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The Hardy Boys #26
The Phantom Freighter
The Hardy brothers embark on a freighter trip under mysterious circrcumstances and find themselves involved with a smuggling ring.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1947
67 people are currently reading
852 people want to read
About the author
Franklin W. Dixon
734 books991 followersFranklin W. Dixon is the pen name used by a variety of different authors who were part of a team that wrote The Hardy Boys novels for the Stratemeyer Syndicate (now owned by Simon & Schuster). Dixon was also the writer attributed for the Ted Scott Flying Stories series, published by Grosset & Dunlap.
Canadian author Leslie McFarlane is believed to have written the first sixteen Hardy Boys books, but worked to a detailed plot and character outline for each story. The outlines are believed to have originated with Edward Stratemeyer, with later books outlined by his daughters Edna C. Squier and Harriet Stratemeyer Adams. Edward and Harriet also edited all books in the series through the mid-1960s. Other writers of the original books include MacFarlane's wife Amy, John Button, Andrew E. Svenson, and Adams herself; most of the outlines were done by Adams and Svenson. A number of other writers and editors were recruited to revise the outlines and update the texts in line with a more modern sensibility, starting in the late 1950s.
The principal author for the Ted Scott books was John W. Duffield.
Canadian author Leslie McFarlane is believed to have written the first sixteen Hardy Boys books, but worked to a detailed plot and character outline for each story. The outlines are believed to have originated with Edward Stratemeyer, with later books outlined by his daughters Edna C. Squier and Harriet Stratemeyer Adams. Edward and Harriet also edited all books in the series through the mid-1960s. Other writers of the original books include MacFarlane's wife Amy, John Button, Andrew E. Svenson, and Adams herself; most of the outlines were done by Adams and Svenson. A number of other writers and editors were recruited to revise the outlines and update the texts in line with a more modern sensibility, starting in the late 1950s.
The principal author for the Ted Scott books was John W. Duffield.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
September 26, 2017
It's late, so, I'll just say this: The usual hallmarks of the series are present here, and fans of the franchise will likely enjoy this.
November 26, 2017
A solid mystery in the Hardy Boys series. We got Chet and Biff along for the ride, although they didn't get to help that much.
This was one of those stories where a scientific Macguffin was central to the plot; although we didn't know that until the last eight pages of the book!
A good tale for younger kids and for parents to read at bedtime.
Read It!
This was one of those stories where a scientific Macguffin was central to the plot; although we didn't know that until the last eight pages of the book!
A good tale for younger kids and for parents to read at bedtime.
Read It!
January 13, 2022
More fun and adventure with the Hardy Boys. A fidgety, pushy stranger, a missing parcel and a phantom freight ship lead to a smuggling ring and adventure on the high seas!
January 14, 2012
Franklin W. Dixon
copyright 1947 by Simon & Schuster
mystery
This story starts with two detectives' aunt not being able to receive a carton in the mail. Their father is an actual detective and his case ends up crossing with the two young detectives trying to find the carton. The two boys (detectives) are caught in various traps along the way. They are very determined and eventually find the criminals with the help of family and friends.
The theme that the author presents in this story is to never give up. One example is when the hardys (detectives) are caught in a flaming barn in the beginning of the story. They also receive letters saying to not go or else they will not come back alive! Finally, they are targeted by an arrow shooter that was intended to kill them. When this case looked like it was impossible to solve, these detectives stepped up to the challenge and outsmarted the criminals even when the criminals hired spies and assasins.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It brought out my eagerness to what could possibly happen next and it made me feel like I was in the book and I had to solve the case with them. This book also had its share of humor, so it was good for me in that case too. I would recommend this book to an audience who enjoys intense scenes filled with action, but also a little bit of humor to level it out. This book is a lot like the others I have read because there is a whole series of Hardy boys books that I have read. These books also make me think more in everyday life if I am being followed or if someone is out to get me.
A quote from this book is when the Hardy boys realized that there were four dummies in a window instead of the three that they saw before. Joe said " I locked him in. He's our prisoner," after he locked the door to the store and then called the police headquarters pg. 89. The writing style in this book is to bring out the suspence that the two detectives are in to almost finding and capturing the criminal. The criminal ended up jumping through the glass window and getting away from the detectives. The author did a good job of waiting until the end of the book until the detectives finally captured the criminals.
My relationship with the theme is that I try to never give up also. If I give up in something, there is always a very good reason. I am also related to the two detectives in this book because I get along with my friends like they do. This book has affected me by opening my eyes more in life and sometimes pretending to be a detective if I lost something in my house or if I am trying to figure out who made the footprints in the kitchen. This story made me appreciate my life a little more because I don't have to worry about being watched, or making really big decisions that might cost my life eventually.
copyright 1947 by Simon & Schuster
mystery
This story starts with two detectives' aunt not being able to receive a carton in the mail. Their father is an actual detective and his case ends up crossing with the two young detectives trying to find the carton. The two boys (detectives) are caught in various traps along the way. They are very determined and eventually find the criminals with the help of family and friends.
