Vanderdecken : or, The Flying Dutchman. A romance of the ocean

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VANDERDECKEN; OR, THE FLYING DUTCHMAN. A ROMANCE OF THE OCEAN. BI THE AUTH0B OP "TOM KINO;" "CAPTAIN HAWK;" " TAUL CLIFFORD;" " CLAUDE duval;" &C. &C "It came amid the lishtnin^'B sl u'h. Upon the roarim? main ; Oh i wolul siifht for mortal eyes, Tbat wreck to see again !" LONDON : PUBLISHED BY E. LLOYD, 12, SALISBURY SQUARE, iLEE r-STUEET PKEFACE. The wildly romantie legend of " Vanderdecken ; on. The Flying Dutchman," has been an imitating theme for more than one novelist, and inasmuch as the story was one which, with its many accessories, could Le treated in a variety of fashions, there existed no objections to its plot, so far as regarded the fate of Vanderdecken himself, being the ground work of more than one entertaining and instructive superstructure. It has been the aim of the author of the following tale to steer clear of his predecessors who have made use of the legend, and by taking fresh ground and diving, as it were, into the domestic life of the merchant princes of Amsterdam, he has attempted what those who have gone before him probably wanted the personal experience to do.

How far he has succeeded in painting vivid and life-like scenes to the imagination, the extraordinary sale of this work, published in a periodical form, affords a tolerable assurance. To the daily and weekly press, for the favourable notices of the work, the author begs to express his obligations, and then in its com plcted form to lay the romance before his best patrons, the reading public. London, : VANDERDECKEN, 08 No. I. VANDERDECKEN; OK, 2 fore^Bfrme down with all its shroud and T^hamper, with a frightful crasl upqp fliei$eck. Formate space of a few minutes tin battlingjwinds appeared to blow simul taneousjpfrom every point of the com pass. Iwe men had been swept over board, and their drowning shrieks onl; mingled for a moment with the madden ing war of the elements. A vivid flasi of blue lightning for an instant lit uj sea and air, and it showed that despai was upon every countenance.

A lons streak of blood was upon the captain': brow, for he had been struck by a falling spar; but he raised again hii trumpet to his lips, and the words " Clear the wreck!" rose above the gale " Lost ! lost !" shouted the crew, a: now the mizen-mast, after bending liki a reed, snapped asunder like the report of a musket, and went over the side. Erom that moment all disciplini ceased — oaths, prayers, wailing sobs and wild shouts of laughter, rose abovf the storm, and the wind roared anc whistled amid the torn and dismantled rigging, The waves made a furious lurch right over the vessel, and ever anc anon the long vivid flashes of the forkec lightning lit up the scene with lurid grandeur. " A sail ! A sail !" screamed a voice That voice was well known in tht ship. It belonged to a boy who was the nephew of the captain, and all eyes were eagerly turned to windward, witl the hope of seeing the vessel.

Chapter I. The Phantom Ship

It was one hour past midnight, on the last day of February, in the year 1808, that the English ship Helena, bound for the Mauritius, encountered a gale off the Cape of Good Hope, that threatened destruction to the noble vessel, and to every soul on board. Dense black clouds, looking like funeral palls, spread across the entire sky. The crests of the waves shed a wild phosphorescent light upon the sails and cordage of the Helena, and the wind roared and shrieked among the shrouds, as though it were loaded with invisible demons, who were rejoicing in the pos sible destruction of the gallant ship. Every rag of canvas had been scattered to skreads, for the storm had been so sudden, as the western bluff of the Africa coast was weathered, that there had been no time to adopt any means of precaution.

All tbat the captain could do, was to lash himself to the helm, and keep the ship's head to seaward as much as possible, while the tempest each moment increased in intensity. Above the roar of the gale, and the astounding lashing of the waves, might occasionally be heard the hoarse cries of the captain, as he would place the speaking-trumpet that hung round his neck to his lips, and give some orders to the crew, for the greater safety of the ressel. There was a lull for a moment. The ship rolled heavily in the trough of the sea. '''Batten down the fore-hatch now, my men!" cried the mate. "Cheerily there ! " Hold on for life!" roared the captain. " It's coming again." The words had scarcely left his lips, when the ship lurched over to larboard frightfully, and every soul on board that fated vessel thought that their last hour aad come ; but she righted again, and then, but not till then, they began to Snd what the storm really was, and what t was capable of, in the hour of its wildest fury.

