- The Flying Dutchman is a Ghost Ship in a popular myth about a ship that is condemned to sail the Seven Seas in perpetuity. The myth originated in Holland after it became a Sea Power in the sixteenth century CE.
- The Flying Dutchman has been reported in sightings by sailors many times and has gone into folklore when sighted, as being a bad omen. Richard Wagner wrote an opera called the Flying Dutchman in 1843.
Origin of the Myth
- The ‘Flying Dutchman’ was part of a Fleet of ships belonging to the Dutch East India Company, that sailed between the East Indies and the Netherlands with cargoes of spices and silk.
- The Captain is alleged to have been Hendrik Van der Decken, who encountered a storm off the Cape of Good Hope, and instead of putting in to port, insisted on continuing the voyage, resulting in the ship being lost.
- According to the legend, as punishment, the ship and its captain were condemned by the Devil to sail the Seven Seas for eternity.
- However, the Devil gave him a chance of redemption by allowing him to come ashore once every seven years and redeem himself by searching for his one true love and achieve salvation through her.
Cape of Good Hope
- Frequent sightings have been reported off the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa since the Myth began in the 1600’s.
Explanation by Optical Phenomena
- Mirage
- One explanation of the frequency of sightings is as an optical illusion known as a mirage. A ship appears either in the air with its reflection, or upside down in the air, long before it physically makes its appearance on the ocean.
- A ‘thermal inversion’ will produce an optical phenomena. Air is usually warmer on the surface and cooler higher up. In calm weather, a layer of warm air lying over a layer of cold dense air, will bend light and act as a refracting lense. This produces both inverted and upright images.
- Fata Morgana
- In Italy, a mirage often sighted in the Strait of Messina is called a Fata Morgana, named after the Sorceress, Morgana le Fay, in the Legend of King Arthur. It can be seen over land as well as over the sea. The mirage consists of a distorted object or multiple objects one above the other, either stretched or compressed, seen just above the horizon. The image changes continuously.
- Looming
- This is not a mirage, as it does not produce multiple or inverted images, but makes the image appear larger and closer than it is.
Cape of Good Hope