You're probably much more familiar with The Flying Dutchman than I am-- you might even have sung parts of it!
I mainly know of it as an opera (which my mother loved), and a myth, but not much about the details. Something about this type of torture (administered on some Dutch vessels) made me look up that myth, and that cemented the desire to write toward the creation of that haunted vessel. It had to happen, at that point.
The quantity of unexpected research on the Dutch East India Company, their trade-routes, their "home" port, the types of ships, the crew, the beverages common to such ships (!), Dutch names, Indonesian names, parts and workings of large sailing ships, and the general era... boy, was I ever unprepared for that. But I need to know the larger context, and I don't like to be careless about details if I can help it.
This turned up all kinds of fascinating details on the VOC in general, including the spawning of the lending industry (for the crew members' families back home), the VOC as an early IPO, the impressive ships, and the battles with Portugal and England over those coveted shipping lanes and business opportunities.
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You're probably much more familiar with The Flying Dutchman than I am-- you might even have sung parts of it!
I mainly know of it as an opera (which my mother loved), and a myth, but not much about the details. Something about this type of torture (administered on some Dutch vessels) made me look up that myth, and that cemented the desire to write toward the creation of that haunted vessel. It had to happen, at that point.
The quantity of unexpected research on the Dutch East India Company, their trade-routes, their "home" port, the types of ships, the crew, the beverages common to such ships (!), Dutch names, Indonesian names, parts and workings of large sailing ships, and the general era... boy, was I ever unprepared for that. But I need to know the larger context, and I don't like to be careless about details if I can help it.
This turned up all kinds of fascinating details on the VOC in general, including the spawning of the lending industry (for the crew members' families back home), the VOC as an early IPO, the impressive ships, and the battles with Portugal and England over those coveted shipping lanes and business opportunities.