Based on the legend “The Black Ferryman”
In 1794, churches and monasteries throughout what was then known as the Austrian Netherlands were being plundered by French troops. The Abbey of Saint Bernard in Hemiksem (Belgium) also felt the looming threat.

On a stormy November evening, violent knocking echoes through the abbey gate. A group of French soldiers demands entry. The porter peers through the spy hole and immediately realizes what is about to happen. In haste, he warns Abbot Hugo and the other fathers and brothers. Weeks earlier, they had already packed their treasures into chests, knowing full well what the French plunderers had done elsewhere. Now they add the shrine containing the consecrated hosts, along with golden and silver chalices and other valuable objects. Silently, they hurry to the boats moored along the Vliet - simple fishing boats they normally used to reach the River Scheldt. Three boats are filled to the brim with the chests. The abbot, two fathers, and twelve brothers board the heaviest boat, the one carrying the most precious chest.
The wind whips across the water, and the Vliet churns restlessly, yet once they reach the Scheldt it becomes truly dangerous. Dark waves crash against the boats, quickly pushing them apart. It is so dark that none of them can see the others anymore. Then, a violent gust strikes. A towering wave crashes onto the overloaded boat, filling it instantly with water and capsizing it. The boat, the monks, and their treasure disappear into the swirling black Scheldt.

One of the abbey’s servants becomes obsessed with the thought of the lost riches. He vows to retrieve the chest. A few days later, by moonlight and at low tide, he decides to search for it. But that very night, the deceased abbot appears to him in a dream, sternly raising his finger and repeating: “Woe to the greedy! It will end badly for you!”
Yet the servant, stubborn and determined, sets out with ropes and hooks. About twenty metres from the shore, he spots something on the riverbed: the chest. With all his strength, he ties it and tries to haul it aboard. For a brief moment, it seems to succeed… but then the heavy weight slips back into the water. The chest drags the boat down, and the servant caught in the ropes is pulled into the depths.

Since then, sailors whisper that, especially during stormy weather, above the roar of the wind, a gloomy voice can be heard: “Woe is me, the greedy one! Deliver me from my gold and from my money! Woe is me…”
The Black Ferryman wanders, bound to his chest, forever on the Scheldt. Sometimes he is seen as far as Vlissingen (Netherlands), but most often so the story goes his lament echoes between Hemiksem and Rupelmonde.
Google machine translation: Original story of the work