The Flying Dutchman
Some of you seemed to enjoy the nautical theme and I thought you may enjoy this flight of fancy.
The Dutchman 'Die Vlieënde Hollander' was an actual ship of the Dutch Trading Company in the days of the tall sailing ships. Its captain, Cornelius Vanderdechin was its real captain and legendary for his fearless sailing skills and rough command of his men.
Lost with all hands rounding the Horn of Africa, this ghost vessel has been sighted numerous times down through the ages, since it vanished, by sailors from many lands. It has been a harbinger of death and misfortune to all who have encountered it.
When Johnny, my eldest son, Sean and I were playing music on the New England coast, we wrote and performed a fair bit of this kind of music in our act. I was living aboard my 40' catch, Ambrosia, in the Narragansett Bay and teaching the boys to sail at the time.
Performing in the old seafaring towns and whaling communities given over now to high tech development centers, coffee shops, and weekend sailors, requires a bit of romantic imagination to conjure up the days of the whaling ports and the rough seamen’s life of a bygone era. Traces of the old docks and taverns survive to this day if you look hard enough. Newport, Buzzards Bay, New Bedford, Block Island, and Nantucket were fertile ground for the imagination of our little crew.
If you enjoy a good yarn...I hope you enjoy this one.
updated by @john-crafton: 08/05/13 09:47:01PM