The Flying Dutchman (Holandés Errante) is a flying, plane-crossing ship of North America, a magical construct built of captured souls that harvests the souls of the dying and is cursed to wander forever.
| Type | Magical construct (ship) |
| Crew | Los Malditos (“the Damned”) |
| Spanish entry | Holandés Errante |
Legend
In New Amsterdam, amid Holland’s rivalry with England, a legend at most a century old tells of a ship that “did not dock in just any port”, terror of Holland’s enemies, infamous even among the Dutch. Wrapped in mists and clouds, it flies without sea about two hundred feet up and “moves like the clouds”. It “crosses realities”; once its passage blotted out the Sun. It is unique, belonging only to itself and its Captain, though one witness wonders if it is one or several.
Description
Outwardly it is a ship (sails, mast, cracked forecastle, hatches, rope ladders) with two rows of cannon, side culverins and mortars; forty men are on its manifest.
The hull is “organic material”, vegetable yet living, an agglomerate with a shell “between metallic and bone”; it “is not solid”. “Semi-technological”, it is made of badly assembled parts of different creatures, some hollow as bird bone. Worms, tortured spirits in larval form, crawl out of it. It does not beat. It bears “a mark unbearable to look at”.
Inside, ribs and vertebrae of red flesh replace beams, with cells, chambers and organic tubular tunnels; the floor is sticky; a red “emergency” light glows, or moonglow in lunar orbit. The habitable part is eighty feet. It is “a ship made of captured souls”: the spirits are its material, the rib-cells both prison and viscera. Captive women are held there, each with a baby, some in poor condition; prisoners are sometimes released.
Nature
Every part is enchanted. Flying and crossing planes “must consume much energy”: it is “a dying soul-collector”, “a general soul-eating machine”, gathering souls who died in strange places and consuming the life of those inside, with a strong necromantic aura. Natives know these “traveling predators” that harvest people. Its curse: it “cannot stop, cannot settle in a place it calls its own”.
About eight thousand blows of the worst artillery would split it; ships that faced it were far smaller, one five times so.
The Captain and crew
The Captain negotiates with other groups. Old, spectral, eye-patched, his long white beard braided with two ravens, he wears rank insignia and can turn invisible; Dutch, possibly with a priest father or brother. His crew are Los Malditos, sailors in horned helmets.
Whoever falls aboard loses their soul; StormJay Idaho’s “was taken out and given over to a kind of unlife”. A whole gesta swore: “we will go against that ship”.
Sightings
Four days in Central Park, leaving on the fifth; underground in a cavern; and on the Moon, from whose orbit it emerges.
Conflicting accounts
- Its length is given as 110 meters by some, “30 or 40 meters” by others.
- A “200 kilometers” of shadow when it covered the Sun comes from a confused account.
Open questions
- The Captain’s name, standing with Holland, and trade.
- Who built it and cursed it; what the mark is.
- Whether it absorbs harvested souls as larvae, consumes them, or both.
- The fate of the captive women and children; who is released, and why.
- Whether the sightings are one wandering, reality-crossings, or different ships.