The great legend of the "Flying Dutchman", like no other, is permeated with mysticism and looks like a phantasmagoria. It, of course, has a historical background, which absorbed the story of the life and death of Bartolomeu Dias and his followers. However, the real facts lose their shape under the veil of time.
The most famous version of the Flying Dutchman legend is associated with a sailing ship that sailed from the East Indies to Europe with a cargo of spices and tea. His captain Van der Straaten (according to another version, the captain's name was Van der Decken, or even a certain Van) was an experienced and courageous man, but of a very unbridled and ferocious disposition. His rule was to achieve his goal by any means, even in spite of common sense and reason. However, they say that it was precisely for this reason that merchants hired him, who were always sure that Van der Straaten's cargo would always be delivered on time, no matter what it cost him.
Dutch historians believe that the famous legend, which forever glorified the stubbornness of the Dutch sailors, was based on real story that happened to one of the Dutch sailors in 1641. Then a certain merchant ship tried to go around the Cape of Good Hope in search of a suitable place for a small settlement that could serve as a staging post for ships. East India Company. A strong storm broke out, but the captain decided to get to the goal, no matter what it cost him. The story ends badly due to the stubbornness of the captain, who wanted to get to the east side of the cape so much that he proclaimed: “I will get there, even if it takes me until the end of the world!” According to another version, the Dutch captain's saying was blasphemous, "By God and the devil, we will break through this storm, even if I have to sail until the second coming!" he supposedly shouted. In response to his blasphemy, a terrible voice was heard: “So be it - swim!” And Van der Decken is still trying to go around Cape Horn, but to no avail.
There is another option for turning an ordinary sailing vehicle into an ominous "Flying Dutchman". When Van der Straaten's ship got into a strong storm near the Cape of Good Hope, the navigator inadvertently advised the captain to take refuge in one of the bays. The offer is quite reasonable, but instead of heeding the advice, Van der Straaten suddenly pulled out a pistol and shot his perfectly reasonable navigator.
With everyone who goes against me, it will be the same! - growled the captain, supposedly addressing the frightened sailors.
Then Van der Straaten, completely unbelted, shoved the body of the dead navigator overboard with his foot. The team begged the captain to change his mind, but he ordered to set all the sails and, loudly singing blasphemous songs, headed for the very center of the terrible typhoon. Furious waves crushed the sides of the ship, a violent wind broke the masts and tore the sails to shreds, but the captain stood his ground, challenging God himself. The sailors, driven to the extreme, revolted, trying to seize control of the ship, but Van der Straaten did not lose his head. When he failed to reason with the team, he again used the pistol. It is not known how many pistols (and they were single-shot at that time!) The captain, who had lost his mind, had in reserve, but he quickly and deftly shot his entire team,
At the moment when he shot the last of his sailors, the clouds in the sky suddenly parted and a ghostly figure descended on the quarterdeck of the ship. According to another version, on the contrary, lightning struck the ship from the clouds and the alien materialized directly from the flame. The further course of events as a whole already coincides. “You are a very stubborn person,” said the stranger. Van der Straaten answered him with the best abuse. "I didn't ask anyone for calm weather," he croaked. “I never asked anyone for anything, get out before I shoot you too.” But the figure did not move. Grabbing a pistol, the captain tried to shoot, but the weapon exploded in his hand. The ghost spoke again. He said that the captain was cursed from now on, from that day on he would sail the seas forever, not being able to enter the port. His ship will always go ahead of the storm. “Bile,” the shadow said, “will be your wine, and red-hot iron will be meat! Horns will grow on the forehead of the blasphemer, and the face will turn into the face of a tiger, ”the ghost announced to the taken aback Van der Straaten. But this did not bring the presumptuous captain to his senses. In a fit of recklessness, he shouted to the mysterious stranger: “I don’t care about you! Let it be! I don't care!" Then he turned into a ghost with a tiger's face and horns.
