Bernard Fokke
Bernard Fokke (also Bernhard or Barend Fokke ) was a 17th century Frisian ship captain of the Dutch East Indian trading company .
Bernard Fokke was known for covering the trade route from the Netherlands to the spice island Java in - for the standards of the time - very little time. In 1678 he managed the trip in three months and four days - about half the usual travel time. It is known that the Dutchman almost always sailed with full sails, no matter how strong the wind was blowing. Fokke's secret: he was able to do this through a decisive change in the mast. He used iron yards , which were heavier but hardly broke. This enabled Fokke to leave its sails standing even in strong winds when other ships had already significantly reduced their sail area.
It struck people as so incredible that they assumed supernatural causes and believed that Fokke was a magician or even in league with the devil and must have flown his ship. The last time he left the harbor in his ship and was never seen again afterwards, people were convinced that he had become the devil's prey.
In the 19th century, Fokke went down in the legend of the Flying Dutchman as the captain of the legendary ship, for example in Richard Wagner's opera The Flying Dutchman , premiered in Dresden in 1843 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Written record of the duration of Fokke's travels in the Frisian Folk Almanac , p. 175 (Dutch)
- ↑ http://www.t-online.de/nachrichten/wissen/geschichte/id_64281658/geisterschiffe-ein-verhaengnisvoll-fluch-fliegender-hollaender.html Ulrich Weih: A fatal curse: Flying Dutchman
literature
- Johann Scheible: The monastery: secular and spiritual. 1848. pp. 941-43. Available online.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fokke, Bernard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch ship captain |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 17th century |
| DATE OF DEATH | 17th century or 18th century |