1749. A doomed voyage. A cursed treasure. A woman who will not rest.

When the East Indiaman Amsterdam leaves Texel, her crew believes the greatest dangers lie in storms, shoals, and the long passage ahead. But from the moment an unlisted chest is smuggled aboard, strange things begin to stir in the dark below decks.

Men fall sick without cause. Others die with lungs full of seawater. And Hendrik van der Velde, a seasoned sailor who has never believed in ghosts, begins to see a drowned woman watching him from the shadows — a woman bound to the gold hidden in the hold.

As the Amsterdam battles a brutal Channel storm and runs aground on the Sussex coast, the survivors discover the curse has followed them ashore. Smugglers vanish. Soldiers fall. And the sea itself seems determined to reclaim what was stolen from a distant shrine.

Some wrecks are accidents. Some are tragedies. And some are warnings.

The Amsterdam Ledger

Danielle Wynter Batts

Danielle Wynter Batts writes atmospheric Gothic and ghostly fiction set along the windswept coasts of England, blending mystery, romance, and the supernatural. Inspired by the rugged beauty of the south coast — where she lives — her stories explore history, myth, legend, and the thin veil between the living and the dead.