The Flying Dutchman

The Flying Dutchman is one of the most famous and well recorded haunted ships in the world. (Sony has even made a video game, with spongebob as it's captain! Its one of Gary's (my son) favourites. There are many entries in the preserved files of British Naval Admiralty from many experienced and respected sailors about this ghost ship..

The Dutchman legend is said to have started in 1641 when a when a Dutch ship sank off the coast of the Cape of Good Hope . The captain of the ship was Captain van der Decken, he had just finished a very successful trip to the Far East and was on the way back to Holland, eager to return to his employer The Dutch East India Company and relay to them his suggestion to start a settlement at the Cape on the tip of Africa, thereby providing a welcome respite to ships at sea.

It is said he realised too late (and only after his lookout sailor screamed) that he had sailed the ship into a fierce storm, he and his crew battled the storm for hours but the the doomed ship was washed upon rocks where she began to break up and eventually sink. The Captain was outraged and just before his untimely death is said to have screamed "I WILL round this Cape even if I have to keep sailing until doomsday!"

Australia has a strange link to this legend by a source which is hard to dismiss. A young 16 year old Royal Navy midshipman was aboard the Bacchante on 11 July 1881. The Bacchante was enroute from Melbourne to Sydney and the log of the ship contains this entry:

At 4.00am the Flying Dutchman crossed our bows. A strange red light, as of a phantom ship all aglow, in the midst of which the mast, spars and sails of a brig two hundred yards distant stood out in strong relief as she came up on the port bow. The lookout man on the forecastle reported her as close on the port bow, where also the officer of the watch from the bridge clearly saw her, as did also the quarterdeck midshipman, who was sent forward at once to the forecastle but on arrive there no vestige nor any sign whatever was to be seen, either near nor right away to the horizon, the night being clear and the sea calm.

Thirteen persons altogether saw her, but whether it was Van Diemen or the Dutchman must remained unknown. The Tourmaline and Cleopatra, who were sailing on our starboard bow, flashed to ask whether we had seen the strange light.

The young sailors name who placed the entry in the log was named George, He would later become George V, King of England and standing beside him on the deck as witness was his brother, the Duke of Clarence, who made a similar entrance in his journal. The poor watchman who first reported the phantom light, later fell from the foremast and was killed.