Ships of the VOC [1] had to take a specific route from Amsterdam to Batavia [2] and back. In case they were damaged out at sea, the chances that they would encounter another ship were best on this route. It was called "the safe track."

Captain Barend Fockesz of the swift, armed merchant ship De Kroonvogel did not care for safe tracks. To shorten his trips, he often left the track. While It took slow and heavy VOC ships eight to twelve months to complete a journey, Barend could do it in six months. Still, he felt the trip was taking too long, but he realized the only way he could sail faster would be with the aid of the devil. Then one night the devil became his guest out at sea, west of the Cape of Good Hope.

At night a small sloop approached De Kroonvogel and a gentleman, all dressed in black, came aboard. Nobody noticed, because all were asleep: the helmsman: bent over. the great wheel, the sailor who had to keep watch in the crow's nest, and the navigating officer on the bridge. Only Barend Fockesz was awake and waiting. Slowly, the door of hIS cabm opened and the devil entered.

"You called me, Barend Fockesz?"

"Yes, I want to make even shorter journeys."

"Then you will always have to sail with full sails."

"And what if the rigging goes overboard in a storm?" Barend asked.

"Fasten the ropes and wires with iron bars, so that the yard can't go overboard. Hollow out your masts and fill them with liquid lead, and they can't break anymore," the devil replied.

"Then the ship becomes too heavy, way too heavy," Barend said.

"Oh no, with my help you will sail over reefs and rocks, over shallow water and sandbanks. Be it with head wind or no wind at all, De Kroonvogel will always have full sails. For centuries the seamen will speak of your ship; they will call it The Flying Dutchman."

After that time, De Kroonvogel made even shorter trips from Amsterdam to East India. Three months after he boarded the ship, Barend Fockesz went on land at the Waterpoort in Batavia. Captain Barend was rewarded with golden commemorative medals, golden necklaces, and bags full of the finest Spanish silver and golden coins. On the uninhabited little island Kuiper, near the harbor of Batavia, they even erected a statue for him. There Barend stood, cut out in stone, dressed in a pea jacket and short trousers, so that every crew member leaving the roadstead could see him. (When in 1808 the British Admiral Dourie didn't dare to attack Batavia, because Daendels [3] was in command of the city and the fortress, British sailors smashed the statue to pieces.)

On one of its fast trips, De Kroonvogel lost its navigating officer in the Sunda Strait. Perhaps the devil had fallen asleep for a while; in any case, the sails were hanging down from the yardarms and the ship was unable to get past the small island of Slee-Bessie. The officer navigating became so angry that he swore not to rest before he widened the waters by towing Slee-Bessie to Krakatau. His wish was granted right away. Nowadays, when the weather is calm and the waves are not too noisy, one can still hear the officer singing – as is customary among seamen – while towing one island towards the other. Sceptical people don't believe this story. They say that the strange singing one can hear in the Sunda Strait can be explained by the movement of the wind in the holes of the rocks of the island Krakatau.

The new navigating officer, who signed up in Amsterdam, was not used to reckless sailing. The first time the ship sailed over the cliffs again, he feared that soon there wouldn't be enough water to keep on floating, and he wanted to check by throwing out a lead line.

However, there was no lead line on board and that's why he took a cannonball, attached it to a rope, and was about to throw it over, when Barend stopped him.

"Better trust me and the devil. We are sailing fine and we will continue to do so," he said.

That was correct, but during that journey the seven years of the contract came to an end, and the whole ship was taken over by the devil. Now The Flying Dutchman is sailing the seven seas for eternity, without ever entering a harbour. The ship is always sailing with full sails, be it with or against the wind. The appearance of the black ship is an omen of storm and destruction for the ships it encounters.

In the evenings, many ships have been hailed by The Flying Dutchman and one can clearly see the figure of the captain on the bridge. He has become. very, very old now, and m his feeble, bony hand he holds a letter with black wax seals, which he wants to give to the captain of the ship he is hailing. It is a letter for the Lords Seventeen, the drrectors of the VOC in Amsterdam. However, no one ever dared to accept the letter.