The theme that the author presents in this story is to never give up. One example is when the hardys (detectives) are caught in a flaming barn in the beginning of the story. They also receive letters saying to not go or else they will not come back alive! Finally, they are targeted by an arrow shooter that was intended to kill them. When this case looked like it was impossible to solve, these detectives stepped up to the challenge and outsmarted the criminals even when the criminals hired spies and assasins.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It brought out my eagerness to what could possibly happen next and it made me feel like I was in the book and I had to solve the case with them. This book also had its share of humor, so it was good for me in that case too. I would recommend this book to an audience who enjoys intense scenes filled with action, but also a little bit of humor to level it out. This book is a lot like the others I have read because there is a whole series of Hardy boys books that I have read. These books also make me think more in everyday life if I am being followed or if someone is out to get me.
A quote from this book is when the Hardy boys realized that there were four dummies in a window instead of the three that they saw before. Joe said " I locked him in. He's our prisoner," after he locked the door to the store and then called the police headquarters pg. 89. The writing style in this book is to bring out the suspence that the two detectives are in to almost finding and capturing the criminal. The criminal ended up jumping through the glass window and getting away from the detectives. The author did a good job of waiting until the end of the book until the detectives finally captured the criminals.
My relationship with the theme is that I try to never give up also. If I give up in something, there is always a very good reason. I am also related to the two detectives in this book because I get along with my friends like they do. This book has affected me by opening my eyes more in life and sometimes pretending to be a detective if I lost something in my house or if I am trying to figure out who made the footprints in the kitchen. This story made me appreciate my life a little more because I don't have to worry about being watched, or making really big decisions that might cost my life eventually.
September 9, 2025
#Binge Reviewing My Past Reads:
Hardy Boys (Read between 1990 and 1996 in M.P. Birla School library and punctiliously collected and read thereafter.)
A freighter that vanishes like a ghost—how could any boy resist that? The title alone promised foggy docks, moonlit waves, and the thrilling uncertainty of a vessel that might or might not exist. Reading this in the early ’90s, I remember feeling the chill of imagined sea spray and the pulse of suspense as Frank and Joe pursued clues through Bayport and beyond.
The story itself blends maritime mystery with smuggling and sabotage, and like many Hardy Boys novels, it hinges on the tension between what is seen and what is hidden. The “phantom” freighter serves as a perfect metaphor: danger appears and disappears, truth is elusive, and only keen observation and courage can bring clarity. For me as a young reader, the freighter was less a plot device than a vessel of imagination—a place where logic and fantasy sailed side by side.
In retrospect, The Phantom Freighter also mirrors the adolescent fascination with liminality. The freighter exists between presence and absence, the known and the unknown—much like the early teenage years, which hover between childhood certainty and adult responsibility. Every shadow, fog-shrouded harbor, and mysterious cargo became an allegory for the hidden possibilities of life waiting just beyond familiar shores.
Culturally, the book reflects the mid-century American pulp sensibility: a world defined by travel, commerce, and clandestine threats. Reading it in Calcutta, the specifics of Bayport’s docks didn’t matter as much as the thrill of international adventure and the idea that the ordinary—harbor, ship, dock—could conceal extraordinary secrets.
Ultimately, what stays with me from The Phantom Freighter is the rhythm of suspense, the tug of the unknown, and the sense that adventure often sails just out of sight—phantom or real—and it takes courage, curiosity, and wit to bring it into port.
Hardy Boys (Read between 1990 and 1996 in M.P. Birla School library and punctiliously collected and read thereafter.)
A freighter that vanishes like a ghost—how could any boy resist that? The title alone promised foggy docks, moonlit waves, and the thrilling uncertainty of a vessel that might or might not exist. Reading this in the early ’90s, I remember feeling the chill of imagined sea spray and the pulse of suspense as Frank and Joe pursued clues through Bayport and beyond.
The story itself blends maritime mystery with smuggling and sabotage, and like many Hardy Boys novels, it hinges on the tension between what is seen and what is hidden. The “phantom” freighter serves as a perfect metaphor: danger appears and disappears, truth is elusive, and only keen observation and courage can bring clarity. For me as a young reader, the freighter was less a plot device than a vessel of imagination—a place where logic and fantasy sailed side by side.
In retrospect, The Phantom Freighter also mirrors the adolescent fascination with liminality. The freighter exists between presence and absence, the known and the unknown—much like the early teenage years, which hover between childhood certainty and adult responsibility. Every shadow, fog-shrouded harbor, and mysterious cargo became an allegory for the hidden possibilities of life waiting just beyond familiar shores.