Every portable article upon the deck iras whirled away in the air, as though ;hey had been mere straws. The lar .oard bulwatks were stove in as though ;h»y had been so much paper, and the large ship coming full towards them, with every stitch of canvas she could carry set to the breeze. It was awful to see it. " No — no, a delusion. Did you, or did you not, Wilson, see a large squarerigged vessel in full sail, crowded with canvas, bearing down upon us in the midst of the storm, while, if we had hoisted only an inch of canvas, it would have gone to ribbons like a piece of old bunting jj?" I " Yes, I saw it, and so did the whole ship's crew. Hilloa, my lads ! Who saw the strange craft that was going to run into us, and then went off like a wreath of smoke from the cook's galley P* " All— all !" cried the crew "And what was it, my heaities ?"

"The Flying Dutchman!" was the cry from every throat. : The captain turned pale. "Where is the boy?" he said. "Where is Frank?" " Here I am, uncle." " Keep by me, Frank. I think that this is the last voyage that any of us will make in the Helena." | " Land ho !" cried a man, who was on the look-out. Captain Franklin sprang on to the nettings, and with his glass, took a long I look. I " Yes," he said. " There's the Table Mountain. We are nearer the Cape than I thought we were, and in our crippled state it will be madness to : attempt to gain the Mauritius. We | must get into Table Bay as well as we can. Wilson, get up a jerry-mast, and make all our deck as ship-shape as pos 1 sible. I will be up again soon." " Don't you hurry, sir," said the mate. " There's lots of younger men I than you are, sir, to get the ship in order again.

This night has been almost ' too much for you, sir. You go down and turn in for a few hours, and leave the deck to me ; and when you come up again you won't know it, sir." " Very well, Wilson ; get her into the bay if you can. Give the men an extra ration of grog. I will rest if I can, but " " Helena alee !" shouted the mate. "She'll run us down." " No !" shrieked the captain. " No ! Oh, God, help us now ! It is the Phan tom Ship !" I As the words came from his lips, tbe stately vessel, with all its sails set, shrivelled up and disappeared like a burnt scroll, as it were, within twenty yards of the bow of the Helena, and then, as if at the fiat of some one mighter than the winds and the waves, the storm dropped. The dense clouds opened, and let the soft light of the dawn fall upon the deep.

The waves hid their crested : heads. The gale no longer roared ! through the wreck of the Helena's masts, • and, save the seething wash of the sea's surface, there was but little left to j point to the fact that such a strife of the elements in their maddest hour had taken place. "God, it's over now!" cried the captain. " Clear the wreck, my lads, j Cut away every thing. To ;work — to work!" The sailors gave three loud cheers, ' and then, animated by the idea that the storm was over, they commenced with alacrity ridding the ship of the dragging mass of sails and cordage that hung over her sides into the water. As soon as that was done, she righted. The carpenter reported all sound below ; and although the Helena was little better than a sheer hulk, she yet obeyed the J helm, and rode the surface of the sea bravely.

"We are saved, indeed," said the captain, as the mate came towards him, ' pressing the sea weeds from his hair. " We are saved." "Why, yes, sir, I take it as we is; but it was a close touch that, sir, rather. I booked us all for Davey Jones's locker." The captain took the rough seaman by the collar, and placing his lips close to his ear, he said — "Did you see it?" " Ay— ay, sir." "Upon your oath, Wilson, you do not think it was a delusion ?" "But what, sir?" " My heart misgives me, Wilson. The Phantom Ship don't appear for nothing. Well— well, we shall see. We shall see." "Ah!" said Wilson, when the old captain had gone below. " We shall see. " A collusion, sir ?" this coast, where there is almost always a wild sort of sea running." "No— noJ." said Captain Franklin,. as these words reached his ears.

" No, my gallant shipmates, do not say that. I can face storms, as I have faced many. Let the wind blow its worst, and let the salt sea lash the bark. I can laugh at its fury ; but when we see sights that are more than human, we may well be affected, and shrink before them. Where s Frank ?" If the Helena makes a port, why, I'm a Dutchman, that's all. But we will try. The Phantom Ship is a pretty sure sign, that it's all up with the Helena ; but it won't do to discourage the men, or we might as well all go down plump to gether at once. Now, my mates, cheerily to work, and we will scon put the old •hip in her shape again." _ A loud shriek from the captains cabin at this moment struck upon the ears of the ship's crew, and they all started up from their various employ ments, and looked at each other in dis may.

" What's that ?" cried the mate. " Here I am, uncle," cried the boy. " What sights !— what sights !" cried the crew. " We can't work the ship if there's anything wrong in her. What is it ?" " Look to the helm, you lubbers !" said the mate. " Do you mean tn let the old Helena float at the mercy of the winds and the waves ? To your duty, men ! — to your duty 1" The seamen had, as with one accord, crowded round their captain ; but now, somewhat abashed at the reproof of the mate, they shrank back to their stations. " I must tell you all," said Captain Franklin. " I have said enough to excite. curiosity, and I must satisfy it, now." "No, sir, say nothing," interposed the mate. " They are quite inclined to be frightened enough, as it is. There ain't a greater superstitious animal than a sailor, sir, in all the world.

