The Flying Dutchman was Captain Hendrik van der Decken, who set sail from Amsterdam to make his fortunes in the East Indies. As the ship rounded the Cape of Good Hope, a storm blew up, battering the ship to pieces. The devil appeared and asked van der Decken if he were willing to ride straight into the storm and defy God's will. Van der Decken agreed, and doomed himself to roam the sea ceaselessly til Judgement Day. Or, if the James Mason and Eva Gardner film is to be believed, until he finds the true love of a good woman, willing to sacrifice herself for him. (I always loved that film!)
Prince George, later George V, at the time a 16 year old Royal Navy midshipman, made an entry in his logbook aboard HMS Inconstant off the coast of Australia on 11th July, 1881. He wrote :
At 4am The Flying Dutchman crossed our bows. She emitted a strange phosphorescent light as of a phantom ship all aglow, in the midst of which light the masts, spars and sails of a brig 200 yards distant stood out in strong relief as she came up on the port bow, where also the officer of the watch from the bridge saw her, as did the quarter-deck midshipman, who was sent forward at once to the forecastle, but on arriving there no vestige nor any sign whatever of any material ship was to be seen either near or right away to the horizon, the night being clear and the sea calm.
The seaman who had first sighted The Flying Dutchman apparently fell to his death, and the admiral of the fleet died shortly afterwards. She was also spotted in September, 1944, by four people relaxing on the terrace of their home at Mouille Point, Cape Town. She was heading into Table Bay. They followed its progress for about 15 minutes before disappeared from view behind Robben Island.
In March 1939, almost 100 people saw a fully rigged sailing ship appear out of the heat haze, with it sails full, although there was no wind. The ship appeared to be heading for a distant, isolated beach, but as the witnesses watched, the ship vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.
Another ghost ship haunts Goodwin Sands, a sandbank that has claimed 234 wrecks. The Lady Lovibond ran aground on 13th February, 1748. The ship had left London for Oporto, Portugal, with its newly married skipper, Captain Simon Peel, his bride and some wedding guests. According to legend, a jealous mate, who was also in love with the bride, murdered Peel and steered the ship to a suicide course on to the Goodwins. The entire company was drowned. 50 years later, to the day, a three-masted schooner identical to the Lady Lovibond was seen heading for the Goodwins. The crew of a fishing boat followed and heard the sounds of a celebration and women's voices, before the schooner hit the sands, broke up, then vanished. The same apparition was seen 50 years later, by a group of watchers near Deal, Kent, on 13th February, 1858. Watchers in 1948 saw nothing, visibility being poor.
The Palatine lurks off Rhode Island. It left Holland in 1752, packed with colonists heading for Philadelphia. A winter storm blew the ship off course, the captain was lost overboard, the crew panicked and mutinied. Two days after Christmas, it ran aground on rocks off Block Island and began to break up. The ship began to be pulled back out to sea as the storm abated, but dozens of local fishermen looted the ship and took off the passengers, before setting the wreck ablaze. As they watched it drift out to sea, fully ablaze, they saw a woman appear out of her hiding place, and stand screaming on the deck until the fire engulfed her. The battered sailing ship has been seen since, burning.
