The Flying Dutchman is the story of a ship's encounter with the legendary ghost ship of that name; the tale originally appeared as "Vanderdecken's Message Home" in Blackwood's Magazine, May 1821. (The second link is more readable than the first.)
It's a mildly interesting story, set around the idea that running into the Flying Dutchman is bad luck, and accepting the missives of its cursed, homesick crew is even worse luck. This is apparently the first literary version of the Flying Dutchman legend, and introduces the name Vanderdecken (later, Van der Decken) for the captain of the doomed vessel.
The tale's author is Scotland-born doctor and travel writer John Howison (1797-1859). Howison wrote eight stories for Blackwood's, along with a series of essays recounting his time living and working in Canada. Blackwood published these essays in book form as Sketches of Upper Canada (1821), perhaps the work for which Howison is best known today.
Howison's stories, essays, and travelogues were hugely popular with the reading public. However, he seems to have had some sort of falling-out with William Blackwood, the founder and publisher of the eponymous magazine. Perhaps because of this, even though five of Howison's tales (including this one) were reprinted in the popular Tales from Blackwood series (1856-61), they are conspicuously unattributed.
Other than "Vanderdecken's Message Home," none of the Howison tales that I've read are supernatural, though they can be characterized as "tales of terror"[1] : adventure stories with some gothic overtones, characterized by accounts of near-death experiences. If you liked "The Flying Dutchman" aka "Vanderdecken's Message Home," here are a few more Howison tales that might be of interest.
- The Floating Beacon: Blackwood's October 1821, reprinted in Tales from Blackwood Volume 1 (along with "Vanderdecken's Message Home"). The protagonist is shipwrecked and reluctantly rescued by some sketchy people.
- Fatal Repast: Blackwood's July 1821, reprinted in Tales from Blackwood Volume 10. Hints of karma and the supernatural, centered on the maritime superstitions surrounding stormy petrels ("Mother Carey's chickens"). One unfortunate passing use of an ethnic slur.
- Nocturnal Separation: Blackwood's July 1822, reprinted in Nimmo's Popular Tales Volume 2 (c. 1866) as "My trip to St. Thomas's". Another shipwreck tale with some suspenseful bits and a deus ex machina ending.
Adventure in Havana (Blackwood's June 1821, reprinted in Nimmo's Popular Tales Volume 5 (c. 1867)) has a wonderfully gothic beginning, but peters out into a series of tragic anecdotes told by yellow fever victims in a Cuban sick-house.
The three other Howison tales for Blackwood's are "The Florida Pirate" (Blackwood's August 1821; Tales from Blackwood Volume 9); "Adventure in the North-West Territory" (Blackwood's September 1821; Tales from Blackwood Volume 9); and "Vanderbrummer: or, The Spinosist" (Blackwood's December 1821). The first two are adventure yarns, and the last an odd philosphical allegory. I didn't find them particularly interesting, but if you are curious, Tales from Blackwood Volumes 1-9 are all in Project Gutenberg, and Blackwood's Magazine Volume 10 (covering Aug-Dec 1821) is in Google Books.
Enjoy!
Woertendyke, Gretchen. "John Howison's New Gothic Nationalism and Transatlantic Exchange," Early American Literature, Vol 43 No 2 (2008). JSTOR link ↩︎