THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
For over 300 years the story of the Flying Dutchman trying to round the Cape of Good Hope against strong winds and never succeeding, then trying to make it past Cape Horn and failing there too, has been the most famous of maritime ghost stories. The cursed spectral ship sailing back and forth on its endless voyage, its ancient white-haired crew crying for help while hauling at her sails. One superstition has it that any mariner who sees the Flying Dutchman will die, and many are said to have expired this way. Another old yarn has it that the ghost ship disappears into a storm as soon as another ship gets within hailing range. The ship, which supposedly sailed in about 1660, has been called a schooner, a sloop, and a merchant, and no description of her is ever the same. Her wicked captain, whose story this really is, is said to have been named Vanderdecken, Fokke, or Van der Staaten, and there is no historical record of either him or his ship.
Once upon a time, a good many years ago, there was a ship's captain who feared neither God nor His saints. He is said to have been a Dutchman, but I do not know. He happened once to be making a voyage to the South. All went well until he came near land. It was his boast that no storm, however terrible, could make him turn back.
On one voyage to the South at the Cape of Good Hope, he ran into a head wind that might have blown the horns off an ox. Between the wind and the great waves the ship was in mortal danger. Everyone aboard argued with the captain to turn back.
"We are lost if you don't turn back, Captain!" they said. "If you keep trying to round the cape in this wind, we shall sink. We are all doomed, and there isn't even a priest on board to give us absolution before we die." The captain only laughed at the fears of his passengers and crew. Instead of heeding them, he broke into songs so vile and blasphemous that just by themselves they might have drawn the lightning to strike the masts of the ship. Then he called for his pipe and his tankard of beer, and he smoke and drank as unconcernedly as though he were safe and snug in a tavern back home.
The others renewed their pleas for him to turn back, but the more they begged him the more obstinate he became. The wind snapped the mast the sails were carried away, and he merely laughed and jeered at his terrified passengers.
Still more violently the storm raged, but the captain treated with equal contempt the storm violence and the fears of his crew and passenger; When his men tried to force him to turn and take shelter in a bay, he seized the ringleader in his arms and threw him overboard. As he did this the clouds opened and a Shape alighted on the quarter deck of the ship. This Shape may have been the Almighty Himself or was certainly sent by Him. The crew and passengers were struck dumb with terror. The captain, however, went on smoking his pipe and did not even touch his cap as the Shape spoke to him.
"Captain," the Shape said, "you are a very obstinate man. "
"And you," cried the captain, are a rascal who wants a smooth passage, Not I, I want nothing from you, so clear out and leave me unless you care to have your brains blown out. "
The Shape shrugged his shoulder without answering.
The captain snatched up a pistol, cocked it, and pulled the trigger. The bullet, however, instead I reaching its target turned and went through his hand. He leapt up to strike the Shape in the face. But even as he raised his arm, it dropped limply at his side, though paralyzed. In helpless anger then he cursed and blasphemed and called the heavenly Shape, kinds of evil names.
At this the Shape spoke to him.
"From this moment on, you are accursed. You are condemned to sail forever without rest, without anchorage, without making port of any kind. You shall never taste beer or tobacco again. Your drink will be gall, your meat will be red-hot iron. Only a cabin boy will remain of all your crew. Horns will grow from his forehead, and he will have a tiger's face and skin rougher than a dog fish's. "
At this the captain, sobered at last, groaned. The Shape continued.
"It will always be your watch, and you will never be able to sleep, no matter how you long for it. The moment you close your eyes a sword will pierce your body. And since you delight tormenting sailors, you shall torment them for ever more."
At that the captain smiled.
The Shape said to him, "You shall be the evil spirit of the sea. You will travel all oceans and all latitudes without stopping or resting, and your ship will bring misfortune to all who sight it. "
"Amen to that!" the captain cried and laughed. "And on Judgment Day, Satan will claim you for his own. "
"A fig for Satan!" the captain answered.
The Shape vanished, and the Dutchman found himself alone with his cabin boy, who had already changed to the evil appearance that had been fore told. The rest of the crew had vanished.
From that day to this the Flying Dutchman has sailed the seas, and he takes malicious pleasure in tricking unlucky mariners. He sets their ships on false courses, leads them onto uncharted shoals, and shipwrecks them. He turns their wine sour and changes all their food into beans. Sometimes he will pretend to have an ordinary ship and will send letters on board other ships he meets at sea. If the other captain is so unfortunate as to try to read them, he is lost.
At other times an empty boat will draw alongside the phantom ship and vanish, a sure omen of bad luck to come. The Flying Dutchman can change the appearance of his ship at will, so that he cannot be recognized, and through the years he has collected around him a new crew. Every one of them comes from the worst criminals, pirates, and bullies of the world's oceans, and every one of them is as cursed and doomed as he himself.
