Where did the «Flying Dutchman» come from?
Its origin remains truly unknown. They say that the first mention of the «Flying Dutchman» dates back to the middle of the 17th century. Supposedly, this ship with a valuable cargo sank because of a fierce storm. According to other accounts, a certain Dutchman, Van der Decken — a resolute and cruel man — undertook to deliver goods within the shortest possible time from Amsterdam to the East Indies. And as the ship’s captain he swore that he would reach port without any obstacles.
However, the ocean does not like to joke with such predictions. A terrible storm broke out, and the ship was already tossing helplessly on enormous waves. The crew had warned the captain earlier about the approaching tempest. And they begged him to make for shore, to wait it out in some quiet harbor.
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But Van der Decken stubbornly drove the ship toward the intended goal. To many it already seemed that the captain had simply gone mad. At the Cape of Good Hope the ship was capsized by the storm wind. The entire crew, including the captain, ended up in the raging ocean. No one survived, and the spot where the ship wrecked was forever marked by the surviving top of the mast.
And according to one legend, the captain of the «Flying Dutchman» killed the fiancé of a girl who had caught his eye in order to arrange his own personal happiness. However, it all ended tragically - the girl threw herself into the water. And the captain, with a broken heart, still searches across the ocean expanses aboard the «Flying Dutchman» for his beloved.
The first appearances of the ghost ship
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From that time on, the first entries about the «Flying Dutchman» would appear in ships’ logs. The ghost ship, with its unexpected presence in the waters, struck terror into sailors. A vessel silently gliding across the ocean, carrying no crew and no captain, always foretold misfortune.
The «Flying Dutchman» continues to appear even in our day. Time and again, people’s testimonies of its real existence surface. Scientists consider them to be the play of human imagination. Specialists in paranormal phenomena, however, believe that the otherworldly world «sculpts» the images of those who perished as victims of shipwrecks.
Other researchers try to adhere to a strictly scientific approach to the centuries-old, troubling subject of the «Flying Dutchman». They compare the legendary ghost ship to a mirage in the desert, which deceptively lures an exhausted traveler with the promise of a nearby oasis. Researchers believe that a sharp difference between layers of the atmosphere over the ocean causes the reflection of objects. The latter are located nearby, helping to create bizarre images.
Therefore there is nothing surprising in the fact that, having approached the huge ghost ship to within arm’s reach, you do not find it. It seems to evaporate into the air, leaving not even the slightest trace.
If some accounts are to be believed, the «Flying Dutchman» was last seen by people in 1942 near Cape Town. It calmly entered the harbor – and disappeared.
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