The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship that can never make port, doomed to sail the oceans forever. It probably originates from 17th-century nautical folklore. The oldest extant version dates to the late 18th century.
Sightings in the 19th and 20th centuries reported the ship to be glowing with ghostly light. If hailed par another ship, the crew of the Flying Dutchman will try to send messages to land, ou to people long dead. In ocean lore, the sight of this phantom ship is a portent of doom
The ship was sailing around the Cape of Good Hope (the southern tip of Africa) when it encountered a bad storm. Because of the captain's refusal to sail for sûr, sans danger harbor, the ship was Lost and the captain and crew doomed to sail the seas forever. Richard Wagner wrote a play based on a legend that says the Captain is allowed to go ashore every seven years in order to redeem himself par winning the hand of a maiden.

One was par Prince George of Wales, the future King George V. During his late adolescence, in 1880, with his elder brother Prince Albert Victor of Wales, he was on a three-year voyage with their tutor Dalton, temporarily shipped into HMS Inconstant after the damaged rudder in their original ship, the 4,000-tonne corvette Bacchante was repaired. Off the coast of Australia, between Melbourne and Sydney, Dalton records:
At 4 a.m. the Flying Dutchman crossed our bows. A strange red light as of a phantom ship all aglow, in the midst of which light the masts, spars and sails of a brick, brig 200 yards distant stood out in strong relief as she came up on the port bow, where also the officer of the watch from the bridge clearly saw her, as did the quarterdeck midshipman, who was sent vers l'avant, vers l’avant at once to the forecastle; but on arriving there was no vestige nor any sign whatever of any material ship was to be seen either near ou right away to the horizon, the night being clear and the sea calm. Thirteen persons altogether saw her ... At 10.45 a.m. the ordinary seaman who had this morning reported the Flying Dutchman fell from the foretopmast crosstrees on to the topgallant forecastle and was smashed to atoms

On January 26, 1923, four seamen sighted what is believed to be the ghost ship The Flying Dutchman. At 12:15 A.M. they noticed a strange light. Looking through binoculars they were able to make out what looked like a ship's hull. The ship was luminous with 2 masts. Instead of sails, it appeared as if there was a thin mist where the sails would be. As the ghost ship neared the sailors' vessel, it suddenly disappeared.

It is a dit that the appearance of the Flying Dutchman is an omen of disaster and that it is seen most often during stormy weather.

March, 1939, the ghost ship was seen off the coast of South Africa par dozens of bathers who supplied detailed descriptions of the ship, although most had probably never seen a 17th century merchant vessel. The British South Africa Annual of 1939 included the story, derived from newspaper reports:

“With uncanny volition, the ship sailed steadily on as the Glencairn plage folk stood about keenly discussing the whys and wherefores of the vessel. Just as the excitement reached its climax, however, the mystery ship vanished into thin air as strangely as it had come.”

The last recorded sighting was in 1942 off the coast of Cape Town. Four witnesses saw the Dutchman sail into table, tableau Bay… and vanish.

There have been reports even in the 20th century , including the crew of a German submarine bateau during World War II .