The legend of The Flying Dutchman is said to have started in 1641 when a Dutch ship sank off the coast of the Cape of Good Hope:
Vanderdecken’s Mistake
In the year 1729, a Dutch ship called the Flying Dutchman1, captained by the infamous Vanderdecken, set sail towards the Cape of Good Hope, Africa’s southernmost tip which has long been associated with difficult sailing conditions and shipwrecks. Vanderdecken was a violent and disturbed captain who feared nothing and refused to back away from any situation. As the ship approached the Cape a violent storm broke out. The fierce winds, gigantic waves and terrible lightening threatened to sink the Flying Dutchman, but the twisted and fearless captain had a threat of his own. There and then, Vanderdecken swore an oath to the Devil that he would round the Cape even if it took him until Doomsday (the day that the world will come to an end). This foolish act brought a terrible curse down upon the captain, his crew and his ship. From that moment forth they were forced to roam the mighty seas for all eternity as a ghost ship.
Omen of Disaster
From that fateful day to the present, many sailors claim to have seen the Flying Dutchman haunting the seas. It is believed that anyone who sees the ship will have misfortune fall upon them. So powerful is this belief that King George V of England himself, as a young prince during his naval days, purported to have encountered it, although a prince is not someone who immediately springs to mind when considering unfortunate people.
One method used by mariners to ward off the curse of the Flying Dutchman was to nail horseshoes to the masts of their ships, as this was supposed to bring good luck.
The Flying Dutchman - an Explanation
Many people would be sceptical of the existence of a ‘ghost ship’ and quite rightly so. No conclusive evidence for any type of ghost has ever been gathered and most scientists refuse to believe that they exist at all. To this end they have come up with an explanation for the supposed sightings and even those people who do believe in ghosts would have to admit that it is quite a good one.
The theory goes that the ghost ship is nothing more than an optical illusion. Apparently modern day mariners are used to the sight of hazy-looking ships appearing over the horizon; they are simply mirages caused by the refraction of light rays. Although the existence of the Flying Dutchman and Captain Vanderdecken is known, it is likely that the stories of a phantom ship were started by superstitious sailors who saw exactly this kind of mirage.
Nevertheless, no definitive proof exists either way so it would be advisable for anyone going on a cruise to steer clear of glowing ships with billowing sails, hovering several feet above the water.
Provided by: www.bbc.co.uk
Versions of the story are numerous in nautical folklore and related to medieval legends such as Captain Falkenburg, who was cursed to ply the North Sea until Judgment Day, playing dice with the Devil for his own soul.
The first reference in print to the ship itself appears in Chapter VI of George Barrington's Voyage to Botany Bay (1795):
I had often heard of the superstition of sailors respecting apparitions, but had never given much credit to the report; it seems that some years since a Dutch man of war was lost off the Cape of Good Hope, and every soul on board perished; her consort weathered the gale, and arrived soon after at the Cape. Having refitted, and returning to Europe, they were assailed by a violent tempest nearly in the same latitude. In the night watch some of the people saw, or imagined they saw, a vessel standing for them under a press of sail, as though she would run them down: one in particular affirmed it was the ship that had foundered in the former gale, and that it must certainly be her, or the apparition of her; but on its clearing up, the object, a dark thick cloud, disappeared. Nothing could do away the idea of this phenomenon on the minds of the sailors; and, on their relating the circumstances when they arrived in port, the story spread like wild-fire, and the supposed phantom was called the Flying Dutchman. From the Dutch the English seamen got the infatuation, and there are very few Indiamen, but what has some one on board, who pretends to have seen the apparition.[1]
According to some sources, the 17th century Dutch captain Bernard Fokke is the model for the captain of the ghost ship. Fokke was renowned for the speed of his trips from Holland to Java and suspected of being in league with the devil. However, the first version in print, in Blackwood's Magazine for May 1821, puts the scene as the Cape of Good Hope:
She was an Amsterdam vessel and sailed from port seventy years ago. Her master’s name was Captain Hendrik van der Decken. He was a staunch seaman, and would have his own way in spite of the devil. For all that, never a sailor under him had reason to complain; though how it is on board with them nobody knows. The story is this: in doubling the Cape they were a long day trying to weather the Table Bay. However, the wind headed them, and went against them more and more, and Van der Decken walked the deck, swearing at the wind. Just after sunset a vessel spoke to him, asking him if he did not mean to go into the bay that night. Van der Decken replied: 'May I be eternally damned if I do, though I should beat about here till the day of judgment.' And to be sure, he never did go into that bay, for it is believed that he continues to beat about in these seas still, and will do so long enough. This vessel is never seen but with foul weather along with her.[2]
There have been many reported sightings in the 19th and 20th centuries. One was by Prince George of Wales (later King George V of the United Kingdom). During his late adolescence, in 1880, with his elder brother Prince Albert Victor of Wales (sons of the future King Edward VII), he was on a three-year voyage with their tutor Dalton aboard the 4,000-tonne corvette Bacchante. Off Australia, between Melbourne and Sydney, Dalton records:
"At 4 a.m. the Flying Dutchman crossed our bows. A strange red light as of a phantom ship all aglow, in the midst of which light the masts, spars, and sails of a brig 200 yards distant stood out in strong relief as she came up on the port bow, where also the officer of the watch from the bridge clearly saw her, as did the quarterdeck midshipman, who was sent forward at once to the forecastle; but on arriving there was no vestige nor any sign whatever of any material ship was to be seen either near or right away to the horizon, the night being clear and the sea calm. Thirteen persons altogether saw her...At 10.45 a.m. the ordinary seaman who had this morning reported the Flying Dutchman fell from the foretopmast crosstrees on to the topgallant forecastle and was smashed to atoms."
Sources: Wikipedia