Don't tell 'em anything, captain. Don't, I beg, sir." " It will be worse," said the captain, " to leave it to their imaginations, and, besides, it must be told. There is a stranger in my cabin." " A stranger !" cried every voice. " Hush ! belay, there !" cried Wilson, the mate. " If we are to hear it, let's have all the ins and outs of it in a judg matical way. Silence, all of you, and let the captain speak." You might have heard a pin drop on board of the Helena at that moment. The man at the helm grasped the wheel with both hands, but his head was in clined towards the captain, who, holding on by a gun carriage, with his face as. pale as death, and his gray hair dancing in the light wind, that only now swept softly over the ship, thus spoke, — '* You know, shipmates, that I had been at the wheel for the whole of the passage of the gale over ov fated ship : "Help! help!" shouted Captain Franklin, and ce rushed upon deck, more like a madman than a human being.

Terror was in every feature of his face, and as the early morning light fell upon his eyes, they seemed starting from their sockets. "Help! Oh, help! Mercy ! I knew it would come to some thing"! The cabin— the cabin ! The Phantom Ship ! We are doomed ! Doomed are all of us, and the good vessel that has stood between us and the waves, will never mere see her port ! The storm was not the work of Heaven ! Fiends raised it from the bosom of the deep, and now they are on board us. Help— help ! Oh, help ! God save us all!" He fell heavily upon the deck of Ihe vessel, before any of his panic-stricken man could interfere to save him, for they all seemed as though they were turned to stone, as they heard their captain wildly utter such a strange and frantic speech. 1 he mate first recovered sufficiently to lift Captain Franklin to his feet, and to cry out— " What is the meaning of all this ?

Oh, sir, say what it is that has so terrified you. Speak to us now. The sea is getting as smooth as glass, and there's not wind enough to ruffle the curls on a girl's cheek. The old craft, sir, is yet stout and strong." "Where is he, now?" said the captain, faintly. *' Who — who ?" cried everybody. " It's the storm," said an old sailor ; " it's the storm that has been too much for him. It takes a younger man tn tattle with the winds and the waves off you know that I had not flinched from my duty, which was, to keep the Helena's head to sea, for there was our only chance of safety ; and you know that when the storm was over, I went below, being then confident that I might trust in you all to work the ship ; — but in my cabin tl'.treis a stranger. Who and what he is, or how he came there, I know not, hut there he is.

Only a faint light came in by the one open window that I un locked, as the spray did not reach it now, and there I saw him sitting on a bulk bead, and looking as I never saw mortal man look. — I cannot go into that cabin again." The captain shuddered, and leant heavily upon the arm of Wilson for sup port. He was evidently deeply affected. The crew looked aghast at this informa tion, and Wilson called out,— " If there's any one in the captain's cabin, let's have him out of it at once." " I'll go and see," said the boy Frank. "No! — oh, no!" cried the captain. " You must not, Frauk. Do not let him go, I beg of you. I promised his widowed mother that I would be careful of him. Do not let him go." "Never fear for me, captain. I haven't ploughed the salt sea, man and boy, for forty years, to be afraid at a trifle, and if it were the devil himself, or even the Flying Dutchman, Vanderdecken " A shout of surprise and terror arose from the crew, as at this moment a tall dark figure rose up from the hatchway leading to the captain's cabin.

Chapter II

, THE SPIKIT IN THE BOAT. The ship's company of the Helena might well be excused for regarding the personage who ascended to the deck from the captain's cabin with a fearful and absorbing interest. In person, ne was thin to emaciation. He was rather above the middle height, and his face and hands were of a deathly paleness. He wore a sort of plum coloured suit of apparel, open at the knees, and then laced with a rusty silken cord. The sleeves of his jacket or doublet were long and slashed. His hose was of a dusky brown, with large stripes up the sides, and his shoes were adorned with massive silver buckles — on his head he wore a three-cornered hat, and a mass of jet black hair de scended on to his shoulders — a broad black belt was round his waist, to which hung a canvas bag. Weapons he had none — at least, none were visible.

