Castaways of the Flying Dutchman

Castaways of the Flying Dutchman is a fantasy adventure novel that follows a mute boy and his dog who are cast away from a cursed ship, granted eternal youth by an angel, and sent across the centuries to help people in need.

In Copenhagen in 1620, Vanderdecken, a ruthless Dutch sea captain, strikes a deal to transport emeralds from Valparaiso in exchange for three of the stones. Five crewmen, led by an Englishman named Scraggs, eavesdrop and begin plotting to seize the treasure. Meanwhile, a mute boy flees through the harbor from the sons of Bjornsen, his cruel stepfather. Cornered on the wharf, the boy is struck and falls into the sea. Presumed drowned, he grabs a trailing rope from Vanderdecken's departing vessel, the Flying Dutchman, and hauls himself aboard.

The crew discovers the half-frozen boy the next morning. Petros, the ship's Greek cook, claims him as a galley slave. A crewman named Jamil names the boy Nebuchadnezzar; Petros shortens it to Neb. At the last port stop in Esbjerg, Denmark, a half-starved black Labrador wanders aboard, and Neb secretly adopts it. When the crew returns drunk, Vanderdecken beats them; his emerald falls from his pocket, and when Petros reaches for it, the captain crushes the cook's hand under his boot. Scraggs and Jamil pressure Petros into confirming the emeralds exist, strengthening their resolve to mutiny.

As the ship sails through the English Channel, Neb cares for his dog, whom he names Denmark, and overhears Scraggs, Jamil, and Sindh, a Burmese sailor, plotting to murder Vanderdecken. When the three ambush the captain, Neb throws himself into the fray; Denmark leaps onto Scraggs's back, and Vanderdecken hurls Scraggs overboard to his death. The captain spares Jamil and Sindh because he cannot afford to lose more crew, promotes Vogel, a German crewman, to first mate, and installs Neb and Denmark in his cabin as guards.

The Flying Dutchman attempts to round Cape Horn in midwinter, and the voyage descends into catastrophe. Petros drowns, and Neb takes over as cook. Other crewmen perish or lose extremities to frostbite. Vanderdecken shoots Vogel dead for suggesting retreat and lashes himself to the wheel, vowing to round the Horn alone. After a week without food or water, the ship is driven back a third time and an eerie calm falls. Vanderdecken hurls blasphemous curses at heaven. An angel bearing a great sword appears amid lightning and the green glow of Saint Elmo's fire. The angel condemns Vanderdecken and all aboard to sail the world's waters for eternity. A massive wave washes Neb and Denmark overboard; the dog pulls the unconscious boy onto a floating spar as the Flying Dutchman recedes into the storm.

The angel returns to the boy and dog, declaring that their innocence has saved them from the curse. It grants them eternal youth, gives the mute boy the power of speech, and bestows on both the ability to communicate telepathically. They are charged with a mission: to roam the world forever, helping those in need.

Neb and Denmark wash ashore on Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South America. An old shepherd named Luis takes them in. Over three years the two thrive, but Luis notices that neither boy nor dog ages. When Luis dies from injuries sustained in a storm, the angel tells Neb in a dream to leave when he hears a bell. The lead ram's iron neckbell clanks, fulfilling the signal. Neb and Denmark head north. Over the centuries, they travel the world under new names, Ben and Ned, helping people wherever the angel sends them.

In 1896, Ben and Ned arrive by train in Chapelvale, a sleepy English village. Ben clashes with Obadiah Smithers, a prominent local citizen, and befriends Amy and Alex Somers, siblings who warn him about the Grange Gang, bullies led by Wilf Smithers, Obadiah's son. Ben and Ned then encounter Mrs. Winifred Winn, a widowed old lady whom the gang has been harassing at her hillside house. Ned chases the bullies off, and Mrs. Winn gratefully takes Ben and Ned in.

Mrs. Winn reveals that Smithers and his London partners, the firm Jackman Donning and Bowe, plan to demolish the village to quarry limestone and build a cement factory. A court order gives the villagers one week to prove legal ownership of the land. Mrs. Winn believes the Winn family has owned Chapelvale since medieval times, but she has no deeds to the village land. Ben resolves to help, recognizing this as the angel's purpose in guiding them here.

At the village library, the librarian Mr. Braithwaite helps Ben find a reference noting Chapelvale was granted to a sea captain by King Edward III around 1340. In Captain Winn's study, Ben discovers a torn scrap of parchment hidden in the family Bible. He then befriends Jon Preston, a retired ship's carpenter living in the almshouse, who possesses a matching scrap and a vellum letter from 1341 confirming that the king granted Chapelvale to a captain named Caran De Winn, with deeds and altar treasures to follow. Ben, Jon, Amy, Alex, and Braithwaite form an alliance to find the missing deeds.

Smithers pressures Wilf to intimidate Ben, while Maud Bowe, a representative of the London firm, secretly arranges for hired thugs to frighten Mrs. Winn. Meanwhile, Ben and his allies pursue riddles left by the De Winn family across the centuries. Each riddle, rooted in references to the four Gospel authors, leads to a piece of golden altar treasure hidden at a landmark around the village: a chalice in a farm well, a crucifix near the old smithy, and candlesticks beneath the old execution yard. Ben also faces down Wilf at a staged fight behind the library, dodging blows until the bully breaks his hand on a brick wall. A midnight dare orchestrated by Wilf backfires when Jon disguises himself as a monster, terrifying Wilf and permanently breaking the gang's power.

The candlesticks contain hidden scrolls with a final riddle. Braithwaite suggests lighting a candle in the candlestick, and the flame reveals invisible ink that spells out directions to an overgrown stagecoach lane east of the village. Beneath a buried millstone, the group discovers an armpiece of armor containing the royal deed to Chapelvale: a vellum scroll signed by King Edward III in 1341, granting Caran De Winn and his descendants perpetual ownership of the village. Meanwhile, Sergeant Patterson, the local policeman, arrests the London thugs Jon has lured into the station, and one implicates Maud's firm in hiring criminals.

On the deadline morning, Mrs. Winn's lawyer, Mr. Mackay, reads the deed aloud in the village square. The magistrate validates Mrs. Winn's claim, and the villagers erupt in celebration. Smithers is ruined, and the Bowes are escorted to the police station. Mrs. Winn grants every villager ownership of the land beneath their homes and leads the restoration of the almshouse as a village hall and museum, funded by a settlement from the London firm.

During the restoration, Jon discovers a hidden bell on the almshouse roof and strikes it. Ben, haunted by dreams of the Flying Dutchman and the angel's warning that a bell toll means he must leave, recognizes the signal. He and Ned slip away without saying goodbye. A week later, Mrs. Winn sits with Amy and Alex, mourning Ben's departure. She reflects that Ben was "like a kind of a good angel" (322). The village's future is bright: Her son is returning from overseas with his family. Ben and Ned, however, have vanished, leaving behind the enduring mystery of who they truly were.