Die schwarze Galeere; The Black Galley

Die schwarze Galeere; The Black Galley (1861)

Gräßlich aber war der Krieg ausgeartet. Es gab eine junge Generation, welche sich schon deshalb nicht nach dem Frieden sehnte, weil sie ihn gar nicht kannte.

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The situation deteriorated as the war got increasingly out of hand. A younger generation grew up not yearning for peace simply because it was unknown to them.

Published in 1861, this novella was one of Raabe’s most successful works and to this day remains one of his more well-known texts. Set in 1599 in Antwerp, the historical situation of the Dutch revolution against Spanish rule provides the background for a love story between the young Jan Norris, a bourgeois-turned-buccaneer, and the fair Myga. In his function as coxswain of a well-nigh mythical ship, the Black Galley, Jan is dedicated to the fight for his people’s freedom by boarding and sinking Spanish ships and therefore has to hide from the Spanish authorities.

Meanwhile, the captain of a Spanish ship, Antonio, has fallen for Myga and, egged on by his friend Leone, sets out to pay her a nightly visit. They break in on her and Jan, arresting the latter after a brief skirmish and taking the unconscious Myga to their ship. Aboard the vessel, the captain dies from his injuries and Jan inexplicably manages to escape, while Leone harasses Myga, claiming her for his own. Just when things begin to look really dire for the damsel in distress, the ship is suddenly under attack from the Black Galley that had clandestinely entered the port under Jan‘s command in order to rescue his bride. They kill Leone and commandeer his ship, leaving Antwerp triumphantly under cannon fire, with bells tolling and the singing of patriotic songs:

Meerwärts verhallten leise die Klänge, als das stolze Geusengeschwader mit seiner Beute, seinen blutigen Wunden und seiner Glorie in den immer dichter werdenden Nebel stromab glitt.

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The sounds gradually died down towards the sea as the proud buccaneer fleet, along with its prey, its bloody wounds and its glory, glided down the river into the ever thicker fog.

Parallel to the story of Jan and Myga, the reader learns of the war experience of the old Spanish officer Jeronimo. Though not vital to the plot, this character and his pessimistic musings on the futility of human attempts to make history add a more pessimistic and sober touch to the novella otherwise notorious for its colourful and sometimes slightly banal storyline.

English Translation

‘How the Black Galley Took the Andrea Doria’, trans. by Gertrude M. Cross, in Great Sea Stories of All Nations, ed. by H. M. Tomlinson (London: Harrap; Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1930), pp. 947-53