Old Sea Legends For Crewis our monthly blog that takes you through the lore and tales of the sea. In this article, we turn our eye to the legend of the Flying Dutchman.
The Flying Dutchman, known as De Vliegende Hollander in Dutch, is a legendary ghost ship, doomed to forever roam the seas without ever reaching port. The origins, and earliest ‘accounts’ (that we know of) of this ghostly ship can be traced back to the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the zenith of Dutch maritime dominance.
Pop Culture
You might be familiar with thePirates of the Caribbeanfranchise, whose main antagonist is the octopus/crab-like Davy Jones who commands the Flying Dutchman. However, his unnerving appearance is not the same in traditional myths and legends. The blockbusting film series invented that image of the infamous captain.
In maritime folklore, the expression “Davy Jones’ Locker” is a figurative term for the ocean floor, serving as the final resting place for numerous sailors who perished at sea.
The first print reference to the ship appears inTravels in various part of Europe, Asia and Africa during a series of thirty years and upward (1790) by John MacDonald, the first prime minister of Canada:
“The weather was so stormy that the sailors said they saw the Flying Dutchman. The common story is that thisDutchman came to the Cape in distress of weather and wanted to get into harbour but could not get a pilot to conduct her and was lost and that ever since in very bad weather her vision appears.”
Another early literary reference appears in Chapter VI of A Voyage to Botany Bay(1795) (also known asA Voyage to New South Wales). This is attributed to George Barrington, a London socialite (1755–1804):
“I had often heard of the superstition of sailors respecting apparitions and doom, 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 circ*mstances 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.”
Legend
Legend has it that the ship’s captain entered into a pact with the devil, having gained fame for accomplishing the journey between Holland and Java in an unbelievably short time. Despite their ability to elude capture, the crew eventually committed a grievous crime (alternatively, some versions suggest they contracted the plague). This lead to the vessel being banned from entering ports. Undeterred by the prohibition and confident in his ability to swiftly navigate, the captain, amidst a severe storm, endeavored to round the Cape of Good Hope, a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
As the terrified crew implored the captain to seek shelter, he defiantly pledged to brave the elements and round the Cape, even if it meant battling the waves until Judgment Day. The ship foundered in the tempest, and everyone onboard met their demise. Yet, in keeping with the captain’s oath, the Flying Dutchman persists in sailing the seas, its cursed crew still striving to complete the ill-fated voyage.
Poetry
The poet Thomas Moore mentions the vessel in the north Atlantic as part of his poem Written on passing Dead-man’s Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Late in the evening, September 1804:
“Fast gliding along, a gloomy bark / Her sails are full, though the wind is still, / And there blows not a breath her sails to fill.”
A footnote adds:
“The above lines were suggested by a superstition very common among sailors, who call this ghost-ship, I think, ‘the flying Dutch-man’.”
Accounts & Illusions
On July 11, 1881, a 16-year-old naval cadet named George, Prince of Wales (the future King George V), was aboard the HMS Inconstant off the Australian coast. While gazing out to sea, he was captivated by an unusual luminous ship that sailed past in the night. In his logbook, he later recorded the mesmerizing encounter:
“At 4:00 AM the Flying Dutchman crossed our bows, a strange red light as of a phantom ship aglow. Thirteen persons altogether saw her, but whether it was van Dam of the ‘Flying Dutchman’, or something else, remains unknown.”
But of course, accounts can always be based on an illusion. There is the optical effect known as looming. This occurs when rays of light are bent across different refractive indices. This could make a ship just off the horizon appear hoisted in the air.
To Conclude
There are numerous versions of the story about the Flying Dutchman. Tales suggest it is a a harbinger of misfortune, and sightings of the spectral vessel were considered ominous at best by sailors.
To keep up to date with the latest Superyacht Content News, click here.
Jones recruited new crew members by offering dying sailors life in exchange for 100 years of service aboard his ship. However, he did not tell them that during this time they would go through a painful transmutation turning them into fishmen and after 100 years they will become an part of the ship itself, like Wyvern.
The Flying Dutchman (Dutch: De Vliegende Hollander) is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the sea forever. The myths and ghost stories are likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and of Dutch maritime power.
