Inspired by Johan Barthold Jongkind (1819-1891) – Two fishing boats tied edge to edge – Black stone / Watercolour – 7,08 x 10,27 cm – SOLD

– Please, Mom, tell me the story of the flying Dutchman again. Just once more, the last time. Promised.
– But I’ve already read it to you more than twenty times. You know it by heart. No, it’s late, you have school tomorrow and you already had two stories tonight, that’s enough. Give me a hug and go to bed!
– Oh mom nooo. Tomorrow it’s Auntie nanny, and you know it. I can have a sleep if I want to. Come on, say yes … Mom!
– Okay, but this is the last …
– Oh thank you mom, I love you, I love you, I love you. You’re the sweetest mom of the world.– Once upon a time there was a ship captain as rich and powerful, as greedy and cruel known as captain Van der Velde. We are in 1680, during wintertime. In the well-known harbour of Amsterdam, the vessel with a shining hull is moored, only waiting for her favorite captain to sail. She has to go to Batavia in Indonesia. And it’s finally on Good Friday that the long journey, lasting more than four months, begins. The members of the crew are worried. After all, Good Friday is an ordinary day, so there’s nothing to worry about. It’s just a question of religious beliefs.

Then, around the Cape of Good Hope, a storm of extreme violence assaults the ship, usually used to dealing with the worst weather. Thunder and lightning follow one another. All the sailors are on deck. The sails are down and the captain orders his men to keep a low profile against this terrible evil. The waves, several meters high, overwash the deck in a deafening roar. Attached to the mast or to any other solid structure of the boat, men begin to pray. The captain Van der Velde, takes refuge in his cabin to finish his bottle of whisky and invoke the spirits. That’s when the lightning falls on the ship and breaks the main mast in two. Just before slipping into the dark and freezing waters, some of the men, still alive, have time to notice the laughing devil, waving.

– And ever since, the Flying Dutchman haunts the seabed like a ghost looking for any new shipwreck. When I grow up, I am going to be a captain of a pirate ship.