There is one vulnerability in this version. Everything is clear with the sadistic captain, rightly so, scoundrel! But why should the poor navigator killed by him, and the other members of the team, have to suffer? However, there is an explanation for this. It is like that. The souls of those innocently killed by the maniac captain, as they should, flew away to their sailor's paradise, and the god-damned captain allegedly recruits a new team of the Flying Dutchman from the drowned, and the more vile and vile their deeds were during their lifetime, the better for him.
Be that as it may, since then no one has ever seen either the captain or his ship. If everything was really like this and all those on board the ship disappeared, then it is completely incomprehensible who brought the news of the last public speech captain, as well as the fact that the ship disappeared exactly at the Cape of Good Hope? However, all this is mere trifles when it comes to the greatest legend of the ocean.
Shortly after the mysterious disappearance of Van der Straaten in the port taverns, the sailors told each other chilling stories about a ghost ship sailing the color of blood, appearing out of nowhere, surrounded by a bluish glow, and also disappearing to no one knows where. Any meeting with him threatens with misfortunes, and if you see him in a storm, then a shipwreck is guaranteed and only the most sinless can be saved. Alas, after the meeting with the Flying Dutchman, there were almost never any survivors. In the era of the sailing fleet, when the most restless and desperate went to sea, there were no sinless ships on the ships. Legend has it that for their incredible blasphemy and daring challenge to the devil, neither God nor the devil accepted the soul of the stubborn captain, and Van Straaten is doomed to wander the oceans and seas forever. At first, the ghost ship lived exactly in the place where its careless captain once blasphemed - at the Cape of Good Hope; then he began to appear to sailors already in all the seas of the Southern Hemisphere. But even this damned Dutchman was not enough, and, hoisting his decayed sails, he rushed to the northern latitudes, frightening sailors across all oceans and seas.
As a rule, the "Flying Dutchman" suddenly appears near his chosen victim in a storm and bad weather. For some time he is very close to the unfortunate ship. From there, the worn and holey hull of the ghost ship, its half-decayed sails, skeleton sailors and the captain's mummy near the helm are clearly visible. Those who have seen the captain himself claim that he is standing on the quarterdeck, clutching the helm, finally repenting and begging heaven for forgiveness. Some say that they saw his team - these are skeletons, who, baring their teeth in a smile, raise more and more new sails.
Needless to say, the spectacle is not for the faint of heart. Sometimes the ghost crew is motionless, sometimes the skeleton sailors, on the contrary, are very active, they shout something and wave their arms. Captain Straathen tends to be more reserved than his subordinates, but occasionally he gives his thunderous voice. At the same time, the captain’s speech does not differ in variety, as a rule, he blasphemes, pours curses (punishment from above did not teach him anything!), And then promises his frightened listeners a quick death. After that, the ghost ship suddenly turns away and with sails full of wind, rushes to the nearest rocks. The doomed ship immediately rushes after him, no matter what the team does. The lowered sails, the rudder put on board are unable to stop this fatal race with death. Finally, when destructive rocks appear in the foam of the waves ahead, the Flying Dutchman easily passes through them and dissolves. Following this, the unfortunate ship runs into the stones, where it finds its end along with the crew. However, it seems that sometimes someone still managed to escape, otherwise how would all the details of this terrible race become the property of the maritime community?
Sometimes the "Flying Dutchman" suddenly appears in complete calm. However, in this case, his appearance does not bode well. Despite the calm, the sails of the Flying Dutchman are full of wind, and the captain in his thunderous voice asks the sailors who they are, where they come from and with what. And God forbid to answer "Dutch"! Then an unknown force will pick up the unfortunate ship and carry it after the ghost until the ship crashes on underwater rocks or on reefs that have never been in this place before.
There is an opinion that the routes of the "Flying Dutchman" are distinguished by an enviable constancy. Most often, he loves to lie in wait for careless sailors at the Cape of Good Hope, where the ancient curse was brought to life. In addition, we visit the area of Cape Horn very much by the tireless "Dutchman" - also far from the best place on the planet. Often, the "Flying Dutchman" patrols the North Atlantic, less often - the Pacific and Indian Oceans. However, he clearly dislikes closed seas, although there is evidence of visits by the ubiquitous ghost ship there as well.
