Curious Questions: What really happened to the Flying Dutchman? - Country Life (2024)

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Tales of phantom ships are as old as time itself, but the story of the Flying Dutchman has haunted sailors for generations.

The fate of a merchant ship owned by the Dutch East India Company, which went missing off the Cape of Good Hope in 1641, was the source of increasingly more lurid tales. By May 1821, Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine was telling how its captain, Van der Decken, after searching vainly for the Cape and caught in a storm, swore that he would round it, even if it took until doomsday. The ship was condemned to sail the seven seas for eternity either as punishment meted out by an angel for his blasphemy or because he had made a pact with the devil to survive the storm.

The Flying Dutchman, a ship that seemed to come out of the horizon sailing on air, became a harbinger of doom. According to some, its ghostly crew would crowd on to the deck, waving letters to be delivered to their, by now long lost, relatives, which, if accepted, would bring misfortune. Some seafarers believed that if they saw it, they too would never reach land again.

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The Flying Dutchman, painted by Charles Temple Dix. The ship is often described as having clouds for sails. Credit: Alamy stock photo

The first record of a sighting of The Flying Dutchman appeared in John MacDonald’s Travels in various parts of Europe, Asia and Africa (1790), but perhaps the most famous occurred at 4am on July 11, 1881 somewhere in the Bass Strait between Melbourne and Sydney. On board HMS Inconstant were Prince George of Wales, the future George V and his brother, Prince Albert Victor of Wales.

In their joint diary, they recorded that The Flying Dutchman crossed their 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’. The quarterdeck midshipman was sent 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’.

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In all, 13 members of the crew reported seeing it. Inevitably, tragedy struck. ‘At 10.45 am”’, they reported, ‘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’.

Members of the British navy off the Cape of Good Hope on January 26, 1923 saw a phantom derelict ship, luminous with two masts and a thin mist where the sails would have been. Second Officer Bennett later reported the incident to Sir Ernest Bennett, a member of the Society for Psychical Research, who included an account in his book Apparitions and Haunted Houses: A Survey of the Evidence (1934).

Landlubbers were also gripped by the myth. Heinrich Hesse romanticised the story in From the Memoirs of Herr von Schnabelewopski (1831) by allowing the captain to go ashore once every seven years to try to gain his freedom by winning the hand of an unsullied maiden. This version was used by Richard Wagner for his opera, Die Fliegende Holländer (1840), with van Derdeeken and Senta being the protagonists.

Despite its association with seafaring disaster, curiously, the first steamship to enter the Stikine River in British Columbia in 1862 was called The Flying Dutchman. It was also the name of an express steam locomotive which from 1849 until 1892 ran between London and Bristol and of an English thoroughbred racehorse which won all but one of its 15 races between 1848 and 1851.

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Engraving of the express train The Flying Dutchman, on its way to Bristol, minding its own business and not haunting anyone. Credit: Getty

Those imbued with a less romantic spirit, though, sought to provide a rational explanation of the phantom ship. An early attempt appeared in Frank Stockton’s Round-About Rambles (1870) in which he tells of a captain’s reaction when some of his crew reported a sighting. ‘This strange appearance’, he explained, ‘was caused by the reflection of some ship that was sailing on the water below this image, but at such a distance they could not see it. There were certain conditions of the atmosphere…when the sun’s rays could form a perfect picture in the air of objects on the earth…this appearance in the air is called a mirage’.

A mirage is an optical illusion caused by the refraction of light. When light hits a boundary between two layers in the atmosphere which are at different temperatures, it bends and travels through the new layer at a different angle, the degree of change dependent upon the difference in density between the two layers.

Refracted light poses an almost insoluble problem for the human brain. When we see light, our brain assumes that it has travelled in a straight line from the object that has emitted it. Even if the light has refracted along the way, it simply places the object where it would have been had the light travelled in a straight line. Just think of what happens when looking at a fish in a clear stream; it is not where your brain tells you it is.

There are two basic forms of mirage; inferior, where the image appears to be lower than it really is, and superior, where it is higher. A superior mirage can make things appear bigger, closer, distorted so that the object appears stretched or elevated, an effect known as towering, and as if they are suspended or floating in air. It can even make an object below the horizon become visible.

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A wood-cut of the Flying Dutchman, showing it hovering out of the water, suggesting that it is probably simply a mirage. Credit: Alamy

The phenomenon of The Flying Dutchman is thought to be a complex form of superior mirage, a Fata Morgana, which occurs when there is thermal inversion, where cold, dense air near the Earth’s surface is trapped beneath a layer of significantly warmer air. If the thermal inversion is greater than 10 degrees Celsius in 100 meters, the curvature of the light rays within the inversion layer is stronger than the Earth’s curvature, effectively trapping them in an atmospheric duct. The duct will then concentrate the rays rather than allowing them to disperse into space. Mindbogglingly, if our eyes were strong enough, a duct would allow you to see around the whole of the earth and your own back and shoulders turned towards you.

