My Ship Has Come In

The Flying Dutchman is docked below, but oddly only certain people are able to see it.  Many said this ship would never be able to make port, because it was doomed to sail the oceans for eternity.  People felt that anyone who encountered this ship would have horrible things happen to them, but I am totally fine and I am almost certain that I have not been cursed.  There are plenty of stories about people who have seen this ghastly ship, that ended up with a deathly disease or ended up being killed in an unlikely accident.  Sightings have been rare lately and although this is the most famous ghost ship of all time, most people don’t know anything about The Flying Dutchman.

A legend says that the captain of this ship Willem Van Der Decken found himself struggling to round the Cape of Good Hope during a ferocious storm, when he swore that he would succeed even if he had to sail until Judgment Day.  The Devil heard his oath, and took him up on it, thus the Dutchman was condemned to stay at sea forever.  Other stories say that every one of the crew on this ship caught a nasty disease and no port would give shelter to this ship, because they were afraid that this infection would spread and for this reason the ship is still drifting in the oceans.  People still tell tales about Jack Sparrow, Davey Jones and the Kraken, but nobody ever dares to speak about the inexplicable mysteries concerning the Flying Dutchman.  If you see a ship that reportedly sunk, a bad omen is sure to follow, so many sailors sitting up in the crow’s nest would keep their sittings of this ship silent, for fear that they would fall to the deck.

Some people say that there never was a ship known as The Flying Dutchman and all of these sighting can be attributed to the phenomenon called Fata Morgana, where people see mirages that they think are real.  These mysterious optical events associated with the open ocean get their name from the Arthurian sorceress Morgan le Fay, who is also known as “Morgan the Fairy” and scientists explain this as being atmospheric refraction.  People see what they want to see, but I know the Flying Dutchman is real and it is docked just below these stairs.  I am the great-great grandson of Captain Van Der Decken and I plan to board the vessel and take command of my ship.

Written for Sadje at Keep It Alive What Do You See #99.