Such was the figure that with a slow and stately step came up from the captain's cabin of the Helena and faced the " Hold hard, Master Frank !" cried Wilson. "This is no boy's business. Let me go. I am not afraid of man nor devil !" "But I'm not a boy," said Frank. "I was fifteen, last Christmas, and you have no right to call me a boy, Wilson ; and I'm not afraid of fifty men, or fifty devils !" "Let's all go!" cried one of the crew. " What !" said Wilson, " all the ship's company go together to the cap tain's cabin, because there is some one there that ought not to be ? That don't look English-like, I take it; and, besides, how many of you are to get down the hatchway at once, you lubbers, eh ?" The crew drew back. crew. There can be no doubt but that up to that moment, notwithstanding the pro verbial superstition of sailors and their strong disposition to credit anything of the marvellous that they possibly could, they had all considered that the captain's account of having seen some one in his cabin was but the result of an over-wrought brain, and hence when such a figure did really appear before tbem, consternation and terror sat upon every face. • " Avast, all of you," added Wilson.

"What manner of man was he, captain?" " Pale and sad, and dressed in an ancient suit of faded brown, trimmed with rusty lace. Oh. Wilson, do not go. I beg of you to be careful of yourself, for if I fail, and I feel tnat I am sailing fast, what is to become of the old Helena, if you are not up to the point i" " 'Tis he — 'lis he !" cried the captain, and he fainted and fell upon the deck. The crew all shrank back to the farther end of the vessel, excepting Wilson and Frank ; and the strange figure bent its gaze upon them with such a "look of calm despair, that the boy was touched by it, and found strength to say — Hush 1 Indeed, there is nothing to fear now." " Then, he is gone ?" sighed the captain. " Alas !" said the stranger, holding up both his hands ; " what have I done that I should awaken such terror in the heart of a brave man ?

What have I done that I should be shrunk from with horror P The wild waves have spared me, and will man reject me ?" The captain's eyes fell upon the figure of the stranger guest, and with frantic vehemence, he cried,— " Away with him ! Overboard with him ! He is not of this world ! Away with him, I say ! Look into his eyes ! They have not the light of life in them ! We are doomed while he is with us !" " Who are you ? Where do yon come from ? ' "Ah!" cried Wilson, in a voice hoarse with contending feelings. J " Who are you, and where do you come from ?" The figure advanced a step or two. " Keep back !" cried the boy, as he strove to drag the insensible form of his uncle out of reach of the extraordinary appearance. " Keep back : you have no business here !" In a soft, melancholy voice, the deep cadences of which were irresistibly at tractive, the figure spoke — "Kind and gentle friends," it said.

" Is there no pure humanity in all your souls ? Can you have no pity for a shipwrecked man, who is thrown upon your mercy ? — Oh, be gentle ■ and kind to one whom fate has thrown into your hands. Am 1 so wild and terrible that you should all shrink from me ? Ah, no— ah, no!" " Oh, this is sad !" said the stranger. " This is sad, indeed ! and in a Christian vessel. I ask of you nothing but what you all freely ask for, and freely get, if your ship had been wrecked. There were many mortal souls, but they all perished. I only wish a passage in your gallant bark to your port, after you leave this part of the world." " No— no !" cried the crew. "No !" That " Ah, no !" was so exquisitely musical, that it lingered upon the air like the memory of some halfforgotten tune- Frank looked at Wilson, and Wilson looked at Frank.

Fear was subsiding into wonder, and then the boy said— " But how came you here ?— and who are you ?" "My ship," said the stranger, as he waived his arm. " My ship went down in the storm. I can perceive that it has not left you scathless ; but I am a bold swimmer, and I made my way through the surging waters. I clutched the stern-galley of your vessel, and made my way into the cabin amid the strife and fury of the elements. I am a shipwrecked man, and ship-saved, likewise. Will you pity me ?" Again the last words that came from the lips of the mysterious stranger sounded like the wail of some distant music. As this brief conference had proceeded, the crew had crept closer and closer to the spot upon which it was taking place, and the captain, too, showed signs of consciousness. " Sad again !" said the stranger.

" Look, my noble comrades of the ocean ! I lhave gold that will pay you well for my passage ; and I am still and inoffen sive. Behold !" He poured out of the little canvas bag that was attached to his waist a number of pieces of money ; but they were all so black with age and tarnish, that it was quite impossible to say what metal they were made of. One of them dropped upon the deck at his feet. " You all of you see," he said, "that I can pay. These are broad gold pieces, and will satisfy you. Take them all, so that you earry me to Europe, and land me at — at " " Amsterdam ?" cried a sailor. "Yes," said the stranger, "at Am sterdam," and as he spoke the word there was the same soft musical cadence in his voice that had been so striking be fore as he had addressed Frank and Wilson. " I knew it," added the sailor, step ping forward, " I knew it."