Culturally, the book reflects the mid-century American pulp sensibility: a world defined by travel, commerce, and clandestine threats. Reading it in Calcutta, the specifics of Bayport’s docks didn’t matter as much as the thrill of international adventure and the idea that the ordinary—harbor, ship, dock—could conceal extraordinary secrets.
Ultimately, what stays with me from The Phantom Freighter is the rhythm of suspense, the tug of the unknown, and the sense that adventure often sails just out of sight—phantom or real—and it takes courage, curiosity, and wit to bring it into port.
January 2, 2023
Opnieuw een verhaal over de Hardy broers dat tjokvol verhaallijnen zit. Of toch heel veel draden die pas op het einde allemaal samenkomen in een verrassende ontknoping.
Ondertussen een hele hoop aktie, sluipen en beslopen worden, en deze keer zijn het vooral de broers Frank en Joe die, letterlijk, op hun kop krijgen.
Hun tante evolueert steeds meer van een gekk, overbezorgde dame die niks doet dat vitten naar een vrouw met een eigen leven die voor haar neven door het vuur gaat en op onorthodoxe wijze vaak tot juiste conclusies komt. Ze krijgt voor het vleugje humor dat ze in het verhaal brengt natuurlijk hulp van Haryd vriend Chet Morgan die fortuin probeert te maken met vliegvissen. En ook een rare snuiter McClinktock die de broers een blanco cheque geeft om hem een perfecte vakantie te bezorgen. Dat laatste blijkt echter heel wat moeilijker dan verwacht. Er komt sabotage en levensgevaar aan te pas en dat is dan weer verbonden met de misdadigers die Fenton Hardy probeert te klissen. Die specialiseren zich in het vervalsen van oude documenten en smokkel.
Ondertussen een hele hoop aktie, sluipen en beslopen worden, en deze keer zijn het vooral de broers Frank en Joe die, letterlijk, op hun kop krijgen.
Hun tante evolueert steeds meer van een gekk, overbezorgde dame die niks doet dat vitten naar een vrouw met een eigen leven die voor haar neven door het vuur gaat en op onorthodoxe wijze vaak tot juiste conclusies komt. Ze krijgt voor het vleugje humor dat ze in het verhaal brengt natuurlijk hulp van Haryd vriend Chet Morgan die fortuin probeert te maken met vliegvissen. En ook een rare snuiter McClinktock die de broers een blanco cheque geeft om hem een perfecte vakantie te bezorgen. Dat laatste blijkt echter heel wat moeilijker dan verwacht. Er komt sabotage en levensgevaar aan te pas en dat is dan weer verbonden met de misdadigers die Fenton Hardy probeert te klissen. Die specialiseren zich in het vervalsen van oude documenten en smokkel.
April 1, 2022
This book is very good. In the beginning of the story the hardys meet this guy called Mr. McClintock and he wants them to find him a long trip away from bayport where they live. Then in the middle of the book they hardys are trying to get a trip on a freighter to some place on the atlantic ocean. Then in the end The hardys and Mr. McClintock go on a freighter and when they get in the middle of the ocean the hardys were captured by a bad guy and there dad came to save them and the bad guy got put into jail. Mr. McClintock was a dynamic character because he did not want to go on a freighter in the beginning but at the end he went on one. I rated the book 5/5 because it was very good and the author had cliffhangers which are interesting and make you keep reading. Finally the theme is that ti go outside of your comfort zone because it could be fun and that is what Mr. McClintock did and it paid off.
June 3, 2021
When Aunt Gertrude gets the wrong package delivered it starts a trail of discovery. The Hardy boys find that a delivery company is being used to deliver packages to empty houses where imposters wait. But what does it mean? Searching for their aunt's package leads them to a mystery. They spend a lot of time at the docks in this book. Mostly trying to get passage on a freighter for themselves and Mr. McClintock, who hired them to procure a trip. The rest of the time they're chasing the man with the triangle shaped scar who seems to be everywhere and somehow involved in the strange happenings.
August 28, 2021
To make the long story short, Frank and Joe investigate a criminal ring that operates from a mysterious freighter. The freighter will appear in the mist, an then disappear. The kidnapped eccentric scientist created a ray that pushes the freighter away, which is how it is able to disappear.
However, given the relative masses of the freighter versus the Hardy's boat, The Sleuth, it is the Sleuth that should be pushed away, not the freighter.
I suppose they were able to get away with this error because Frank and Joe must be brain dead by now. Frank got KO'd once and Joe got it 2x. The total concussion count between the two of them is now up to 33.
However, given the relative masses of the freighter versus the Hardy's boat, The Sleuth, it is the Sleuth that should be pushed away, not the freighter.
