The Flying Dutchman
Sailors rounding the Cape told of a ship doomed never to reach port. A future king said he saw it.
What was reported
The legend of the Flying Dutchman tells of a ship condemned to sail the oceans forever, usually around the Cape of Good Hope, never able to make harbour. Seeing it was said to bring bad luck. The story was in print by the late 1700s, and Wagner turned it into an opera in 1843.
On 11 July 1881, off the coast of Australia, the log of HMS Bacchante, which was carrying the teenage Prince George, later King George V, recorded that the Flying Dutchman had crossed their bows.
Explanations offered
Many sightings were probably a kind of mirage called a Fata Morgana, in which a ship beyond the horizon appears to float above the sea, stretched or upside down. The legend itself grew from sailors' stories in the age of Dutch trade around the Cape.
- When
- Told since the 1700s
- Where
- Off the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa
- Witnesses
- Sailors, including a future king
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.