However, sometimes the ghost ships, appearing in front of the dumbfounded sailors, do not destroy them. They play real performances in front of the sailors, depicting scenes of their long-standing wreck, and the same wreck scene can be repeated dozens of times. There is evidence of these scenes, with screaming and drowning people, with collapsing rigging and breaking the hull. Experts advise: if you happen to meet the Flying Dutchman when he is complacent, you need to be patient and watch the repeatedly repeated plot until the ghost-captain himself gets tired of it.
But that's not all! The fact is that, according to the famous legend, once every seven years strange mail arrives from the Flying Dutchman to ports all over the world. The letters bear the names and addresses of people who died long ago. How the ghosts transmit their correspondence to the shore, no one knows for sure. It is believed that when the time comes for the transmission of correspondence, the “Flying Dutchman” approaches the first oncoming ship, and the skeletons famously throw a canvas bag with letters onto it. This ship is guaranteed a happy voyage, as the spirit of the "Flying Dutchman" from now on will protect it from all misfortunes. At the same time, no one has ever seen letters from oblivion, however, maybe he was just silent, afraid to get involved with vengeful ghosts. Sailors all over the world knew for certain that if anyone opened and read such a letter, then he would face imminent death. Sailors, fearing a ghost, superstitiously nailed horseshoes to the masts.
There is another interesting aspect in the legend of the "Flying Dutchman". It is believed that once every 10 years, each crew member returns to the human form for a day, and he can spend this day on the shore in the company of people. It is said that at first the "Straatenes" used this privilege of heaven to visit their families.
It is said that the great German poet Heinrich Heine came up with the idea of ghost vacations, who gave the story of the Flying Dutchman a romantic touch and added a new element to the existing plot: once every seven years, the captain was allowed to go ashore to try to free himself from the spell, having won the love of a virgin girl. This variant was used in his opera The Flying Dutchman by Richard Wagner. In a German opera, the captain, of course, looks more like a German burgher than a Dutch sea tramp: this captain is called van Derdeken, and the girl he proposed to is Senta.
It was the Heine-Wagnerian version of the happy (though not frequent) return to the beloved family of the ghost hero, as we remember, that became the final episode of the famous Hollywood blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean. But there the hero is an American, and therefore very positive and romantic. Yes, and he became a ghost because he gave his life in the name of saving humanity. Thus, we have before us another version of the old legend, this time American, with all the necessary Hollywood "bells and whistles" about American chosenness and sacrifice in the name of humanity.
There is, however, a nuance in the leaf story with ghost vacations. The fact is that people, unlike ghosts, are mortal, and therefore, when all the relatives of the sailors of the Flying Dutchman went to another world, during their infrequent visits to the real world, they hang out in taverns, and at the same time recruit new crew members who are ready sell your soul to the devil for a drink. That is why it is better to stay away from vacationers from the Flying Dutchman. However, distinguishing a cunning ghost from a person is not easy. There is only one reliable means - a ghost (like a classic vampire) does not have a reflection in the mirror. Therefore, in many port taverns until the 20th century, at least a small, but a mirror was always hung, and visitors from time to time looked into it, is there a reflection of their next new drinking buddy?
According to one version of the legend, Van der Straaten could theoretically still receive forgiveness from above. Only the love of a woman who fervently believes in God can save the captain. Yes, but where does she come from in the middle of the ocean? All hope except for those rare (once every ten years) daily time off for the captain on the shore, but something with the ladies is clearly unlucky for the damned Dutchman. Maybe he just needs to be told that women who believe in God should not be looked for in port taverns at all? We can only hope that sooner or later one of the decent ladies will still give her heart to Van der Straaten, tired of centuries of wandering, and we will all immediately breathe easier - the captain will be forgiven, and the Flying Dutchman will disappear forever!
