Myth or reality, the Flying Dutchman haunts sailors' tales. Its legend goes back several centuries and continues to feed dreams and nightmares. It is the figurehead in the list of ghost ships that haunt our seas.
A pact with the devil
It is difficult to trace a legend. That of the Flying Dutchman goes back to the seventeenth century, with a ship chartered by the Dutch East India Company. On board, a Dutch captain named, according to some, Bernard Fokke and according to others, Van der Decken.
This captain, very ugly of his person, achieved a real feat: the journey between Holland and the island of Java in Indonesia in only three months. It was said that he flew over the sea to go so fast. A miracle? No. A pact with the devil, said the jealous.
One day, on the way home, the ship, its captain and crew disappeared without a trace. Since then, the legend of the Flying Dutchman began to develop.
A tragic shipwreck
Many versions of the disappearance of the Flying Dutchman have developed in history. In the first written mention of this legend dated 1790, it is said that the ship tried to enter port at the Cape of Good Hope during a devastating storm, but having found no pilot, the ship sank.
Later, in 1821, the French writer Auguste Jal reported the legend involving the captain. The latter would have defied the sky to sink his ship during the storm. A luminous form would then have appeared and would have cursed the sailboat and the whole crew, condemning it to wander for eternity.
Victor Hugo immortalized this story in a poem:
It is the Dutchman, the boat
Let the flaming finger mark!
The punished skiff!
It is the scala sail!
It is the sinister pirate
Of infinity.
The appearances of the Flying Dutchman
Many sailors have said that they have seen the Dutchman flying over the waters during the worst storms the sea can know. Seeing him is not a good omen.
Over the decades, the Dutchman has appeared to many sailors. In 1881, the Duke of York, future king of England under the name of George V, reported having seen him on board the training ship The Bacchante in Australian waters. Just after this encounter, the watchman fell from the top of the mast and died.
Although there is no more mention of its appearance at sea since the second half of the twentieth century, the Flying Dutchman still lives in literature and on our screens.
