Story
The story begins on an Easter Sunday. Despite the fact that it is a Christian holiday and the fact that a heavy storm is forecast, Captain Willem van der Decken decides to sail with his ship. He sets sail for the East Indies where he would trade. As the ship approaches the Cape of Good Hope, the predicted storm appears. The crew does not want to continue, and Van der Decken becomes furious. He throws the helmsman overboard, exclaiming: “God or the devil, I will sail around the Cape, even if I have to sail until the Last Judgment.”
Origin
Stories about ghost ships are centuries old and were especially prevalent among sailors. As far as we know, the first ghost ship stories were linked to Dutch people at the end of the 18th century. The Flying Dutchman belongs to the English story tradition and may have been inspired by the rivalry between England and the Netherlands in overseas trade. The story occurs in different variants, in some of which the captain also has a Frisian name. The fact that De Vliegende Hollander was connected to Terneuzen is thanks to the Englishman Frederick Marryat. He wrote The "Phantom Ship" in 1837. He made Terneuzen the birthplace and residence of Captain Willem van der Decken. Marryat was no stranger to Zeeland. He had participated as a soldier in the English invasion of Walcheren in 1809 and later came to live in the city with his daughter. Some think that Marryat had such a bad time there that he made Terneuzen the home port of the doomed ship. But Terneuzen has taken the story wholeheartedly and sees the Flying Dutchman as the symbol of the port city. Houses in the city were named Van der Decken's residential and/or haunted houses.