Ghost Ship - The Flying Dutchman

The Phantom Ship that Eternally Sails the Sea has been Witnessed

May 8, 2007

The Flying Dutchman, ghost ship of legend, was seen in the Cape of Good Hope by reliable witnesses. Why does it sail? Is it a haunting? Illusion? Hallucination? Mirage?

Various legends and sightings abound about this phantom ship. Captains recorded her appearance in their logs. A King was also a witness.

Legends of the Flying Dutchman

There are several versions of the Flying Dutchman legend, the phantom ship sighted in Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. The captains’ names vary in the legends. The sailing ship was allegedly built in the 1600s.

According to German legend, von Falkenberg and the devil played dice. The captain’s soul was at stake. He lost and was doomed to sail the sea forever.

Other versions are Dutch. Hendrick van der Decken, also spelled Vanderdecken, sailed from Amsterdam to Batavia, India and vanished in a gale while sailing in the cape because he unwisely ignored the danger. As punishment for his folly, he is doomed to sail forever. An identical legend has the names of von Straaten or Van Dam as the captain.

Captain Fokke made Holland-Java trips with unnatural speed. People thought he was in league with the devil, which is why it is said he sails eternally.

The ship’s name is not revealed in the legends. The Flying Dutchman is the captain.

Seeing the Flying Dutchman is considered an ill omen. Sailors nail horseshoes to masts for protection.

Flying Dutchman, Selected Sightings

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. Lighthouse keepers reported seeing her.

1823: Captain Owen, HMS Leven, recorded two sightings in the log.
1835: Men on a British vessel saw a sailing ship approach them in the middle of a storm. It appeared there would be a collision, but the ship suddenly vanished.
1881: Three HMS Bacchante crewmembers, including King George V, saw the ship. The next day, one of the men who saw it fell from the rigging and died.
1879: The SS Pretoria’s crew saw the ghost ship.
1911: A whaling ship almost collided with her before she vanished.
1923: Members of the British Navy saw her and gave documentation to the Society for Psychical Research, SPR. Fourth Officer Stone wrote an account of the fifteen minute sighting on January 26th. Second Officer Bennett, a helmsman and cadet also witnessed the ship. Stone drew a picture of the phantom. Bennett corroborated his account.
1939: People ashore saw the Flying Dutchman. Admiral Karl Doenitz maintained U Boat crews logged sightings.
1941: People at Glencairn Beach sighted the phantom ship that vanished before she crashed into rocks.
1942: Four witnesses saw the old ship enter Table Bay, then vanish. Second Officer Davies and Third Officer Montserrat, HMS Jubilee, saw the Flying Dutchman. Davis recorded it in the ship’s log.
1959: The Straat Magelhaen nearly collided with the ghost ship.

Possible Explanations for the Flying Dutchman

The Flying Dutchman could be an optical illusion, mass hallucination or a mirage. Rays of lights and haze can fool eyes. Sleep deprivation and alcohol can produce visual hallucinations, so these could be other factors.

Dr. Frederick Meyers, highly respected SPR parapsychologist, interviewed Stone and Bennett. He theorized that a type of consciousness survives physical death and has the ability to telepathically project images of themselves and objects to the living who see them. Most parapsychologists have rejected this theory.

The Flying Dutchman could be a haunting which is energy imprinted in time and space. Hauntings have no intelligence and usually occur when a tragedy or disaster has happened. This is in line with current parapsychological theory.