Among other things, sailors sometimes blame the Flying Dutchman for the sudden deterioration of food on board, and especially water. Like, at night the damned “Dutchman” slipped past and everything immediately went rotten. Of course, all the dogs can be blamed on Van der Straaten, including making him responsible for loading spoiled products and their poor storage. Perhaps the evil "Dutchman" is really so dirty to people. However, knowing the furious and indomitable nature of Van der Straaten, it seems to me that he would not have stooped to such a petty dirty trick, but instead would simply have sent the ship of his choice to the bottom!
If we are really talking about a Dutch captain, then the time of the birth of the legend can most likely be attributed to the 17th century, when the Dutch merchant navy was the most numerous in the world, Dutch ships plowed all the oceans, displacing both their Portuguese predecessors with the Spaniards and their British competitors from the world markets. Van der Straaten's blasphemy also looks quite plausible. The Dutch, unlike the zealous Portuguese and Spanish Catholics, never differed in particular piety, and it was in the 17th century that they completely accepted Protestantism, which in the eyes of Catholics was the greatest sin against God and outright heresy. Therefore, in the minds of the sailors of that time, only a Dutch heretic could be an inveterate blasphemer.
In the German version, Captain von Falkenberg sailed in the North Sea. From time to time he was visited by the devil, and the captain played dice with him, putting his soul on the line. The captain lost, and his soul turned into a ghost, which was severely sentenced.
In a version published in 1821 in one English magazine, the ship (of course, English) was sailing along the Cape of Good Hope when the storm began. Then everything happened almost like in the story with the Dutchman Straaten. The crew begged their captain, John, to change course in order to take refuge in a safe bay, but he refused and ridiculed the sailors for their cowardice. The storm, meanwhile, grew stronger, and the captain, shaking his fist, cursed God for the test sent down. Immediately a ghost appeared on the deck, but the warlike captain John ordered him to get out, threatening to shoot him. Seeing that the guest did not obey, the captain pulled out a revolver and fired at him, but the revolver exploded in the captain's hand. After that, the ghost sent down a curse on the stupid John to forever rush along the waves, constantly tormenting his poor sailors. The one who saw the doomed ship of the blasphemer John, of course, does not expect anything good.
Pirates who sailed the seas in the 17th and 18th centuries are also closely associated with the legends of ghost ships. In American lore, Captain Kidd's ghost ship sails along the New England coast as Kim searches for the treasure he has buried. The ghost ship of the pirate Jean Lafitte (also, of course, an American) appears in the Galveston area; in this place, it is believed that in the 1820s his ship sank.
There were other versions of the legend. According to one of them, the ship was sentenced to eternal wandering because the captain was extremely cruel and offended his sailors. The angry sailors simply complained to the higher powers, and they punished the sailor offender. The moral here is clear: do not offend your sailors - and everything will be fine with you.
Of course, that in the legends of the "Flying Dutchman" was not without the presence of a woman. In one version, the story of the emergence of the "Flying Dutchman" takes on a clear sexual character. According to this version, not a sexless ghost appeared on the deck of the stormy ship, but a very pretty goddess with good forms. Arriving to help the poor sailors, the beauty immediately becomes a victim of the most obscene harassment from the scoundrel-captain. How exactly these harassment ended, the legend is silent, but claims that the goddess did not respond to the captain's harassment with love. Maybe the captain in this case simply did not have enough gallantry, or he was in too much of a hurry. Be that as it may, but in retaliation, the goddess, offended in the best feelings, sentenced the ship to sail until the day of the Last Judgment. And rightly so, there is nothing to grab by the sides of a girl who flew to the devil knows where to help you out of trouble!
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- Translation
I bring to your attention a translation of an excellent article by Michael Arrington from TechCrunch, which I regularly throw to my fellow startups when they begin to have doubts and questions like “Why the hell am I still doing this?”
Welcome under cat.