" You knew what ?" said Wilson. "That he wants to go to Amsterdam. Look at him— look at his clothes, and " Hush ! — hush ! " cried Frank. " There is nothing to fear. Look up ! the tarnished lace, messmates. Look at his gold, as black as ink. Look in his face. Of course he wants to go to Amsterdam. Did you never hear that Vanderdecken, the captain of the Fly ing Dutchman, always wants to get a passage to Amsterdam, for which he would pay anything." " Vanderdecken !" cried the crew, as they recoiled with horror from the vicinity of the stranger. •" Yes," added the old sailor, in a voice struggling with excitement. " His ship went down, as he says, on our weather bow ; but it was the Phantom Ship, and he was her captain. Look at him now." looking on the outside, but within of pureist ore." " Overboard with him !

It is Vander decken ! Down with him ! He is accursed ! Kill him !•" "If I am accursed, why is it that Heaven has spared me ? Oh, if you be men, I implore you to grant me the passage that I ask of you. Only to Amsterdam — to the port of Amsterdam. You all understand me ? I will enrich every man in the ship. There is more gold — gold in heaps, to be got. But, oh ! if you have Christian souls and hearts, take me to Amsterdam !" The shouts of the sailors now assumed the most threatening aspect, and cries of " Vanderdecken ! It is Vanderdecken 1" "Down with him!" "Into the sea!" " Slay him!" were shouted in every possible variety of intonation. " You hear, bad spirit," cried Captain Franklin vehemently. " You hear that this is no place for you. Each moment, my men, that he remains on board our vessel, she settles in the water.

Yonder is Table Bay. If we would reach it, he must be got rid of. He is the Jonah, I tell you, who will be our destruction else." The stranger smiled faintly. " Vanderdecken ! Vanderdecken !" cried the crew. "Nay, my noble messmates," said the stranger, "you give too much way to idle superstition. Look at this gold. Will not a hundred of such broad pieces pay you well for the passage of one man ?" " 'Tis he !" shouted Captain Franklin. " 'Tis Vanderdecken, the captain of the Fljing Dutchman, and he will prove a Jonah to our ship. We will not take him for all his gold. He knows well that we were bound for the Mauritius, from there to take ivory to Amsterdam, and he would secure a passage with us. If Vanderdecken can once get a passage in a Christian vessel to Amsterdam, which is his port, he will get rid of the curse that clings to him."

" Alas 1 alas !" said the stranger. " He admits it !" cried the captain. " Away with him ! Cast him over board, my men : we will not have him in the ship. No vessel can live that has him on board. We will not have his gold !" With yells, and cries of rage, and with the feelings of men who were about to make an effort for their lives, the sailors seized upon various weapons, and in a threatening mass advanced. " What would you ?" said the stranger. " Here is a ship, there is the sky, and below is the sea. Where would you that T should go ?" " Over — over, with you !" they shouted. "We won't have you here. Overboard with you, at once ! As you came, you may go !" "Yet a word." " No — no ! Not one — not one ! Over with him — over with him I" "Oh, this is wicked and cruel," said the stranger. "I stand before you here as a Christian man, in a Christian ship.

I am saved from the fury of the wind and the waves ; but 1 am not saved from the fury of my fellow creatures. This is very sad." " Away with him ! Overboard with him !" cried the sailors, and they advanced threateningly. " Nay, look at the gold. The sea air has tarnished it a little, hut it is like many a human heart, rough and dark- Another moment, and they would, with pikes and hatchets, and some with cutlasses, have made a simultaneous attack upon the stranger ; but Frank threw himself between them and him, crying out with all the power of voice he was master of— " No ! I say, this is unfair ! It is cowardly I" The infuriated men paused. " You shall not kill him ! You shall not throw him overboard. I don't want * A.SD___,_ttUJi,-.ll.___,lN. "Cast off!" cried Wilson; and the boat was alone upon the water.

The ship was soon some twenty feet from it, and then they saw the stranger stand up in it, and clasping his hands above his head, he cried, in a wailing voice,— "A passage to Amsterdam! — a pas sage to Amsterdam ! Will no Christian ship take a benighted soul to Amster dam ?" There was then one loud shriek, and boat and stranger both in one instant disappeared below the surface of the sea ! A shudder pervaded the crew of the Helena, and each one looked in his neighbour's face, as though there he hoped to gather some courage that he felt not himself. to keep him in the ship more than any of you. He may be what you say. He, perhaps, is Venderdecken ; but that's no reason why we should do a dastardly thing. If you will make him leave the ship — " He shall— he shall !" yelled twenty voices. "Well then, the sea is calm, and Table Bay is only some eight or nine knots ahead of us.