The legend says that in 1641 the Dutch captain van der Decken (or, in some versions, van Straaten), was returning from the East Indies and carried on Board a young couple. The captain liked the girl; he killed her boyfriend, and she made an offer to become his wife, but she jumped overboard. When you try to round the Cape of Good Hope ship was caught in a violent storm.

Among the superstitious sailors began discontent, and the co-driver suggested to wait out the weather in some Bay, but the captain shot him and several disgruntled, and then vowed that none of the commands are not coming ashore until then, until they'd proceed around the Cape, even if it takes eternity. This van der Decken, reputed to be a horrible filth and blasphemer, landed his ship curse. He is now immortal, immune, but unable to come ashore, doomed to surf the waves of the World Ocean to the Second Coming.

Although, according to some theories, it has a chance to find peace: every seven years van der Decken can return to earth and try to find one that voluntarily agree to become his wife.

In marine beliefs meeting with "the Flying Dutchman" bad omen or death. The image of "the Flying Dutchman" was very popular in the art of the XIX century.

There are other versions of the legend of the flying Dutchman. Here are some of them:

• Van der Decken vowed to sell his soul to the devil if you can unharmed to pass Cape and not bumped on the rocks. His wishes were fulfilled, and it was doomed to eternal wandering.

• The team of the Dutch trading ship got sick with a terrible disease. Out of fear that the disease can be brought ashore, none of the port did not take the ship. The vehicle with the dead from disease, lack of water and food sailors still wandering the seas and oceans.

• The ship's crew came across another Ghost ship, the "Canary" - pirate vessel-phantom, which looted and destroyed other ships. The team of the "Flying Dutchman" managed to overcome "the Canary", but has passed the curse "Canaries"; now they travel the endless expanses and don't feel no pain, no fatigue, no heat or cold, suffer it, and found the ships they're crying out for help, but those without trying to help them, share with them the curse "Canaries"...


Some real cases observed Flying Dutch:

• At the end of 1770 on the island of Malta entered the ship, the captain and 14 sailors were stricken with yellow fever. When this was reported to the Grand master of the Maltese order, he ordered to tow from the port the ship with 23 crew members. The ship went to Tunisia, however, the local ruler had to warn, and he was forbidden to put the ship in port. The team decided to conduct a sailboat in Naples. There had never heard, for fear of epidemics. Never took a ship in France and in England. In the end, the misfits sailboat was missing.

• 1775: "Octavius", English merchant ship, returning from China, was found drifting near to the coast of Greenland in 1775. The ship register of the captain showed that the vessel is in 1762 tried to follow the Northwest passage, which successfully never crossed. The ship and the frozen body of his team, obviously, completed the transition, drifting among the pack ice for 13 years.

• Early on the Sunny morning 1850 ship "Sea bird" appeared off the coast of the U.S. state of Rhode island, near the city of Newport. Assembled on the Bank-the people saw that the ship is under all the sails to the reefs. When to reefs was a few metres, a huge wave lifted the sailboat and gently carried him to the land. Reaching the vessel village residents were amazed: the ship was not a single living soul. On the stove in the galley was boiling kettle, Kubrick was standing tobacco smoke, on the table were placed plates. Navigation devices, maps, sailing directions and ship documents -- everything was in place. From the ship's log, it became known that the sailing ship was from Honduras in Newport with a cargo of coffee. He commanded a ship captain John Durham. The last entry in the shipping register reported: "Went on the beam reef Brenton". This reef is located just a few miles from Newport. Fishermen who returned on the same day, after harvesting, said that early in the morning they saw the sailing ship in the sea and the captain welcomed them. The most thorough investigation conducted by the police, has not explained why, and where the people disappeared.

• 1872: "Maria Celeste"perhaps the most famous of real ships ghosts, was found abandoned by the crew between Portugal and the Azores, and the vessel was not damaged.
• 1931: "Baychimo" was abandoned by the crew in the Arctic ocean, when he was trapped in pack ice and was thought, was to sink, but remained afloat. Repeatedly been seen.
• 1933: lifeboat passenger steamship SS Valencia", crashed in 1906 near the South-West coast of Vancouver island, was found in good condition, floating in the area after 27 years after the disaster. The seafarers also informed about the observation of the ship in the area after it sank, often as a vision that followed down the coast.
• 1955: "MV Elite" was discovered abandoned in the Pacific
• 2003: "hi Em 6" was discovered drifting without crew in Australian waters. Despite careful searches, no trace of the team failed to detect.
• 2006: "Yang Seung", tanker, was found near the shore of Waipu, (Queensland, North-Eastern Australia) in March. Its origin and owner were not installed, and in April the ship was destroyed.
• 2006: "Bel Amica" was discovered in August near the coast of Sardinia. The team coast guard, which found the vessel, found on Board the remains of food, French maps of North African seas, and the flag of Luxembourg.
• 2007: "KAZ II", a 12-metre catamaran, was discovered in April near the coast of Queensland, North-Eastern Australia. The yacht, which left Airlie beach 15 April was detected in 80 miles from Townsville, near the Great Barrier reef, next Wednesday. When it landed, it was discovered that the work of the engine, the portable computer, radio, GPS, was laid table, but the team, which consisted of 3 people on Board were absent. All sail yachts were on the spot, but badly damaged. Three life jackets and other rescue equipment were in place. The search team was terminated on Sunday 22 April, because hardly anyone survived for such a period of time.

What is the ship crashed, abandoned by its crew and persecuted by waves and wind nowhere? The embodiment of eternal human fear of death... He appears under the mournful sounds as if from beyond the grave, they are similar to the piteous moaning and wailing. The rumble resembling uncertain tread exhilarated giant, is a knock that publishes rudder, limp breaking on the forage; hardly heard the creak - Ston wooden sheathing, tormented motion. Strange sounds similar to heavy, irregular breathing that can be heard from under the deck, publishes water, squishing in a half-hold. Slowly spinning on the poop wheel means that there is no steering, who would keep his firm grip. And suddenly hear the door, as if someone invisible touched her, and so in each compartment, each cabin.

The crashed ship is drifting in two elements. One of them - the sea. Another mystery. And standing eye to notice the notch on blanchere, spot colors, broken timber mast, as the imagination immediately draws the bloody drama: suddenly heard the sound of axes, the noise of the fight for life and death everywhere haunted puddles of blood. The hole in the Board or cut off a piece of a covering - than't seem witnesses pirate attacks? No ship's log and other papers - so, someone needed to hide the terrible evidence, evidence which broke out on Board the rebellion.
"Each ship has rights, wrote once Joseph Conrad, like any man, able to breathe and talk. The ship was never a slave of man..."
And any seafarer who understands it, having met the Ghost ship, involuntarily imbued superstitious fear...