~~ZOOM HIGHLY RECOMENDED!!~~ The Dutchman Flies at Night One of the most well known seafaring ghost ships known anywhere -- even the mention of the name sends shivers down the spines of seafarers and the curious alike - The Flying Dutchman! The Flying Dutchman, according to folklore, is a ghost ship that can never go home, doomed to sail the oceans forever. The Flying Dutchman is usually spotted from afar, sometimes glowing with ghostly light. In ocean lore, the sight of this phantom ship is a portent of doom. The take by Disney not withstanding with Pirates of the Caribbean, she is one of the best known ghost ships along with the likes of the Mary Celeste (1872). The Dutchman, a 17th Century sailing ship lost during a horrific storm off the Cape of Good Hope, there are more legends told of the Dutchman than most other nautical ghost tales combined. Some say that the Captain, cursing his misfortune at being caught in a gale at the Cape, swore an oath to the skies that neither he, his ship or crew would find rest in this world, or the next, until their ship rounded the Cape even if it took until Judgment Day. Other lore tells of the Captain making a deal with the Devil and, is, to this day, playing dice with the Devil for his soul. Or that the ship's crew was infested with the Plague and forbidden to return to port. Among the 'legends' of the ship (again, Disney's versions not withstanding) one stands to say that when the Dutchman is spotted if she is hailed by another ship, her ghostly crew try to get messages across the void, to modern vessels to convey to family members long since deceased. Another says every 100 years, on the anniversary of the disaster that ruined her, that one living soul may take the place of a crewman on the Dutchman to serve in their stead and that soul is free to then move on to the hereafter. To this day there have been reported sightings of the famous ghost ship and it's appearance always a harbinger of ill tidings to any whose path she crosses. ~~~~ About the image ~~ There are six wailing faces of the Dutchman's cursed crew (no, the 'face' of the moon doesn't count) can you find all six lost souls? ~~~~ DAZ Pirate Ship - EvilClown Background and base made with various brushes from Obsidian Dawn (www.obsidiandawn.com) and lots of postwork in PSE7 and PhotoElements3 Lighting, posing and postwork by me