Today I read posts by Don Dodge and Glenn Kalman about people switching from Google to Facebook, and they got me thinking about entrepreneurs.
“Most people are risk averse,” my economics professor told me. And that means they should be rewarded for taking that risk. And the higher the risk, the higher the expected reward.
We make risk/reward decisions on a daily basis. Should you enjoy downhill skiing even if there is a small chance of knocking out your knee? Should I go to university or find a job and start earning right now? Should I eat exclusively healthy food or snack on a cheeseburger? Should I go to the toilet before the movie starts? etc.
Every time you do or don't do something, a risk/reward calculation algorithm kicks in in your brain.
However, entrepreneurs are always not like people. They do not need to be rewarded for the risk because they actually benefit from the risk itself. In other words, they love adventure.
The potential reward for starting a business looks daunting when you factor in the risks. Very few entrepreneurs become truly rich. And most entrepreneurs would probably make much more money and have more stable personal relationships while working for someone else.
As a young man, I worked as a corporate lawyer representing technology startups in Silicon Valley. There was a good chance that I could become a partner of the company in 7-8 years and I would be earning about a million dollars a year by 40. All that was required of me was to work hard and bring new clients. I did great with both.
But I quit law after only 3 years to join a startup. And the reason why I decided to take this step was because adventure. I wanted be in the game rather than just watching from the sidelines. My parents thought I was crazy. They still have no idea how I make a living, and frankly, they were "slightly" pissed off that I spent their money on a law degree just to drop everything by 30. .
But I still went for it. A year later, I left this company to create my own. Since then, I have never looked back. The first company I founded made a lot of money for venture capitalists—about $30 million—but hardly a dime for the founders. The companies I subsequently started alternated between catastrophic failures and hugely successful ones. However, I never considered going to a "normal job". It's like a black and white world, and I wanted colors. At the same time, I hate working for other people, if only for the reason that I'm really bad at it.
When talking to non-entrepreneurs about the startup world, I often use piracy analogies. Not because I know so much about pirates, but because general stereotypes work great as an analogy.
Why did people in the 17th (or any other) century become pirates? The possible rewards looked disgusting: you had an extremely small chance of getting rich, at the same time, an extremely high chance of drowning, being hanged, shot, whatever. And life on a small ship with a hundred other kids wasn't all that appealing, even for the captain.
In my imaginary pirate world, these guys just had their risk aversion algorithms screwed up. Unlike most people, they lusted after him. Potential riches were just an excuse for a risky business. The real reward was the pirate life itself.
Plus, in those days it was almost impossible to conduct entrepreneurial activities.
Now it turns out that most Silicon Valley residents have perfectly normal risk aversion algorithms. They carefully calculate the potential benefits of a startup before joining it, consider the possibility of obtaining a stake in the company along with a salary. And also evaluate the value of the company for their resume.
Some of the richest people I know are not entrepreneurs at all. They worked at HP, moved to Netscape when things took off there. Made a fortune and moved to Google and made another fortune. And now they're moving to Facebook.
They can be great engineers, or sales people, or marketers, or performers. But they are not entrepreneurs. They are just building a resume and are not really different from others.
It doesn't matter to me if you are a millionaire. If you haven't started your own company, put your resume and money on the line, and maybe even your marriage, just to get away and try to do something on your own, you're not a pirate, you're not in a club.
That excitement after your first hire, when you managed to convince another crazy soul to join your almost hopeless project. The joy of raising venture capital and knowing you'll get your name out in the press. Launch excitement and… boom… customers! And this feeling that you really learned something useful, you just don’t understand what yet, even if the company is steadily going down.
Such a person is interesting. He has something to say. This is a person "who is actually in the arena" [approx. author - quote by Teddy Roosevelt (last in the list)].
There are many things that I will probably never try in my life. Military battle. My dictatorship in one of the small Central American countries. Dunk in basketball. Walk on Mars.
But I am, and always will be, an entrepreneur. And damn it, it's awesome. Because if I were a lawyer, even a wealthy lawyer, I would always wonder if there was anything a little more adventurous that I could do with my life other than working for my uncle.
