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James Fenimore Cooper
THE WATER-WITCH; or, THE SKIMMER OF THE SEAS (1830) reviewed by Patrick Killough (1) biblio.com 04/19/2010 Recommend to others? YES * * * * * Pioneering American novelist James Fenimore Cooper was still residing in Europe when he penned his great sea adventure THE WATER-WITCH; or, THE SKIMMER OF THE SEAS. Yet the action by land and by sea all takes place not in Europe but in and around New Jersey and Manhattan island and environs. The Water-Witch is a trim, beautiful, very fast sailing vessel smuggling goods into the North American colonies of the last Stuart Monarch, Queen Anne. The time is the early second decade of the 18th Century, "171_," as Cooper puts it. Captain of the Water-Witch is a mysterious figure known far and wide as the Skimmer of the Seas. The novel is largely about the Skimmer and about his young New York born pursuer by land and by sea, Captain Captain Cornelius Van Cuyler Ludlow in the 20-gun HMS Coquette. For 25 years a smuggling team now led by the Skimmer has delivered contraband goods, including luxurious finery for high-born Colonial ladies, to Myndert Van Beverout, a doughty, ponderously and unintentionally witty 54-year Dutch alderman of Manhattan. The alderman wishes Queen Anne would give her North American colony back to Holland. Meanwhile he exhibits his opposition to the Stuart Dynasty by avoiding paying customs duties. The alderman has a beautiful 19-year old orphaned niece, Alida de Barbérie, his sister's daughter, as his ward. He would like to see her marry New York's richest bachelor, Oloff Van Staats, who, as Patroon of Kinderhook on the Hudson River, owns 100,000 prime acres. But there is hot Norman blood in Alida's veins and she is drawn to dashing but not wealthy young Captain Ludlow. In Alderman Beverout's summer home on Staten Island the love element grows complicated when an unexpected, effeminate 22-year old smuggler known as Seadrift leaps over the balcony of Alida, aka la belle Barberie, expecting to do business with her uncle. Seadrift is impressed by Alida's elegant belongings and spreads before her some luxury goods that only her uncle had been intended to see. Something instantly sparks between the two young people. Most of the elements are now in place to set in motion a tale of high derring-do. Alida mysteriously disappears. Her suitors Ludlow and van Staats fear that (1) Seadrift is the dreaded Skimmer of the
Seas
and that (2) hot-blooded Alida now loves Seadrift and has gone off with him aboard the Water-Witch. They are pursued at sea off and on for days by Captain Ludlow. For his pains, after approaching the Grand Banks, Ludlow's Coquette is fired upon by two French cruisers. Mysterious identities and lineages are then sorted out. Britain's "mercantile" policy prohibiting trade by its colonies with any nation other than the mother country are warmly debated by van Beverout and Ludlow. Clues are cleverly hidden to challenge readers who ask themselves: Is Beverout one of the great comic figures
of literature?
Is Seadrift really a man? Where did la belle Barberie disappear to and why? If you like hints of the supernatural, jealousy, sea craft, intricacies of sailing vessels, male rivalries and the early history of New York, I think you will like THE WATER-WITCH. -OOO- http://www.biblio.com/hardcover-book/the-water-witch-or-the-skimmer -of-james-fenimore-cooper~97a05~289575263 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (2) lunch.com HEADLINE: "Ludlow, I am but woman. "... "I did not mistake you for an Amazon," returned the young man. THE WATER-WITCH, or THE SKIMMER OF THE SEAS, James Fenimore Cooper's great sea adventure tale of 1830, has something for every 21st Century reader. The novel is about the British Colony of New York, about Manhattan Island and also about waters off Long Island (both then and in the novel called Nassau Island) during a summer between 1710 and 1714. For 1714 was the death year of Britain's last reigning Stuart monarch, Queen Anne, Protestant daughter of deposed Catholic King James II. And much is made in THE WATER-WITCH of Anne's reign drawing to a close because of her bad health and the legitimate by birth Catholic Royal males of the Stuart Dynasty on the verge of being set aside by act of Parliament in favor of Protestant relatives of the German House of Hanover. In 1664, English ships had seized New Amsterdam in a time of peace. After much fighting and negotiating England took permanent control of the Netherlands North American holdings by treaty in 1674. King Charles II of England bestowed the former Dutch