Flying Dutchman

"Aye. The same terrible vessel whose very timbers are cut from the bodies and souls of doomed seamen."

- Torrents to Jack Sparrow

The Flying Dutchman was a dreaded supernatural galleon captained by the legendary Davy Jones. The Dutchman was first gifted to Jones by his love, the sea godess Calypso, Calypso granted jones captaicy of the ship with the intention that he would ferry the souls of drowned seamen into the next world for at least ten years, he would then be free to return to Calypso, who promised to meet him on land after his captaincy was complete. However Calypso betrayed Jones and in his heartbreak he cut his still beating heart from his chest and abandond his duty, instead wrecking havoc on the seas forcing dying sailors into one hundread years of service abord the Flying Dutchman and unleashing the Kraken upon mecrhant and pirate vessels alike.

Many centuries later, the crew of the Black Pearl would run afoul of the Dutchman due to the debts of her captain Jack Sparrow. Sparrow tried to escape service aboard the Flying Dutchman by possesing the Heart of Davy Jones. Jack failed in his attempts and the heart instead found its way into the possesion of Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company.

With the heart under his control Beckett sent the Dutchman out to sink countless pirate ships across the seven seas, eventually forcing a final confontation with the Brethren Court off the coast of shipwreck cove. The Flying Dutchman became locked in titanic battle with the Black Pearl both ships circiling a massive maelstrom. In the midst of the chaos William Turner stabbed the heart killing Davy Jones and replacing him as captain of the Dutchman. With Jones's death both the ship and its crew returned to normal and Turner set about fuffiling the duty for which the ship was originally designed for.

Ferrying the dead
"The Dutchman needs a living heart, or there'll be no captain. And if there's no captain, there's no one to have the key."

- Wyvern to William Turner

Command of the Flying Dutchman was originally given to Davy Jones by the sea goddess Calypso. The two were in love, and Jones agreed to an immortal life, with a single day out of every decade to spend with his love. In exchange, Jones would ferry the souls of those who died at sea into the afterlife, as well as saving those who were shipwrecked and drowning. The dimension these souls passed through became known as Davy Jones' Locker, and the Flying Dutchman could pass through it accompanied by the green flash. However, Jones was forsaken by Calypso, who did not meet him on his first day ashore. The heartbroken and bitter Jones refused to continue with the duty, and the ship itself became cursed. Its crew slowly transformed into amalgamations of sea creatures, and the ship itself became crusted with barnacles, sea life, and the bodies of those crew members who stayed in her service too long.

An eternity of service
"Once you've sworn an oath to the Dutchman there's no leaving it, not until your debt is paid."

- Bootstrap Bill Turner to William Turner

Having rejected his true duty, Davy Jones set himself up as the lord of the sea, toying with the fates of those souls he had once sworn to serve. Jones commonly offered dying men a choice: either embrace death or postpone the judgement and serve for one hundred years aboard the Flying Dutchman. However, because of a gambling game referred to as Liar's dice, in which pirates wagered their years of service, some remained onboard far longer. In fact, some had their very souls lost to Jones forever, literally becoming part of the ship itself, losing all humanity. Often Jones spent his time in his enormous cabin, endlessly playing a haunting tune on his massive coral-encrusted pipe organ. Jones would use the tentacles of his beard to play for hours, tortured by a painting of the sea and a small statue of his lost love Calypso set just above the keyboard.

Hunting Jack Sparrow
Davy Jones would eventually come to call in a debt owed by Jack Sparrow. Jones sent crewman Bootstrap Bill Turner to brand Jack with the Black Spot so the Kraken could find and destroy Jack should he attempt to flee from Jones. Jack Sparrow tracked the down the Dutchman using Tia Dalma's crab claws and tricked William Turner into beleiving a ship recently destroyed by the Kraken was the ship they were after and all he need do was sneak onboard and retreive the key. Things did not go according to plan however as the real Flying Dutchman burst from the ocean depths and took Turner prisoner.

Leading the armada
"The Dutchman sails as its captain commands!" "And its captain is to sail it as commanded!"

- Davy Jones and Cutler Beckett

When Lord Cutler Beckett gained control of Davy Jone's heart, East India Trading Company Blue Coats under the command of James Norrington were stationed aboard the ship to guard the Dead Man's Chest. It sailed the seas, destroying pirate vessels for the Company. It pursued and captured the Empress, Captain Sao Feng's vessel, killing Feng in the process. The Empress and its crew escaped aided by Norrington who was killed by Bootstrap Bill Turner. With the ships commander dead a riot broke out on the ship with Jones's men desprately trying to retake control of the chest. When they arrived in the captains cabin however they found Mercer still had the key to the chest. With the Empress fleeing to Shipwreck Island the Flying Dutchman, at the head of Cutler Beckett's armada, followed.

Showdown with the Black Pearl
"We've an armada against us, and with the Dutchman there's no chance"

- Joshamee Gibbs

During the conflict between the Pirate Lords and the East India Trading Company, the Flying Dutchman was pitted against the Black Pearl in combat around a maelstrom. The captains of the respective ships engaged in single combat amongst the rigging of the Flying Dutchman while the ship's crew fought below. Towards the end of this battle, Jones stabbed William Turner, killing him, but Jack Sparrow stabbed the heart of Jones by moving Turner's hand as it clutched a blade. In this way, Jones was killed and Turner brought to life as the new captain of the Flying Dutchman.

A new captain
"This ship has a purpose again."

- William "Bootstrap Bill" Turner

Rising back out of the depths, the Flying Dutchman and its crew were reverted back to their true forms: the ship lost the sea life and gruesome humanoid effigies that adorned its hull, revealing gold and bronze beneath. Turner's first act as captain was to join the Black Pearl in carrying out a devastating broadside against the HMS Endeavour, flagship of the East India Trading Company. The Endeavour was destroyed, and Cutler Beckett's armada routed.

Turner served as the captain of the Flying Dutchman for the next ten years, bound to ferry the souls of drowned seamen into the afterlife, as Jones had before him. After ten years of service, Turner's true love, his wife Elizabeth Swann, had remained faithful to him and so the curse of Calypso's disloyalty was broken, and Turner was free to return to his family.

Design and appearance


The vessel weighed 420 tons and was 170 feet long, stern to bow. It was armed with forty cannons, two of which were triple-barrelled chase guns. It was considered to be the fastest ship both on and under the waters of the seas. However, it was unable to maintain pursuit of the Black Pearl, which had an edge with a following wind, while the Dutchman was said to be faster with a headwind.

In such cases, the crew called upon the Dutchman's most potent and powerful weapon to destroy their enemies. The ship was fitted with a giant Kraken Hammer, used to summon the Kraken from the ocean depths. The Dutchman was the only vessel immune to the Kraken's destructive rage.

The prow of the ship resembled a fanged mouth, and featured a carved figurehead resembling the grim reaper and his scythe. The ship's stern, a sight witnessed by few human sailors, was covered with lamps and windows arranged in the pattern of a fanged mouth. The deck above was intertwined with the skeletons of ferocious sea beasts. A live sea serpent was also attached to the side of the boat, which Jones would send out to collect souls.

Behind the scenes

 * The look of the ship was inspired by the 17th century Dutch "fluyts" vessels and the Vasa, a Swedish warship which sank in 1628.
 * The Flying Dutchman is currently on display at Castaway Cay.

Appearances

 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow: City of Gold
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (video game)
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End