The Water-Witch: or the Skimmer of the Seas by James Fenimore Cooper. Short summary

5 seconds

A notorious smuggler and captain of the pirate ship Sea Witch kidnaps the niece of a wealthy Dutch merchant, Alida de Barberi. The abductee’s admirer, Captain Ludlow, sets out to find her.

1 minute

The action of the adventure novel takes place in the seventeenth century. In the city of New York, in the house of the wealthy Dutch merchant Mindert van Beverut lives niece, the beautiful Alida. The girl wants to marry a rich man. Alida has another beau — the young captain of the royal cruiser «Coquette,» Cornelius Ludlow.

But one night a twenty-two-year-old young man, a famous smuggler nicknamed the Ocean Wrecker and owner of the ship Sea Enchantress, shows up in Alida’s room. In the morning, the girl goes missing. Captain Ludlow rushes out in pursuit of the kidnapper’s ship.

After a long pursuit full of intrigue and dangers at sea, the captain manages to catch the kidnapper, but Alida cannot be found on his ship. After a time the girl reappears in the villa as if she had never disappeared. In the final scene the merchant has his own daughter, who falls in love with the smuggler and sails off with her beloved.