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No matter how you look at it, William Turner seems like a complicated man.. His actions are due to a simple and natural desire to help people. However, his actions are more worthy of a pirate than a decent person. Nothing is known about Mr. Turner's childhood until he was fished out of the wreckage at the age of ten. For good or not, young William - the only survivor of the pirate attack - was rescued from the water by James Norrington, then a lieutenant. However, Mr. Turner did not repay his savior with kindness. Many years later, Turner captured the heart of Norrington's fiancée, Miss Elizabeth Swan.
Turner forged a luxurious sword, which the governor presented as a gift to Norrington when he was elevated to the rank of commander. As an apprentice to a blacksmith, Turner created many good and beautiful swords. Practicing daily, he achieved a high level of skill in handling weapons. Company employees, don't turn your back on this scoundrel!
This Aztec medallion found around the neck of Mr. Turner young Elizabeth Swan. She took it off to keep it safe and valuable. The medallion pointed to the young Turner's connection with the pirates. This medallion was later found to carry a curse that affected the entire Black Pearl crew.
Lord Cutler Beckett (we mourn his untimely death) concluded with William Turner privateering agreement. The company guaranteed Turner immunity on the condition that Turner obtain a compass from him.
By the way, it is worth noting that Jack Sparrow is not the only one who managed to escape from the terrible island of Pelegostov. Mr. Turner also escaped from the terrible inhabitants of the terrible base, but before that he spent a lot of time in a cage woven from human bones.
There is a rumor, not yet confirmed by employees of the Company, that Mr. Turner after the events in the terrible whirlpool Maelstrom became the captain of the "Flying Dutchman".
Bootstrap Bill
William Turney Sr., known among fellow pirates as "Bootslap Bill", is said to have killed the virtuous Admiral Norrington. At present, his whereabouts are unknown, however, if he survived after being aboard the Flying Dutchman, he must be considered a very dangerous criminal.
Faktrum invites the reader Interesting Facts about these conquerors of the seas and oceans!
The first mention of pirates is found in the surviving scrolls of ancient Greece.
But piracy reached its heyday at the height of the Age of the sailing fleet, and its apogee - in the period of the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.
Pirates originally used the Jolly Roger to scare away warships.
In ancient times, a skull with crossbones on a black background meant that there were plague victims on the ship.
Pirate ships had very strict discipline.
Many captains introduced prohibition on their ships to make it easier to manage the crew. In addition, alcohol is known to cause dehydration, which, in the absence of fresh fresh water, has led to death.
There was a pirate code
It contained rules that forbade excessive drinking, gambling, and quarrels between crew members while sailing.
Captains were also accountants
After the robbery of a rich port or ship, the captain began to calculate the percentage that he had to give to each member of the team, depending on his rank and position. Also the captain had to leave a certain amount needed to repair the ship and purchase supplies
Compensation for injuries
Pirate captains took care of their crew, so if someone was injured or wounded in battle, then he was paid money for treatment.
Pirates ate very poorly
Since it was impossible to take perishable food on a long voyage, the pirates were forced to eat onions, breadcrumbs and corned beef. And when landing on any island, they were taken for hunting. It was the pirates who contributed to the decrease in the number of turtles in the Galapagos Islands and the Seychelles.
Pirates served the state
If the captain of a pirate ship decided to serve a country, then he was issued a letter of marque. She gave the inviolability of the ship and its repair in the ports of this country, and also served as a guarantee that the pirates would protect the state fleet from enemies.
Pirates didn't drink rum that often
Rum was an expensive drink in those days, so sea robbers preferred to use cheaper grog.
The wrongdoer was given a chance to make amends.
If a team member was involved in violating the rules of the pirate code, then he was landed on some desert island, leaving a bottle of water and a pistol with a single cartridge. After some time, the team returned for the criminal. Very often they found a re-educated person there, but there were also cases when the convict committed suicide.