In the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series, Davy Jones' crew aboard the Flying Dutchman are depicted as having been transformed into fish-like creatures due to a curse placed on them by Jones.
However, a leaflet inside the At World's End DVD said that Will was bound to the Flying Dutchman for all eternity. The fifth film in the series, Dead Men Tell No Tales, written by Jeff Nathanson, confirmed that Will was cursed to sail the seas as captain of the Dutchman forever.
Orlando Bloom reprises his role as Will Turner in the fifth film, seen with barnacles forming upon his face, implying he's failing at the responsibilities as Captain of the Flying Dutchman.
The final fate of the Flying Dutchman under Will Turner after At World's End was controversial. Screenwriter Terry Rossio stated that Will could be freed of the Dutchman upon the end of his ten year service as captain if Elizabeth remained faithful to him, which she did.
With every year that passes, the crewmen become less human, their bodies taking on traits from the sea, until eventually they become part of the Flying Dutchman itself. After Jones' own death, the crew turned back to normal, with Will Turner as the new captain of the Dutchman.
In the most common version, the captain, Vanderdecken, gambles his salvation on a rash pledge to round the Cape of Good Hope during a storm and so is condemned to that course for eternity; it is this rendering which forms the basis of the opera Der fliegende Holländer (1843) by the German composer Richard Wagner.
In this version, the Dutchman (Wayne Tigges) has sold his soul to Satan and is forced to live at sea. He can only return to land every seven years to find a woman who will be with him until death, it is only then that the Dutchman is able to break the curse and find redemption.
This is due to the fact that Jones no longer ferries the dead of the sea to their final resting place as his job first entailed, and as such, the reason they are cursed along with him. Because of this, they also could not die or be killed easily until released from their years of service.
Pintel revealed that Bootstrap was tied to a cannon and thrown overboard after it was learned he sent a gold medallion to Will so the crew would remain under an ancient Aztec curse as punishment for betraying Sparrow. To break the curse, the last medallion and Turner's blood must be returned to the Aztec chest.
According to an answer to a question from this leaflet from the At World's End DVD: Will's father is not alive—he and all the other crewmen on the Dutchman are in a state between the living and the dead. Elizabeth will not survive the journeys where the ship must travel—so she is not able to join the crew.
Combined with his decision to cut out his heart, this resulted in his transformation into the beast seen in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. When Will Turner became the new captain of the Dutchman, it was assumed that this transformation would not happen to him as long as he did his job right — so what changed?
The Black Pearl (formerly known as the Wicked Wench) is a fictional ship in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. In the screenplay, the ship is easily recognized by her distinctive black hull and sails. Captained by Captain Jack Sparrow, the Black Pearl is said to be "nigh uncatchable".
Davy Jones is the near-immortal god of passing to the afterlife and Jack Sparrow's and Will Turner's archenemy. He is the captain of the Flying Dutchman (based on the legendary ghost ship of the same name), whose crew consists of humans who traded 100 years of servitude for immortality, and master of The Kraken.
Some say that Will was freed from the service on the Dutchman because Elizabeth remained faithful to him, while others say that he must sail the seas for all eternity.
However, Jones could not step on land but once every ten years and by abandoning his duty as the ferryman to the afterlife he brought a curse upon himself and his crew, which caused their transformation into fish-men.
The Flying Dutchman was a sea captain who once found himself struggling to round the Cape of Good Hope during a ferocious storm. He swore that he would succeed even if he had to sail until Judgment Day. The Devil heard his oath, and took him up on it; the Dutchman was condemned to stay at sea forever.
Jack frees himself, but the Kraken rises up behind him. In a final act of defiance, Jack launches himself into the Kraken's maw, and the monster takes the Pearl down to the depths, which Jones watches from his telescope. Jones then opens the chest to find the heart missing, which is delivered to Beckett by Norrington.
Hobby: Web surfing, Rafting, Dowsing, Stand-up comedy, Ghost hunting, Swimming, Amateur radio
Introduction: My name is Virgilio Hermann JD, I am a fine, gifted, beautiful, encouraging, kind, talented, zealous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
