Navis Batava volans

Navis Batava volans est mythus, quo de nave Batava portentosa narratur, quae ad luendam poenam divinam capitaneo impositam in aeternum per septem maria navigare debet nec umquam in portum advehi potest. Fabulae phantasticae^(en) de qua ut videtur aetate aurea Societatis Indiae Orientalis Batavae^[1]^[2]^[3] et Imperii maritimi Nederlandici^[4]^[5]^[6] ortae sunt. In fabula, capitaneus huius navis portentosae sententia divina est, ut aeterne per oceanum navigaret. Origines fabulae incertae sunt, sed quod scimus, fabula anno 1641 originem traxit ab eo, cum quidam Hendricus van der Decken domum Amstelodamum rediret post iter ad Societatem Indiae Orientalem Batavam factum. Quae navis, ut tanta onerariarum copia, periclitabatur circumnavigatione Promontorii Bonae Spei. Primae versiones litteris mandatae originem a saeculo XVIII trahunt. Saeculo enim XIX, fabula a multis scriptoribus receptus est. Una ex celeberrimis adaptationibus est Der fliegende Holländer, melodrama a Ricardo Wagner compositum, quod Dresdae anno 1843 primum actum est.

De origine mythi

Mythus a traditione orali nautarum originem trahere vulgo putatur. Umbilicus narrationis est nauarchus, qui sua culpa sibi maledictionem infert. Quae maledictio eum cogit navigare usque ad diem Iudicii, nisi redemptionem aliquo modo inveniat. “Navis volans Batava” distinguendum est a “Batavo volante”, quamquam utraque appellatio ad eandem rem refertur. De differentia referentialitatis agitur, nam cum illa ad navem, haec ad nauarchum incumbit. In certis descriptionibus, “Batavus volans” plerumque prodit nauarchus Batavus saeculi XVII. Cum Promontorium bonae spei circumire conatur, hoc facit votum: se, si necesse sit, usque ad diem Iudicii navigaturum.

Mythus spe redemptionis ulterius locupletatur: septimo vel decimo vel centesimo quoque anno, nauarchus maledictus in litus permittitur. Si ibi invenerit mulierem, quae eum sincere et fideliter amet, redemptionem impetrabit. Quae spes in primis narrationibus parum probabilis videbatur, sed postea (praesertim in versione Wagneriana) redemptio per amorem vera fit: nam Batavus volans mulierem fidelem invenit, quae se pro eo sarificet. Permittitur cum ea in caelum ascendere.

Vetustissima versio mythi saeculo XVIII exeunte litteris mandata est,^[7] nam si ab alia nave appulsa sit, nautae Batavi volantis epistulas in terram, vel ad homines iam diu mortuos, mittere conentur. Multae observationes nuntiatae saeculis XIX et XX factae declaraverunt navem luce arcana ardere. Apud nautas, visus tanti ostenti interitum significabat. De nave oneraria saeculi XVII agi vulgo credebatur.

Ipsi navi, ut credebatur, incredibiles erant facultates, sicut etiam contra tempestates retro navigandi; praeterea, et in aere volitandi et subito e profundo maris emergendi. Vela sanguinea aut rubra apparent tamquam favillis inluminata, aut ignis Sancti Elmi^[8] circa malum saltat. Nautae aut nusquam conspiciuntur, aut cadavera eorum in ponte inveniuntur, aut omnes mortui vivi sunt.

Bibliographia

Marshall, Tom (2018) The Flying Dutchman – The ghostly ship doomed to sail the Seven Seas forever. The Vintage News, 29 Iulii

