Flying Dutchman ...or stop that ship

While checking the shelves today I came across “The Flying Dutchmen and other folktales from the Netherlands” by Theo Meder. Although the brief account of the Flying Dutchmen gave one version of the legend, it made me think about this fascinating tale. Many dismiss the story of the ghostly ship, doomed to sail the waters off the Cape of Good Hope for eternity as myth, but sailors seeing the image of a sailing ship with all its sails set, sometimes in the distance and sometimes close enough that they feared a collision, don’t doubt what they have seen and are fearful of the consequences; for it is considered bad luck to cross paths with the Dutchman. There are many legends about the origin of the ghost ship and most of them involve the Devil and the selling of souls. Such beliefs are more thrilling than the more likely tale of a ship that sank with the loss of all aboard.

Regardless of the origins of the Dutchman’s legend, it is irrefutable fact that the ship has been seen by sailors sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, from the earliest recorded sighting noted in George Barrington’s book “The voyage to Botany Bay”, published in 1795, right through to the 1950’s. It was even seen by King George V, when he was serving as a Midshipman aboard the HMS Baccante in 1880. In those days the British had a Naval Base nearby, and there are numerous recordings of the Dutchman listed in their logs to complement those made by merchant sailors following the trade routes. The Naval Base has long since gone and the large modern tankers and cruise ships no longer sail those haunted waters, preferring deeper waters away from the coast, so sightings of the Dutchman are few and far between, now.

There are some who say the Dutchman is merely a mirage caused by the reflection of a ship sailing somewhere out of sight. I suppose that is possible for some of the sightings, but many of the images of the Dutchmen defy this explanation. Who could explain a sailing ship in full sail creating a mirage in the 1950’s or a mirage sailing straight towards you and disappearing when impact is imminent?

I wonder if the Dutchman is still there. Would I see it if I sailed those haunted waters? It’s something to think about.