colony on his brother James, Duke of York, Queen Anne's father -- to rule with none of the safeguards of a Royal Charter. Students of colonial history will be happily absorbed by the Cooper's atmospherics of old Dutch settlers, English newcomers, black slaves and menacing French warships based in Canada or the West Indies. This was the time (1702 - 1713) of Queen Anne's war in North America, an extension of the much larger War of the Spanish Succession (1701 - 1714). Have at it, please, ye history buffs! THE WATER-WITCH is the name of a swift, elegant ship with a ominous-looking witch as its figurehead -- a carving thought to bestow magical powers on the ship. The witch even delivers messages to the crew in oracular texts, often from Shakespeare, especially MEASURE FOR MEASURE! This sailing vessel is an unarmed smuggler of luxury goods from around the world into Britain's North American colonies. Its legendary but unknown captain is widely styled "the Skimmer of the Seas" for his preternatural skills in navigation, making his ship invisible, unconquerable and on and on. The Water-Witch's nemesis in the summer of 171_ (as Cooper dates his yarn) is the HMS Coquette, a 20-gun ship under command of 25-year old American-born Captain Cornelius van Cuyler Ludlow. Much of the novel is given to romance: between the non-rich Captain Ludlow and the immensely wealthy orphaned colonial heiress Alida de Barberie. Alida is also wooed by conventional, plodding New York Dutchman Oloff van Staats, who owns 100,000 acres at Kinderhook on the Hudson, where he enjoys the old Dutch title of Patroon. And unexpectedly a third apparent contender for Alida's hand appears, 22-year old Seadrift, who is looking for her guardian and uncle to peddle smuggled luxury goods but leaps into Alida's bedroom of the family summer house on Staten Island by mistake. Alida's father was a French Huguenot who had fled persecution in France for asylum in New York. Alida is constantly described by her uncle, the somewhat hypocritical and immensely amusing Alderman Myndert van Berverout, as having an excess of hot Norman blood that gives her masculine courage, fearlessness and a fascination with new situations and challenges. At one point Alida, her uncle and others are aboard the HMS Coquette when the English warship is attacked by two French men of war. Taken below the water line for safety before what turns out to be a ferocious series of skirmishes at sea off Long Island, Alida assures her lover who seems to think her without fear: "Notwithstanding
your generous interpretation of my character, Ludlow, I am but woman
after all."
"'I did not mistake you for an Amazon,' returned the young man, smiling, perceiving that she had checked her words by a sudden effort. 'All I expect from you is the triumph of reason over female terror'" (Ch. XXIX). I hope that this tiny taste of a very rich concoction called THE WATER-WITCH has tempted you to open that novel's pages for yourself. I doubt that you will be disappointed. -OOO- http://www.lunch.com/reviews/james_fenimore_cooper _the_water_witch-1443505.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (3) epinions.com title of this review: "... the sea-green lady loves music that tells of the ocean, and of her power" Written: Apr 22 '10 Reviewer's rating: * * * * * Pros: Colonial New York in 1712. British warship versus two French cruisers. Romance. Smuggling. Gothic mystery. Cons: No maps of waters off Manhattan and Long Island. Water-Witch not described for 13 chapters. The Bottom Line: Every age has its cutting edge naval technology. Early 1700s' examples: the Water-Witch, its British pursuer and two French attackers. Revel in sea power! Humorous. Gothic. An atlas will help. aohcapablanca's Full Review: James Fenimore Cooper - The Water-witch: Or the Skimmer of the Seas In 1830 James Fenimore Cooper did it again, penning another masterpiece of romantic fiction. Writing during his eight-year stay in Europe, onetime naval officer Cooper vividly recalled the moody rivers, estuaries, tides and winds in and around Manhattan's mighty harbor. He placed his sea adventure tale, THE WATER-WITCH; OR, THE SKIMMER OF THE SEAS in Colonial New York in the declining years of Britain's last reigning Stuart monarch, Queen Anne. This was also during a North American war involving Britain, France and other European nations in a far larger struggle, one theater of which bore Queen Anne's name. The Water-Witch is a sleek, ultra-buoyant brigantine (half brig, half schooner). A reader is challenged throughout to identify and come to terms with the mysterious man, her skipper, known around the