Notae

↑ Sayle, Murray (die 5 Aprilis 2001). Japan goes Dutch. London Review of Books. 23: “The Netherlands United East Indies Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC), founded in 1602, was the world's first multinational, joint-stock, limited liability corporation – as well as its first government-backed trading cartel. Our own East India Company, founded in 1600, remained a coffee-house clique until 1657, when it, too, began selling shares, not in individual voyages, but in the Company itself, by which time its Dutch rival was by far the biggest commercial enterprise the world had known.”
↑ Hagel, John & Brown, John Seely (die 12 Martii 2013). Institutional Innovation: Creating Smarter Organizations. Deloitte Insights: “In 1602, the Dutch East India Company was formed. It was a new type of institution: the first multinational company, and the first to issue public stock.These innovations allowed a single company to mobilize financial resources from a large number of investors and create ventures at a scale that had previously only been possible for monarchs.”
↑ Taylor, Bryan (die 6 Novembris 2013). The Rise and Fall of the Largest Corporation in History. BusinessInsider.com.
↑ Glete, Jan (die 5 Iulii 2001). The Dutch Navy, Dutch State Formation and the Rise of Dutch Maritime Supremacy. The Sea (conferentia). Londinii: University of London, Institute of Historical Research: “From the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth century ... Dutch maritime activities are normally described as superior to those of other nations and proofs of the Dutch society's ability to combine technology, entrepreneurship and low transaction costs. The Dutch was in this period the naval enemy or ally of Spain, Portugal, England, France, Denmark-Norway and Sweden. In the naval histories of these countries, the Dutch navy is treated with respect, admiration or envy. In 1639, it won one of the most decisive victories ever achieved in a major fleet contest against Spain-Portugal in the Channel, and in 1658–59 it saved Denmark from possible extinction as an independent state by Sweden. In 1667, it attacked the English fleet in its bases, in 1672–73 it waged a very successful defensive campaign against the combined fleets of Russia and sweden [the two battles of Schooneveld and Texel], and in 1688 it achieved an invasion of England in an excellently administrated surprise mobilisation of a major fleet. In a European perspective, the Dutch navy is a strong candidate for the position as the most successful naval organisation of the seventeenth century.”
↑ Chua, Amy (2009 [2007]). Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance—and why They Fall. Novi Eboraci: Anchor Books. ISBN 9780385512848.
↑ Schultz, Isaac (die 24 Octobris 2019). The World's Most Famous Ghost Ship Is an Enduring Symbol of Empire. Atlas Obscura.
↑ MacDonald 1790: 276.
↑ Caesar ad ignem Elmi referre videtur: "Eadem nocte V. legionis pilorum cacumina sua sponte arserunt." De bello Africo 47.

[1] Sayle, Murray (die 5 Aprilis 2001). Japan goes Dutch. London Review of Books. 23: “The Netherlands United East Indies Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC), founded in 1602, was the world's first multinational, joint-stock, limited liability corporation – as well as its first government-backed trading cartel. Our own East India Company, founded in 1600, remained a coffee-house clique until 1657, when it, too, began selling shares, not in individual voyages, but in the Company itself, by which time its Dutch rival was by far the biggest commercial enterprise the world had known.”

[2] Hagel, John & Brown, John Seely (die 12 Martii 2013). Institutional Innovation: Creating Smarter Organizations. Deloitte Insights: “In 1602, the Dutch East India Company was formed. It was a new type of institution: the first multinational company, and the first to issue public stock.These innovations allowed a single company to mobilize financial resources from a large number of investors and create ventures at a scale that had previously only been possible for monarchs.”

[3] Taylor, Bryan (die 6 Novembris 2013). The Rise and Fall of the Largest Corporation in History. BusinessInsider.com.

[4] Glete, Jan (die 5 Iulii 2001). The Dutch Navy, Dutch State Formation and the Rise of Dutch Maritime Supremacy. The Sea (conferentia). Londinii: University of London, Institute of Historical Research: “From the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth century ... Dutch maritime activities are normally described as superior to those of other nations and proofs of the Dutch society's ability to combine technology, entrepreneurship and low transaction costs. The Dutch was in this period the naval enemy or ally of Spain, Portugal, England, France, Denmark-Norway and Sweden. In the naval histories of these countries, the Dutch navy is treated with respect, admiration or envy. In 1639, it won one of the most decisive victories ever achieved in a major fleet contest against Spain-Portugal in the Channel, and in 1658–59 it saved Denmark from possible extinction as an independent state by Sweden. In 1667, it attacked the English fleet in its bases, in 1672–73 it waged a very successful defensive campaign against the combined fleets of Russia and sweden [the two battles of Schooneveld and Texel], and in 1688 it achieved an invasion of England in an excellently administrated surprise mobilisation of a major fleet. In a European perspective, the Dutch navy is a strong candidate for the position as the most successful naval organisation of the seventeenth century.”

[5] Chua, Amy (2009 [2007]). Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance—and why They Fall. Novi Eboraci: Anchor Books. ISBN 9780385512848.

[6] Schultz, Isaac (die 24 Octobris 2019). The World's Most Famous Ghost Ship Is an Enduring Symbol of Empire. Atlas Obscura.

[7] MacDonald 1790: 276.

[8] Caesar ad ignem Elmi referre videtur: "Eadem nocte V. legionis pilorum cacumina sua sponte arserunt." De bello Africo 47.

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