatedly tells Philip that if he dies, she'll commit suicide. Philip doesn't want that to happen and as fate would have it, Amine dies before he does. Then it is he who wants to die to be with her again. He gets his wish after freeing the Flying Dutchman.
• Tragic Villain:
  • 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 an act of desperation.
  • Arguably, Father Mathias is to Amine what Schriften is to Philip. It's outright stated that Father Mathias is a good man, but misguided due to his Catholic devotion. That he hands over Amine to the Goa Inquisition to be burned at the stake is a consequence of both his religious obligation and emotional state, and it's a consequence he spends the rest of his life seeking to make amends for.
• Turn the Other Cheek: In Chapter XXI, Amine convinces Philip that they should treat Schriften with kindness because his destiny is probably interwoven with theirs so hostility isn't going to do anything while being nice (and playing dumb) might get him to drop his passive-aggressive demeanor and get talking.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Mr. Poots is regularly described as scrawny, weak, and miserable, while his daughter's beauty knocks Philip's senses out of him when he first sees her. Philip is flabberghasted to learn that Amine in all her grace is Poots's child.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • Notwithstanding that he is fully on board with murdering Poots, robbing him, and abducting his daughter, one of the robbers in Chapter IV mentions he'd rather not be the one to kill Poots because it is only thanks to him that he's still alive.
  • Philip owes his survival after the sinking of the Ter Schilling first to Johannes and then to the local people, who feed him, shelter him, fetch him a translator, and guide him to Table Bay. Perhaps not surprising for the time period, he only has bad things to say about the locals — their food, their hygiene, their appearance, their fashion sense, and so on. It's one continuing flow of absolutely unnecessary negativity. And if he were angry about them killing Johannes, that'd be one thing, but Philip doesn't care about that. Oh no, it's so much more relevant that, in his opinion, the local women are not as pretty as Amine.
  • Despite Philip saving his life, money, and daughter a year ago, Mr. Poots still tries to poison him to get his fortune.
  • Amine shows a before unseen narrow-mindedness when she thinks of the people of New Guinea, who saved her and kept her alive, in the same negative and condescending manners as her husband did in South Africa.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: The African slave that joins Philip's crew at St. Mary is introduced with an emphasis that suggests he's going to be around for a while. He is murdered five paragraphs later without even being given a name.
• "X" Marks the Spot: A predecessor of sorts. Philip and Krantz bury what treasure is left from the Utrecht on an island for the Company to pick up later. They bury it beneath a coconut tree, which they have "marked with their axe."
• You Are Not Alone: Amine often has to convince Philip that she's with him all the way through up into the grave. Philip feels terrible about it, but he also wouldn't be able to do what needs to be done without her support.
• Younger Than They Look:
  • 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 very stressful lives, so it's perfectly possible that caused them to show signs of aging well beyond their factual ages.
  • Philip spends several decades being literally mad with grief and comes out genuinely older, but also looking much older than he actually is.