world of piracy and contraband smuggling as "The Skimmer of the Seas." Candidates include a delicate young man of 22 who answers to Seadrift. We meet Seadrift leaping, by mistake, into a rich young woman's Staten Island bedroom on a warm summer's day. She is Alida de Barberie, age 19 wealthy, orphaned daughter of a French Huguenot refugee father and a prospering New York Dutch mother. Seadrift has erroneously taken candles burning in Alida's room to be a signal from her piously hypocritical uncle and guardian, merchant and New York City Alderman Myndert van Beverout, that he is ready to receive smuggled goods. This is the latest episode in a 25-year old history of the Alderman's trading with smugglers: first with a father and now for some years with his son who is called the Skimmer of the Seas. If Seadrift is not the Skimmer of the Seas, could it be a man who appears as the Sea-Witch's first mate, rugged, six footer Thomas Tiller? Or possibly an older sailor called Ben Trysail? This is also a tale of young love. Alida, "la belle Barberie," is loved by two New Yorkers in their mid-20s: Cornelius van Cuyler Ludlow and Oloff van Staats. Ludlow is captain of HMS Coquette, a 20-gun cruiser. Van Staats owns 100,000 acres stretching from the Hudson River to the Massachusetts border and has the hereditary title, Patroon of Kinderhook. Ludlow is not rich. The Patroon is very rich. Alida's guardian wants his niece to marry the Patroon. She, however, inclines strongly to the Captain ... until something about Seadrift starts her heart fluttering. The novel really gets rolling when Alida de Berberie disappears from her pavilion on her uncle's summer house. Her uncle and her two lovers fear that she has eloped with Seadrift to the Water-Witch. The Patroon, the Alderman and Alida's distraught French Servant Francois join Captain Ludlow in days and days of vain pursuit by sea of the Sea-Witch. Alida returns without explanation (from where? from a neighboring village a mile away on Staten Island? from the Sea-Witch?) At one point her family and friends are taken aboard the Water-Witch and are instantly plunged into the mystique surrounding her bowsprit's figurehead, a dissheveled, evil-looking witch, whose hand carries a book with pages in red letters bearing oracular texts, usually from Shakespeare, most frequently from MEASURE FOR MEASURE. Captain and crew swear by these oracles and rely on the spirit of this witch to keep them from capture by Captain Ludlow or anyone else. Aboard the Water-Witch is a young boy named Zephyr, who has never set foot on land. He tells visitors coming in search of Alida and hearing her captain singing a sea chanty: "they say the sea-green lady loves music that tells of the ocean, and of her power" (Ch. XV) I cannot deny that THE WATER-WITCH is complicated. But its clues are fair, no matter that its ending is quite the surprise. Go for this great novel if you are attracted to cross-dressing, mysterious genealogies, sea chanties, superstitions of sailors, a ship that you sometimes think is a real, breathing woman or animal, sailing vessels and their tackle, running gun battles at sea complete with broadsides, grappling hooks and close-quarter combat. You may find an atlas handy for imagining rivers like the Raritan and for Long Island (still called around 1712 Nassau Island) -- scene of much of the naval action. Be a fly on the wall as the wily, immensely comical, Alderman Beverout defends free trade and dodging customs duties against honest young Captain Ludlow, who will allow his love for the Alderman's niece to move him only so far from strict devotion to Queen Anne's service. THE WATER-WITCH is a keeper. -OOO- Recommended: Yes http://www99.epinions.com/review/Book_The_Water_witch_Easyread _Super_Large_18pt_Edition_James_Fenimore_Cooper/ content_509406187140 ==-=-=-= Response to 4/22/2010 comment by epinions.com's msiduri that in THE WATER-WITCH, Cooper may have been intentionally "silly." Re: Having grown up in upstate New York/ Fenimore Cooper grows on one. by aohcapablanca | Dear Marie, There is much intentional humor in THE WATER-WITCH. Silliness, on the other hand, is probably a matter of the reader's attitude toward the Gothic dimension in later Romantic novels. I have no reason to believe, for example, that Cooper himself shared in widespread nautical superstitions either of 1830 or 171_ (his date for the novel). But he reported them, he empathized with them, e.g. the mysterious disappearances of the Water-Witch. Alderman Beverout is, beyond doubt, a silly man, funny, too, as all get-out. He loves to burst into conversations with a bizarrely apt