The Flying Dutchman

Sailors for centuries swore they saw a ghost ship glowing on the horizon, doomed to sail forever — and a real future king of England wrote in his own official diary that he and his crew saw it too.

The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship, said to be doomed to sail the seas forever, never able to make port. The legend, rooted in 17th and 18th-century maritime folklore, gained an unusually well-documented modern sighting claim in 1881, when Prince George of Wales — the future King George V — recorded witnessing it in his own official ship's log.

⇄disputed

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Quick facts

→The Flying Dutchman legend originated in 17th-18th century maritime folklore, typically describing a ship doomed to sail forever after its captain's blasphemous defiance of a storm, or a similar curse-triggering act.
→The ship is traditionally described as glowing with a ghostly light, and its sighting was considered a bad omen by sailors of the era.
→In 1881, Prince George of Wales, later King George V of the United Kingdom, recorded in his ship's official log that he and multiple crew members observed a ghostly glowing vessel matching the Flying Dutchman's description.
→Shortly after the reported sighting, a crew member who had first spotted the ship fell to his death from the rigging, an event some at the time connected to the earlier sighting as an ill omen.

Entities on file

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Flying Dutchman (vessel)

Legendary ghost ship doomed to sail forever; a 1881 sighting was recorded in the official log of the future King George V.

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George V (person)

As a young naval officer in 1881, recorded witnessing the Flying Dutchman in his ship's official log; later became King of the United Kingdom.

→ recorded an official sighting of → Flying Dutchman✓documented

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