The Flying Dutchman.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 4, 24 January 1912, Page 16

The Flying Dutchman.

In the Christmas number of the “Pall Mall Magazine” there is an article, “Ghosts of the Sea,” by Charles Pears. The following excerpt refers to the famous myth -of the Flying Dutchman: To the mind of one who knows the sea, it would seem strange that sailors are not more superstitious tlian they are, and there are certainly many reasonable excuses for their belief in such stories as that of the Flying Dutchman. A patch of swirling vapour through the rigging of his ship upon a dark night. Imagination does the rest; lie has seen the Flying I>u.tchman. Cornelius Vanderdeckeu, a Dutch navigator of long ago, was making a passage from Batavia. For days and days he encountered heavy gales‘a nd baffling head winds whilst trying to round the Cape pf Good ‘Hope. Struggle against the winds as he would, ho lost as much on one tack as he gained upon the other. Struggling vainly for nine hopeless weeks, he ultimately found himself in the same position as he was in at first, the ship having made no progress. Vanderdecken, in a fit of wrath, threw himself on bis knees upon the deck and cursed the Diety, swearing that he would round the Cape if it took him til! the Day of Judgment.. Thereupon came a 'fair wind, he squared his yards; and set off, 'but although his ship ploughed through the seas he made no headway, (for the Deity had taken him at. his word and doomed him to sail the seas for ever.

iSuperstition has it that the appearance of the phantom ship leads' to certain and swift inisfortuiie. Old sailors will tell of the ship 4>f the Flying Dutchman bowling along in the very teeth of the wind, and of her overtaking their own ship, which was beating to windward. Some of them sap they have seen her sail clean Ihrougtt their ship, the swirling ftlms of her anils and rigging leaving h cold, clammy feeling like the touch oi death.