Flying Dutchman

The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship that can never make port and is doomed
to sail the oceans forever. The myth is likely to have originated from 17th-century nautical
folklore. The oldest extant version dates to the late 18th century. Sightings in the 19th and
20th centuries reported the ship to be glowing with ghostly light. If hailed by another ship,
the crew of the Flying Dutchman will try to send messages to land, or to people long dead.
In ocean lore, the sight of this phantom ship is a portent of doom.
Some say it is a spectral schooner seen under full sail, sometimes in the distance,
sometimes at night or through the fog, sometimes gliding above the water; its sails may be
torn to ribbons, or it may be making great headway even in the lack of wind. Some say the
Dutchman refers to the captain of the ship, a man cursed to sail the seas forever and
never make land. Some say the captain and his ship are doomed to forever try to round a
stormy cape, never quite succeeding and always being beaten back by the howling wind
and waves. But whatever the specifics of the legend, the Flying Dutchman has become a
mainstay of maritime lore.
The Dutchman, who is unnamed in the opera, commands a ship with only a spectral
crew. He makes port in a storm in Norway, and grapples to the ship of Captain Daland.
The Dutchman reveals to the captain that years ago, he made a curse during a storm,
swearing to Satan that he would round the Cape of Good Hope even if he had to keep
trying until doomsday. Satan took him at his word, and cursed him to never be able to
make port until he found a woman who would love him until she died. Fortunately, the
captain has a nubile daughter, Senta, who, upon hearing of the Dutchman's terrible
plight, falls in love with him. But another suitor, the muscular and handsome huntsman
Erik, reminds Senta that she had once promised herself to him. When the Dutchman
hears of this, he assumes he is lost forever and casts off with his ghostly crew. But
Senta's love was true, and when she sees the Dutchman sail away, she throws herself
into the ocean and drowns. The terms of the curse thus fulfilled, the Dutchman and his
ship are seen ascending to heaven (thus becoming the "flying" Dutchman), where he will
finally be able to rest.
The first print reference to the ship appears in Travels in various part of Europe, Asia
and Africa during a series of thirty years and upward (1790) by John MacDonald.
17th century Dutch captain Bernard Fokke is the model for the captain of the ghost
ship.[4] Fokke was renowned for the speed of his trips from theNetherlands to Java and
was suspected of being in league with the Devil. The first version of the legend as a
story was printed in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine for May 1821,[5] which puts the
scene as the Cape of Good Hope. This story introduces the name Captain Hendrick Van
der Decken for the captain and the motifs (elaborated by later writers) of letters
addressed to people long dead being offered to other ships for delivery, but if accepted
will bring misfortune; and the captain having sworn to round the Cape of Good Hope
though it should take until the day of judgment.