The Flying Dutchman

Categories: Nautical lore | Fictional ships

This article is about the legend of the Flying Dutchman. For other uses, see The Flying Dutchman (disambiguation)

According to folklore, the Flying Dutchman is a ghost ship that can never go home, but must wander the ocean forever. The Flying Dutchman is usually spotted from afar, sometimes glowing with ghostly light. If she is hailed by another ship, her crew will often try to send messages to land, to people long since dead.

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Origins

Versions of the story are legion. According to some, the story is originally Dutch, while others claim it is based on the English play The Flying Dutchman (1826) by Edward Fitzball and the novel The Phantom Ship (1837) by Frederick Marryat, later adapted into the Dutch story Het Vliegend Schip (The Flying Ship) by the Dutch clergyman A.H.C. Römer. Other versions include the opera by Richard Wagner (1841) and The Flying Dutchman on Tappan Sea by Washington Irving (1855).

According to some sources, the 17th century Dutch captain Bernard Fokke, who was renowned for the uncanny speed of his trips from Holland to Java, and was suspected of being in league with the devil because of it, is the model for the captain of the ghost ship. According to some sources, the captain is called Falkenburg in the Dutch versions of the story. He is called Vanderdecken (meaning on deck) in Marryat's version and Ramhout van Dam in Irving's version. Sources disagree on whether "Flying Dutchman" was the name of the ship, or a nickname for her captain.

According to most versions, the captain swore that he would not retreat in the face of a storm, but would continue his attempt to round the Cape of Good Hope even if it took until Judgment Day. According to other versions, some horrible crime took place on board, or the crew was infected with the plague and not allowed to sail into any port for this reason. Since then, the ship and its crew were doomed to sail forever, never putting in to shore. According to some versions, this happened in 1641, others give the date 1680 or 1729.

Many have noted the resemblance of the Flying Dutchman legend to the Christian folk tale of the Wandering Jew.

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Details changed

In Fitzball's play, the captain is allowed to go to shore once every hundred years, in order to seek a woman to share his fate. In Wagner's opera, it is once every seven years.

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Cultural allusions

  • two books by Brian Jacques: "Castaways of the Flying Dutchman" and its sequel "The Angel's Command." In this adaptation, The captain blames the lord God for the Dutchman's failures, and an angel descends to pass judgement upon them.
  • a song by Jethro Tull
  • a painting by Albert Ryder in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.
  • Castaways of the Flying Dutchman, a young adult novel by Brian Jacques.
  • a song by German group Von Thronstahl
  • a restaurant in the TV show The Simpsons is named "The Frying Dutchman".
  • a character in tv cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants
  • a graphic novel by Carl Barks
  • a coffee shop in Amsterdam's red light district
  • The Homeward Bounders, a book by Diana Wynne Jones
  • Flying Dutch, a parody based on the Wagner opera by Tom Holt
  • The human Protector, Jack Brennan, in Larry Niven's science fiction novel Protector calls himself Vanderdecken and his spaceship The Flying Dutchman
  • The inspiration for the area Foolish Promises in the MUD Aardwolf.
  • a play called Dutchman by Amiri Baraka
  • a song by Tori Amos
  • a reference in "Remittance Man", a song by Jimmy Buffett
  • a reference in "The Sharks", a novel by Norwegian author Jens Bjørneboe
  • Footballer Dennis Bergkamp suffers from severe aviophobia, and is endearingly named the non-Flying Dutchman
  • Hall-of-Fame shortstop Honus Wagner was known in the press as "The Flying Dutchman."
  • In Alone in the Dark 2 videogame, the Flying Dutchman is the ship of One Eye Jack and his fellow ghost pirates.
  • In the Little Vampire series of graphic novels by Joann Sfar, the Flying Dutchman, also called "The Captain of the Dead," is the leader of a happy community of ghosts and monsters inhabiting a huge haunted mansion.
  • The legend is highly portrayed in the movie "Pandora and the Flying Dutchmen" featuring Ava Gardner and James Mason
  • Richard Voorhees, a character in Julian May's sci-fi series Saga of Pliocene Exile, chooses the Flying Dutchman as his persona in exile, and ends by living out the part.
  • Time's Fool, a novel in verse by Glyn Maxwell, which recasts the legend on a twentieth-century night train.
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Disambiguation

The Flying Dutchman is also the name of a ghost character (arguably inspired by the legend) on the animated TV-series, SpongeBob SquarePants.

The Flying Dutchman was a ride once in operation at Six Flags Over Georgia. The ride was based on the legendary ship. It's also the name of a watercoaster ride in the Dutch themepark Efteling, planned for 2006.

"The Flying Dustman" was the name of Cutthroat Jake's ship in the children's TV series Captain Pugwash.

"The Flying Dutchman" is the name for athletic teams from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, founded by Dutch immigrants to the area in 1866, Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania, and of Hofstra University in Hempstead, Long Island, New York.

Also, the Flying Dutchmen is small and fast sail boat design, of about 18 feet in length, formerly used for Olympic competitions, and since then still actively sailed and raced.

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External links

de:Der fliegende Holländer he:ההולנדי המעופף nl:Vliegende Hollander sl:Večni mornar