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Question of Catoto (07.15.2015): What is the history of the Flying Dutchman?
The Flying DutchmanA: The Flying Dutchman is the most famous boat, and it always has been sailing since the 17th century...
It is doomed to wander forever in the sea between Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope by fault of its thoughtlessness captain Van Der Straeten!
One day in 1665 the captain, a stubborn and intransigent man, refused to stop in a port for his crew to rest and restock. It was absolutely necessary to catch the ship behind. The captain wanted to cross the Cape of Good Hope in a storm. The crew asked him to wait, but the captain refused inflexibly. He sang obscene songs at the poop and got drunk again and again before returning to his cabin. The storm was worse than what was feared, and the terrorized crew decided to rebel. But as the leader of the mutineers took the helm, the captain, totally drunk, went out and shot the mischiefs with his pistol, and with his fist raised in the howling wind uttered the terrible words:
"I leaped over this cape, even if I navigate to the end of time!"
Legend has it that a ghost then appeared. The captain tried to shoot him, but the ghost uttered his curse to which the captain replied"Amen."
Since then, perpetually caught by storm wind, the boat wanders the seas, unable to find rest ... it is called the Flying Dutchman.

Legend or not?
There are reports of a ship that mysteriously appears in storms.
- In 1835 a British captain had reported a ship hurtling at him, but mysteriously disappearing.
- On 11 July 1881 the future King of England, George V, then Duke of York was witness to one of these apparitions along the Australian coast. While he was getting air on the deck of HMS Bacchante, he saw a reddish halo in the black dark night. A huge ship appeared and passed the boat without any noise... The next day a quarter of the sailors fell off a mast and died. A few days later it was the turn of the admiral who commanded the fleet. Some thought it was a curse from the Flying Dutchman. The logbook of The Bacchae relates the facts:
"Four in the morning, a brig passed on our front, about three hundred meters, heading towards us. A strange red light lit up the mast, deck, and sails. The man pointed the davit on the front, and a quarter of lieutenant. A student officer was sent to the lookout, but this time he saw no trace, no sign of a real ship. Sixteen people witnessed the apparition. The night was clear and the sea was calm. Tourmaline and Cleopatra who sailed starboard bow by signals we asked if we had seen the strange red light. "
- In March 1939 many bathers on a beach in South Africa saw a sailing vessel whose description closely resembles that of a brick. The latter appears spinning on the waves, full sail when there was no wind, and then disappears mysteriously.
- During the Battle of the Atlantic the crew of a U-Boat would have seen...




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