The Haunted Voyage of the Flying Dutchman
By contract, the ship was supposed to return to the Netherlands with a cargo of goods on behalf of the company that owned it, but Vanderdecker was confident he could load enough on his own account to make himself rich. According to legend, the ship was caught in a terrible tropical hurricane, and the captain tried every maneuver possible to keep it moving. The safest course of action would have been to wait out the storm, but driven by a challenge made to him one night in a dream by the devil, he decided to ignore divine warnings and round the Cape of Good Hope. Shortly after, the ship was swept away by the waves, and the crew perished. As punishment, Vanderdecker was condemned to captain his ship until Judgment Day.
The legend is evocative and romantic, but many witnesses swear it is more than just a legend. In 1835, the captain and crew of an English ship reported seeing a ghost ship approaching through a raging storm with all sails unfurled, only to vanish suddenly after coming dangerously close. In 1881, sailors aboard the British ship Bacchante claimed that a crew member drowned after falling overboard, following a colleague's sighting of the spectral ship.
A more recent and debated sighting of the Flying Dutchman reportedly occurred in March 1939 on Glencairn Beach in South Africa. The following day, a newspaper reported that dozens of beachgoers had observed the ship, providing detailed accounts of the vision. They noted that the vessel had all sails unfurled and was moving quickly despite the complete absence of wind. Some scientists explained such group sightings as mirages. However, witnesses argued that it would have been difficult for them to imagine a 17th-century sailing ship in such vivid detail, especially since most of them had never seen one before.