I suppose they were able to get away with this error because Frank and Joe must be brain dead by now. Frank got KO'd once and Joe got it 2x. The total concussion count between the two of them is now up to 33.
November 1, 2024
The cover art for this edition is FANTASTIC. The plot was different in that Fenton Hardy was not kidnapped and did not need to be rescued by his sons. Some of the story was wrapped up too hastily in the end through the villain's soliloquy for my taste. McClintock was a pain. I'm not sure why he was in the story. Maybe he was a red herring to make the reader think that he was somehow important.
My son said it was his second favorite out of the ones we have read so far. If he's still happy to have me read to him, then I'm in favor of it as well.
My son said it was his second favorite out of the ones we have read so far. If he's still happy to have me read to him, then I'm in favor of it as well.
December 13, 2020
A strange man has asked the Hardy Boys to help him set up a vacation on a freighter, only for every ship in the harbour to turn them away - but are they really wary of new customers, or does this have to do with the sudden increase in smuggling cases happening around the country? Dixon brings young fans another fun mystery sure to delight readers with its humour and twists. Can Frank, Joe and their pals help their dad catch the smugglers, or will the stolen goods get shipped out of their reach?
March 23, 2023
The cover picture is right, but the number of pages is actually 216, so I went with this version.
The random encounters that the Hardy Boys have is amazing. I found it a bit incredible that an older man would want to engage the boys to plan and go with him on a trip. That was a bit far fetched.
Some of the language is a bit dated and the story is a bit lame, so this one may not be of much interest to a 10+ year old.
The random encounters that the Hardy Boys have is amazing. I found it a bit incredible that an older man would want to engage the boys to plan and go with him on a trip. That was a bit far fetched.
Some of the language is a bit dated and the story is a bit lame, so this one may not be of much interest to a 10+ year old.
January 10, 2018
The book was okay, the resolution was not. The "scientific" gadget at the end was preposterous and not based on any reality, nor was it explained. The ridiculous old man who wanted to vacation with 3 boys was never explained. He just wanted a vacation?? What? This is one of the poorer Hardy Boys books.
February 20, 2024
The close call of Hardy boys with imminent danger and close brushes with death lent a serious air to the book.
Moreover, the paranormal elements combined with science makes it thrilling and absorbing. Eccentric characters and villanous gangs in cahoots with every possible theft, and the strange nature of thefts made me want to read the book through and through.
Moreover, the paranormal elements combined with science makes it thrilling and absorbing. Eccentric characters and villanous gangs in cahoots with every possible theft, and the strange nature of thefts made me want to read the book through and through.
March 31, 2024
I wonder who wrote this book? Allegedly Amy McFarlane but that makes little sense. Nowhere close to Leslie's writing ability here. The plot is laced with unlikelyhoods that only happen because the plot requires it. The attempted thrills are really unrelated to the story generally and feel forced. There isn't really a mystery so much as a chase and an unlikely sci-fi edge.
February 16, 2018
This book was written by both Leslie McFarlane and his wife, Amy. It's pretty standard... more smugglers! It took longer to write because Amy had a dentist operation in the middle of this book that cost her 22 teeth. Yikes.
June 5, 2018
Ate these up as a kid and usually got them as gifts for birthdays, Christmas and other events. This edition would be quite dated now and I believe they have updated the books. The author was a pseudonym for a plethora of writers who contributed to this series.
September 3, 2018
Great ending but really sometimes the book felt like the whole thing was just following Frank and Joe as they tried to get a vacation for an old man and kept failing. I mean poor McClintock! He hires these boys to find him a vacation and look what he gets into!
April 8, 2024
This is one of the many Hardy Boys books that contains science fiction elements. Sometimes they just like to include technologies that don't exist.
I feel like there wasn't really much going on in the first half of this book, but it was okay.
I feel like there wasn't really much going on in the first half of this book, but it was okay.
August 1, 2017
Another great Hardy Boys mystery.
June 20, 2019
I really like the installment in the Hardy Boys series. Anything with a ghost ship, smugglers, and missing mail is bound to be a amazing book, and this one definitely didn’t disappoint.
March 2, 2020
Top 10 Hardy Boys.
May 18, 2020
The Hardy Boys plots get crazier every time I read them. If the criminals hadn't been so eager to keep them away, they'd have gotten away with it.
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August 25, 2020Need Tandy Blue PC
August 26, 2020
This one was a little slow moving. Not much action and not a terribly interesting mystery.
February 27, 2023
Doesn't Really Seem believable about the freighter but ok
May 16, 2024
2.5/5. This one was a little too wacky for me, but I still love the characters.
August 29, 2024
Great story
Love the adventures of the Hardy's
Love the adventures of the Hardy's
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August 13, 2025I like these older versions of HB and ND. lots of fun!
October 25, 2025
Read in October 2025
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews