Vanderdecken sails around the world in a number of ships, in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, so that he can redeem his father by presenting him with the relic of the Holy Cross he wears round his neck.

The legend of the Flying Dutchman forms the background to the story and makes regular appearances throughout the novel, while Marryat adds many other supernatural details.

In particular, it noted that Marryat "dashes off scenes of portent and terror with the same familiar and slip-shod style ... and the result is a feebleness of effect, not to be found in his other novels.

"[1] Likewise in referring to the book, The Dublin Review thought that the "falling off in his last novel ... is very considerable", and stated that "a string of extravagant adventures, carelessly put together, and heavily told, deaden curiosity,—the Flying Dutchman makes his appearance as regularly as a packetboat, and becomes at last almost as tiresome.

The story, however, is by no means the worst from the pen of Captain Marryatt, and thus far we most unequivocally recommend it.In more recent times S. T. Joshi has called the novel "an aesthetic disaster – appallingly prolix, and written in a stiff, cumbersome style that reads like a bad translation from a foreign language.