three-word phrase consisting a noun plus "and" plus a second noun. Examples: "Wedlock and blinkers!" (Ch. V); "Zephyrs and spas!" (Ch. XII); "Sentiment and favors!" (Ch. XIX) and on and on. There may be 150 of these curious constructions in the novel. At least they seem that many at times. Another point worth mentioning, the concept of "glamour" in Sir Walter Scott and his imitators and successors in the historical novel genre. If you are into shape-changing and related phenomena -- by humans and by other animals (e.g. by vampires and werewolves), then glamour, the power to make yourself "appear" other than you are, is a welcome, familiar element of some gothic romances, whether verse (e.g. Scott's THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL) or prose. Thus, frightened sailors in THE WATER-WITCH invoke glamour/glamor or the devil or simply the supernatural, to explain how they can drive the Coquette right through the Water-Witch, only to find that she wasn't there at all. Differing a bit from you, I did not care for Fenimore Cooper in high school. But in old age, my respect for him rises from book to book. I admit that I need the help of scholars to appreciate the depth and originality of his five travel books about Europe. But, like Sir Walter Scott, Cooper lived a rich, thoughtful, contributing life. And his genre-tossing-off fiction captivates me. On balance I prefer Scott's style of writing to Cooper's. But in his sea adventure tales, Fenimore Cooper can really bring water and ships, winds and tides to life. Thanks for commenting, Marie! Live long and prosper! Patrick K/AOHCAPABLANCA =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (4) bn.com Title of this review: "Women and winds are only understood when fairly in motion" (Ch. VI) Reviewer's rating of THE WATER-WITCH * * * * * Posted 4/18/2010: James Fenimore Cooper's 1830 novel, THE WATER-WITCH; or THE SKIMMER OF THE SEAS is a great sea adventure novel by the man who invented the genre. It was in 1823 that Cooper ( 1789–1851) did the inventing. He also underlined his novelty through subtitling his genre-opener, THE PILOT, as A TALE OF THE SEA. Cooper was reacting, as a former U.S. naval officer, to a vaguely similar 1821 novel by Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832), THE PIRATE, set in the Orkney and Shetland Islands of Scotland. Scott, a volunteer home guard cavalry officer back when Britain feared an invasion by Napoleon, was not a naval expert. And some of what Sir Walter wrote about a ship's rigging, maneuvers and the like annoyed Cooper, the professional seaman. So he wrote the PILOT, about a fictional raid made on the northeastern coast of England by John Paul Jones in the American Revolutionary War. Cooper then wrote sea adventure tale upon sea adventure tale. Curiously, Fenimore Cooper wrote THE WATER-WITCH toward the end of an eight-year residence, largely on land, in Europe. He minutely described from memory and other sources the coastal waters of New Jersey, Manhattan and Long Island and imagined various chases by a royal warship, the Coquette, of a smart, unarmed, graceful, fast smuggling vessel called THE WATER-WITCH, which had acquired a reputation for being protected by supernatural powers. Its mysterious, never brought to bay captain, was styled THE SKIMMER OF THE SEAS. I do not recall personally ever having been in any form of sailing vessel, small or large, in my nearly 75 years of life. But then how many Americans had sailed anywhere in 1830? Most of their ancestors, admittedly, had come from Europe by sea but they were farmers and people who moved westward mainly on foot. THE WATER-WITCH minutely details the construction of sailing ships in the very early 1700s: British, American Colonial and two French warships. I had to look up a few words in dictionaries. Thus, a sailing ship "in stays" is about to turn back into the direction whence it had just sailed. But I imagined James Fenimore Cooper as a kind of hi-tech fictioneer happily introducing Americans and Europeans to the intricacies of avant garde sailing vessels. I was enthralled, and so apparently were Cooper's contemporaries. They were like Walter Scott's readers, who had enjoyed his minutely detailed description of medieval body armor and weapons. Cooper knew and loved the sea. Some of his descriptions stay with me: "So
profound was the stillness in the Coquette, that the rushing sound of
the water she heaped under her bows was distinctly audible to all on
board, and might be likened to the deep breathing of some vast animal,
that was collecting its physical energies for some unusual exertion" (Ch.
XXX).
