The seas were whipped into mighty 15 foot waves that pounded the ship from fore to aft. The winds beat the sails with such power that the crew could not bring them in. The sea lifted the galley on high and sent it crashing into troughs that stole the sight of the shores from Captain and crew.
The Captain ordered the ship forward to break the headwaters of the mighty gale. Fearless he knew the Dutchman as a ship of solid make and her crew one of wild abandon.
But the seas were relentless and uncaring. The mighty swells grew in size and battered the ship. Her hull groaned with the effort, sails battered and showing the strain, masts creaked, groaned and threatened to topple into the sea. The crew called to the Captain to turn about and ride the storm to land and safety. But he turned his eye and ship to the storm and ordered all on deck to ride the devil to hell. They called their Captain mad but few gainsayed him for they were a stout and solid crew and if truth be told few wished to quit the fight.
But the seas proved mighty and tore the sails from her masts, drowned her holds and stole the ship's hope for safe harbor. The waves battered the listless galley as men fought to save their ship and lives but in the end she buried her prow into a mighty wave and vanished from the earth of men.
But the Dutchmen rose again, cursed for her vanity, and she sails the seas even now, rising when a storm is afoot to plow the waters in her vain attempt to make it round the cape. Her Captain and crew do not know their fate, they man the ship in every storm, plowing the turbulent seas, ever in search of calm waters.
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