Flying Dutchman

The Flying Dutchman by Albert Pinkham Ryder

For other uses, see Flying Dutchman (disambiguation).

According to folklore, the Flying Dutchman is a ghost ship that can never go home, but must sail "the seven seas" forever. The Flying Dutchman is usually spotted from afar, sometimes glowing with ghostly light. If she is hailed by another ship, her crew will often try to send messages to land, to people long since dead.

Origins

Versions of the story are numerous. According to some, the story is originally Dutch, while others claim it is based on the English play The Flying Dutchman (1826) by Edward Fitzball and the novel The Phantom Ship (1837) by Frederick Marryat, later adapted into the Dutch story Het Vliegend Schip (The Flying Ship) by the Dutch clergyman A.H.C. Römer. Other versions include the opera by Richard Wagner (1841) and The Flying Dutchman on Tappan Sea by Washington Irving (1855).

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 uncanny speed of his trips from Holland to Java and was suspected of being in league with the devil to achieve this speed. According to some sources, the captain is called Falkenburg in the Dutch versions of the story. He is called Van der Decken (meaning of the decks) in Marryat's version and Ramhout van Dam in Irving's version. Sources disagree on whether "Flying Dutchman" was the name of the ship, or a nickname for her captain.

According to most versions, the captain swore that he would not retreat in the face of a storm, but would continue his attempt to round the Cape of Good Hope even if it took until Judgment Day. According to other versions, some horrible crime took place on board, or the crew was infected with the plague and not allowed to sail into any port for this reason. Since then, the ship and its crew were doomed to sail forever, never putting in to shore. According to some versions, this happened in 1641, others give the date 1680 or 1729.

Many have noted the resemblance of the Flying Dutchman legend to the Christian folk tale of the Wandering Jew.

Terneuzen in the Netherlands is called the home of the legendary Flying Dutchman, Van der Decken, a captain who cursed God and was condemned to sail the seas forever, as described in the Frederick Marryat novel The Phantom Ship and the Richard Wagner opera.

Details changed

In Fitzball's play, the captain is allowed to go to shore once every hundred years, in order to seek a woman to share his fate. In Wagner's opera, it is once every seven years.

Sighting during voyage of the future King George V

During his late adolesence, in 1880, Prince George of Wales (later King George V of the United Kingdom along with his elder brother Prince Albert Victor of Wales (sons of the future King Edward VII) were on a three-year-long voyage with their tutor Dalton aboard the 4000-tonne corvette HMS Bucchante. Off the coast of Australia, between Melborne 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. - (from King George V, a biography by Kenneth Rose, 1988).

Cultural allusions

Davy Jones and the crew of the Flying Dutchman in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

• The Flying Dutchman is referenced in scores of books, including novels by Brian Jacques, Carl Barks, Diana Wynne Jones, Tom Holt, Glyn Maxwell, Larry Niven, Richard Matheson, Jeffrey A. Carver, Julian May, and many others.
• It is also the mascot of several schools, including Hope College, Lebanon Valley College, and formerly Hofstra University.
• The Flying Dutchman is a one-design dinghy sailboat, designed for a two-person crew. It used to be an Olympic sailing class, from 1960 to 1992.
• The Flying Dutchman (sometimes Frying) has been used as a name for many restaurants, most notably in the television show The Simpsons.
• The Flying Dutchman is also referenced in music, by Jethro Tull, The Band, Von Thronstahl, Tori Amos, Jimmy Buffett, God Dethroned, and Six Magics.
• "The Flying Dutchman" (or variations) is the nickname of several athletes and celebrities, including Dennis Bergkamp, Honus Wagner, Remy Bonjasky, Anthony Fokker, Mark van Cuylenburg, and Arie Luyendyk.
• The Flying Dutchman has been referenced in movies and plays, such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, De Vliegende Hollander, Dutchman, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, Spider-Man, and Villanden(or "The Wild Duck").
• The Flying Dutchman has also been referenced in TV shows, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Captain Pugwash, and Supernatural.
• There are also many allusions to The Flying Dutchman in games, such as Alone in the Dark 2, The Curse of Monkey Island, Age of Empires, Pirates of the Spanish Main, Billy Bones Dead Man's Tale, and Pirate's Cove.
• The Flying Dutchman is an amusement ride at the Worlds of Fun theme park in Kansas City, Missouri, as well as a now-defunct ride once featured at Six Flags Over Georgia and a water coaster ride at Efteling. It is also a type of flying roller coaster produced by Vekoma.
• The Flying Dutchman is a painting by Albert Ryder in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.
• "The Flying Dutchman" is a slogan written on planes of KLM and the former name of the Frequent Flyer Program of the same airline.
• The Flying Dutchman plays a major part in the French comic named De cape et de crocs.
• "The Flying Dutchman" is a polka dance often performed at weddings.
• "The Flying Dutchman" is the name of a no-bread burger (i.e., just meat and cheese) on the secret menu at In-N-Out Burger
• "The Flying Dutchman" has appeared in comics, including Uncle Scrooge and The Silver Surfer.
• Spongebob Squarepants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman is a video game available on multiple platforms.

See also

• Wandering Jew
• Phantom vehicle
• Ghost Ship (movie)
• Terneuzen
• El Caleuche
• Mary Celeste
• Jian Seng
• High Aim 6
• MV Joyita
• Chasse-galerie

External links

• On the history and sightings of the Flying Dutchman
• Mainly about Wagner's possible sources