And those partners of the sea, the winds, what are they like? "Women and winds are only understood when fairly in motion" (Ch. VI). If winds, tides, the ocean, shores, sea chases and shipboard minutiae are not enough to tempt you to open THE WATER-WITCH, there is more. There is humor in Falstaffian New York Alderman and dealer in smuggled goods, Myndert Van Beverout, a patriotic Dutchman who wishes Queen Anne would give back her colony to the Netherlands. There are romances, trysts, cross dressing, hidden identities, arguments about free trade versus Britain's imposed colonialism. There are male jealousies and instances of great courage and gallantry by land and by sea. Enjoy! -OOO- http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Water-Witch/James-Fenimore-Cooper/ e/9781142455248/?itm=4&USRI=james+fenimore+cooper+-+the+water-witch =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (5) amazon.com 04/22/2010 title of this review: Once upon a time, when a sailing vessel was a witch and an oracle reviewer's rating of THE WATER-WITCH * * * * * Were you to call James Fenimore Cooper's great novel of 1830 THE WATER-WITCH; OR, THE SKIMMER OF THE SEAS a sea adventure tale, you would not be wrong. A British cruiser pursues a speedy, unarmed smuggling vessel, the Water-Witch, captained by the famous "Skimmer of the Seas." Piratical Captain Kidd had but recently been executed, and coastal cities of North America dreaded imminent pirate raids by his imitators. But the novel is also a snapshot of colonial New York around 1712. These were the years of North America's Queen Anne's War, which was but a large battlefield of Europe's War of the Spanish Succession. Cooper introduces us to that milieu. It is also a novel of free trade versus Britain's colonial trade policy called Mercantilism. THE WATER-WITCH is, in addition, a tale of young lovers, one a hot-headed 19-year old colonial heiress with Norman blood, Alida de Barbérie. Another is Cornelius Van Cuyler Ludlow, the unrich 25-year old captain of the Coquette, a British 20-gun warship. A third is large, lumbering, slow, owner of 100,000 acres, the Patroon of Kinderhook on the Hudson, Oloff Van Staats. All these and the girl's 54-year old merchant uncle and guardian, New York alderman Myndert Van Beverout, are intimately involved when the Coquette is attacked off Long Island by two French naval vessels. And this my sketchy review merely hints at the novel's complexity. Let me focus briefly on this romantic novel's gothic dimension. There are no dungeons, no clanking chains, no evil monks, no obvious ghosts in THE WATER-WITCH. But there are hidden personal identities, contorted family histories, along with cross-dressing. There is much mystery and sailor superstition both built into and fabricated about the trim sailing vessel, the Water-Witch. Who is its captain? Is it a haughty
30-year old six footer called Thomas Tiller? Or an effeminate 22-year
old young man called Seadrift?
Why is a very young boy called Zephyr, who has never set foot on land, as enthralled with the legends surrounding the Water-Witch as all the rest of its crew and almost every sailor in the world who has ever heard of this Customs-defying vessel? Detailed descriptions of the Water-Witch herself are first presented as late as Chapter XIV. Beneath the bowsprit of that sleek hybrid brigantine (half brig, half schooner, also styled "hermaphrodite") sailing vessel was carved a frightening figure-head. It displayed "A female form ... rested lightly on the
ball of one foot, while the other was suspended in an easy attitude.
... The drapery was fluttering, scanty, and of a light sea-green tint,
as if it had imbibed a hue from the element beneath. ... The locks were
disheveled, wild, and rich; the eye full of such a meaning as might be
fancied to glitter in the organ of a sorceress;
while a smile so strangely meaning and malign played about the mouth,
that the young sailor started when it first met his view, as if a
living thing had returned his look."
Above her head she held "an open book, with letters of red written on its pages." Its first text was from THE MERCHANT OF VENICE! Master Thomas Tiller turned further pages for the party who was coming aboard from Staten Island for a parley. Later more of the water-witch's texts are reverently cited, from Shakespeare, especially from MEASURE FOR MEASURE. Young Zephyr assures the visitors: "I serve the sea-green lady, with others of the brigantine" (Ch. XV). Her book guides the smugglers' every act. I hope that you now have enough introductory feel for THE WATER-WITCH; OR, THE SKIMMER OF THE SEAS to decide whether to open its pages for yourself. My guess is that you will find it fascinating. And don't forget it is full of puzzles and clues for you to unravel. -OOO- your tags: james fenimore cooper, sea adventure novel, oracles, seaships, colonial new york, queen anne's war, mercantilism Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: CSP Classic Texts; New edition edition (May 1, 2009) Language: English ISBN-10: 1443805440 ISBN-13: 978-1443805445 http://www.amazon.com/Water-Witch-James-Fenimore-Cooper/product -reviews/1443805440/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= novel's characters, alphabetically, copied from http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/writings/plots/walker-water.html Alida de Barbérie, Bonnie, Brutus, Carnaby, Bob Cleet, Coil, Lord Cornbury, Cupid, Dinah, Diomede, Dumont, Erasmus, Euclid, François, Hopper, Captain Cornelius Van Cuyler Ludlow, Lieutenant Luff, Phyllis, Reef, Rogerson, Captain Thomas Tiller, Ben Trysail, Eudora Van Beverout, Myndert Van Beverout, Oloff Van Staats, Robert Yarn, Zephyr. http://www.patrickkillough.com/books/cooper_witch.html |