Newsgroup: it.discussioni.misteri
Titolo: La leggenda dell'Olandese volante

La leggenda della nave fantasma condannata assieme al suo equipaggio a
vagare per sempre nell'Oceano, nelle sue tante varianti, è così
consacrata dalla letteratura, dall'opera lirica e dall'immaginario
collettivo da non aver bisogno di presentazioni.
 
Più interessante, forse, è cercare di rintracciare le origini di
questa leggenda, le cui primissime testimonianze scritte risalgono
alla fine del 1700. Sono entrambe molto più scarne delle fiorite e
particolareggiate versioni successive, ci si limita a dire che si
tratta di una nave olandese perita in un naufragio al largo del Capo
di Buona Speranza che ricompare come fantasma quando il tempo è
davvero cattivo, ma è degno di nota che entrambe presentino la
leggenda come già diffusa e consueta tra i marinai all'epoca dello
scrivente, il che fa pensare che le prime versioni orali siano
piuttosto precedenti. 
 
Dal libro "Travels in various parts of Europe, Asia and Africa during
a series of thirty years and upward" di John MacDonald della contea di
Inverness" (1790): 
http://tinyurl.com/zce6j26
 
<<The weather was so stormy that the sailors said they saw the flying
Dutchman. The common story is that this Dutchman came to the Cape in
distress of weather and wanted to get into harbour but could not get a
pilot to conduct her and was lost and that ever since in very bad
weather her vision appears>>
 
Da "A voyage to Botany Bay" di George Barrington, cap. VI, (1795)
[Barrington fu un curioso personaggio, una specie di Arsenio Lupin
ante litteram, conosciuto come il "principe dei borsaioli" frequentava
l'alta società nella quale sceglieva le sue vittime. Reso celebre da
alcuni processi, venne infine deportato in Australia. I suoi resoconti
del viaggio alle colonie e della situazione in esse ebbero ampia
diffusione]
<<We had scarcely got a tolerable offing when a very heavy gale blew
from the northward, and the sea soon ran mountains high. The vessel
being deep loaded, we shipped some very heavy seas, which obliged us
to lay too, near four-and-twenty hours.
I had often heard of the superstition of sailors respecting
apparitions, but had never given much credit to the report: it seems
that some years since a Dutch man of war was lost off the Cape, and
every soul on board perished; her consort weathered the gale, and
arrived soon after at the Cape. Having refitted, and returning to
Europe, they were assailed by a violent tempest nearly in the same
latitute. In the night watch some of the people saw, or imagined they
saw, a vessel standing for them under a press of sail, as though she
would run them down: one in particular affirmed it was the ship that
had foundered in the former gale, and that it must certainly be her,
or the apparition of her; but on its clearing up, the object, a dark
thick cloud, disappeared. Nothing could do away the idea of this
phoenomenon on the minds of the sailors; and, on their relating the
circumstances when they arrived in port, the story spread like
wild--fire, and the supposed phantom was called the Flying Dutchman.
From the Dutch the English seamen got the infatuation, and there are
very few Indiamen, but what has some one one board, who pretends to
have seen the apparition.
About two in the morning I was awaked by a violent shake by the
shoulder, when starting up in my hammock, I saw the boatswain, with
evident signs of terror and dismay in his countenance, standing by me.
"For God's sake, messmate," said he, "hand us the key of the case, for
by the Lord I'm damnably scarified: for, d'ye see, as I was just
looking over the weather bow, what should I see but the Flying
Dutchman coming right down upon us, with every thing set--I know 'twas
she--I cou'd see all her lower-deck ports up, and the lights fore and
aft, as if cleared for action. Now as how, d'ye see, I am sure no
mortal ship could bear her low-deck ports up and not founder in this
here weather: Why, the sea runs mountains high. It must certainly be
the ghost of that there Dutchman, that foundered in this latitude, and
which, I have heard say, always appears in this here quarter, in hard
gales of wind."
After taking a good pull or two at the Hollands, he grew a little
composed, when I jokingly asked him, if he was afraid of ghosts? "Why,
as to that, d'ye see,"--said he, "I think as how I'm as good as
another man; but I'd always a terrible antipathy to those things. Even
when I was a boy, I never could find it in my heart to cross a
church-yard in the dark without whistling and hallooing to make them
believe I had company with me, for I've heard say they appear but to
one at a time; for now, when I called to Joe Jackson, who was at the
helm, to look over the weather-bow, he saw nothing; tho', as how, I
saw it as plain as this here bottle," taking another swig at the
Geneva.
Having some curiosity to see if I could make out any thing that could
take such an appearance, I turned out, and accompanied him upon deck;
but it had cleared up, the moon shining very bright, and not a cloud
to be seen; though, by what I could learn from the rest of the people
who were on deck, it had been very cloudy about half an hour before,
of course I easily divined what kind of phantom had so alarmed my
messmate. The sea running very high, and the gale rather increasing,
we continued to lay too, and in the morning found we had parted
company with the rest of the transports, not one being discernable
from the mast head.
The wind abating in the afternoon, and coming to the north-west, we
bore away under a reefed fore-sail: and it continuing to blow a very
strong gale, we jogged on in this manner about ten days, when the
weather moderating we crouded all the sail we could make from this
time till we made Van Dieman's land, off which we frequently saw in
the night the sea covered with luminous spots, resembling lights
floating on the surface, and I immediately imagined that it might have
been some of these which the boatswain had seen through a passing
cloud, and which be magnified into lanterns on a ship's lower-deck, as
in some points of view they had very much that appearance.
Whether these shining spots proceed from the spawn of fish floating in
small quantities, or from an animal of a jelly-like substance, called
by the sailors, blubber, is not determined, though I am of the latter
opinion; vast shoals of them surrounded the ship in the course of the
day. Numbers of sea birds now hovered over us, such as albatrosses;
gulls of various species; and a large black bird, greatly resembling a
crow, but rather bigger. In the evening the horizon was beautifully
illumined by the Aurora Austrealis, or southern lights: they were of a
bright crimson, variegated with orange, yellow, and white streaks,
continually changed their hues, and presenting a most sublime and
animating picture.>>
 
-- 
... e il pensier libero, è la mia fé!

Da "A voyage to Botany Bay" di George Barrington, cap. VI, (1795)
http://tinyurl.com/zan8ajl
 
 
-- 
... e il pensier libero, č la mia fé!

 time till we made Van Dieman's land
 
Hold me now, oh, hold me now... :'-)