Hendrick Van der Decken

Hendrick Van der Decken, also known as Captain Van der Decken or simply Van der Decken, was the captain of the legendary ghostly sailing ship known as the Flying Dutchman.

In one universe, the ship, a “three-masted fluyts”, became cursed to sail forever after the captain swore a “mighty oath” to “the storm and to any god that would listen” that he would “round the Cape if it took [him until the Last Day”. Death visited the ship, but, seeing that “everyone was very busy”, she left without collecting them. Subsequently, maintained in a cursed immortality by the oath, unable to return to port, the Captain and crew kept sailing for centuries. Eventually, however, a far-future version of Death went back in time with Jenny Everywhere, having figured out a way out of their curse with Jenny's help: because Van der Decken's oath did not specify the end of which world the time-limit would be set to, they could end the curse by sailing the Dutchman out of the universe and into some other dimension that was just about to be destroyed. By then, Van der Decken appeared as “a grizzled Dutchman in water-stained finery who looked as if he'd been at sea for almost as long as he'd really been at sea”. Though very confused, Van der Decken agreed to let Jenny take the wheel to sail the ship across dimensions. (PROSE: Storm's End)

Behind the scenes

The name of the captain of the Flying Dutchman varies between one telling of the legend to the other, and even moreso in fictional adaptations and retellings. The version proposed by Scott Sanford follows the “classical” form first printed in 1821 with a Captain Hendrick Van der Decken who curses his ship by swearing he will manage to sail it round the Cape of Good Hope if it should take until Judgment Day.