FACILITIES

The ghostly galleon known as the Flying Dutchman has been immortalised by mariners’ accounts and by a number of sightings over the past three-and-a-half centuries. As legend has it, the Flying Dutchman was captained by a Dutchman, Hendrik van der Decken, and was headed home from Batavia (now Jakarta) to Holland in 1641. As Van der Decken approached the Cape, typically stormy weather shredded the ship’s sails and waves flooded the deck. The captain had rounded Cape Point on several occasions previously, but this time, a terrified crew implored him to turn back. He refused to submit to the elements and lashed himself to the wheel, swearing that he would sail around Cape Point, even if it took him until Doomsday.

One version of the story goes that an angel appeared on the deck and the enraged captain drew his pistol and shot her. Van der Decken’s wish to round the point was granted that night, but he and his crew were doomed to sail these waters for ever more. Over the past three-and-a-half centuries a ghostly sailing ship, that glows red in the night and has a mad, bald captain, has been sighted by a number of mariners. Those who have seen her say she lets down row-boats that approach with ghostly men aboard, desperately seeking a Good Samaritan to take their letters back home, where they haven’t been for more than 300 years. But those who entertain these approaches are doomed…