While a thermal inversion does not necessarily create an atmospheric duct, an atmospheric duct cannot occur without a thermal inversion, and a Fata Morgana requires both. A Fata Morgana can be seen anywhere and at any altitude, once the conditions have been met, and it will display any form of distant object such as boats, islands, and the coastline. Often it will change rapidly, showing inverted and upright images that are stacked on top of each other or alternating between compressed and elongated images. However, to see one the observer must be within or below an atmospheric duct.

And the Arthurian connection? Fata Morgana is Italian for Morgan the fairy, a reference to the sorceress Morgan le Fay who in some Arthurian legends is his half-sister. Her first recorded appearance was in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita Merlini (1150) and she was said to have used witchcraft to conjure up mirages of fairy castles or false coastlines to lure sailors to heir death, especially in the Strait of Messina.

We may no longer imbue the sighting of a Fata Morgana with superstitious dread, but the power of the image still remains.

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Curious Questions: What really happened to the Flying Dutchman? - Country Life (2024)

FAQs

Curious Questions: What really happened to the Flying Dutchman? - Country Life? ›

The ship was condemned to sail the seven seas for eternity either as punishment meted out by an angel for his blasphemy or because he had made a pact with the devil to survive the storm. The Flying Dutchman, a ship that seemed to come out of the horizon sailing on air, became a harbinger of doom.

What is the true story of the Flying Dutchman? ›

The Flying Dutchman is a European maritime legend about a phantom ship condemned to sail forever. Dutch folklore designates the captain as Hendrik Vander Decken, whose mission is to find the Cape of Good Hope. However, a freak storm thwarted the captain, and he could reach his destination.

What happens to the Flying Dutchman? ›

Flying Dutchman, in European maritime legend, spectre ship doomed to sail forever; its appearance to seamen is believed to signal imminent disaster.

Is the Flying Dutchman real, yes or no? ›

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.

What is the scientific explanation of the Flying Dutchman? ›

Fata Morgana not only produce mirror images, but can magnify objects that lie beyond the horizon. Ships can therefore be below the horizon but their reflected light is distorted to such an extent that they appear to be 'sailing' in the sky. This is the likely explanation of the Flying Dutchman.

Why did the Flying Dutchman disappear? ›

The Flying Dutchman is based off of the famous maritime ghost ship of the same name which, according to legend, is doomed to sail the seas for all eternity because its captain foolishly cursed God after sailing into a horrible storm off of the Cape of Good Hope, vowing to round that cape even if it took him till ...

How did the Flying Dutchman crash? ›

On Nov. 10, 1942, the C-47 nicknamed The Flying Dutchman (S/N 41-18564) hit a strong down-draft over the Owen Stanley Range while carrying U.S. Army troops from Port Moresby to Pongani, New Guinea. It crashed into the side of Mount Obree, killing seven of the 23 onboard and destroying most of the food it carried.

What happens after 100 years on the Flying Dutchman? ›

Behind the scenes

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.

Who controls the Flying Dutchman? ›

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.

When was the Flying Dutchman last seen? ›

There have been many sightings over the years, although the last reported one was by a Nazi submarine in WWII. Some sightings involved the Flying Dutchman sailing quickly through calm waters while the majority of sailors have spotted it during extremely stormy weather with wind and waves crashing all around.

Was the Black Pearl a real ship? ›

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".

Has the Flying Dutchman been seen? ›

While most people agree the “history” of the ship is a legend, the Flying Dutchman has been sighted by reliable witnesses. All of these were in the Cape of Good Hope area: 1823: Captain Owen, HMS Leven, recorded two sightings in the log.

What race is the Flying Dutchman? ›

The Flying Dutchman (1846–1870) was an English Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He raced for four seasons between 1848 and 1851, winning all but one of his fifteen races, including The Derby and the St Leger.

Where did the myth of the Flying Dutchman come from? ›

Origin. The Flying Dutchman has its roots in the ancient maritime tales of the Netherlands. The story is believed to be based on real events, but over time it has been mixed with supernatural and mystical elements.

What is a fact about the Flying Dutchman? ›

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.

Who was Davy Jones before? ›

Once a human pirate and a good man, Davy Jones was known to be a great sailor, Jones was originally a heroic man like Jack Sparrow before meeting Calypso.

Has anyone ever seen the Flying Dutchman? ›

There have been many sightings over the years, although the last reported one was by a Nazi submarine in WWII. Some sightings involved the Flying Dutchman sailing quickly through calm waters while the majority of sailors have spotted it during extremely stormy weather with wind and waves crashing all around.

What is the legend of Davy Jones' locker? ›

Davy Jones' locker is a metaphor for the oceanic abyss, the final resting place of drowned sailors and travellers. It is a euphemism for drowning or shipwrecks in which the sailors' and ships' remains are consigned to the depths of the ocean (to be sent to Davy Jones' Locker).

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