“There, not fifty yards away, lay the weird semblance of a vessel, a three-masted merchantman. There was hurrying to and fro on board, for she was preparing to sail, but not a sound was audible. Shapes of men were straddling on the foot-ropes of the topsail yards, loosing the canvas out of the gaskets. There was a capstan on the high forecastle head, and the bars manned and the cable already hove short. There was a filmy fiddler on the capstan top fiddling a soundless tune….”
[The Crew of the Flying Dutchman, Temple Bar: A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers, Vol.107, Hering, 1896]