So, whenever a storm brews off the Cape of Good Hope, don't look into the eye of it, because you will see the Flying Dutchman... And whoever sights the ship will die a terrible death.Most people agree the "history" of the Flying Dutchman is merely a legend, and still the ship has been sighted on various occasions in the Cape of Good Hope by reliable witnesses.

Lighthouse keepers reported seeing her and here is a selected list of famous sightings:

In 1823, captain Owen of the HMS Leven recorded two sightings in the log. In 1835 the sailors of a British vessel saw a ship approach them in the middle of a storm. It appeared there would be a collision, but the ship suddenly vanished.

On 11 July 1881, the Royal Navy ship Bacchante was rounding the tip of Africa, when the crew was confronted with the sight of The Flying Dutchman. The midshipman, who later became King George V, recorded that the lookout and the officer of the watch had seen the ship and used these words to describe it: "A strange red light as of a phantom ship all aglow, in the midst of which light the mast, spars and sails of a brig 200 yards distant stood out in strong relief." Soon after the sighting, he accidentally fell from a mast and died.

In 1879, the crew of the SS Pretoria saw the Flying Dutchman and in 1911 a whaling ship almost collided with her before she vanished. In 1923, some members of the British Navy sighted the haunted ship and gave documentation to the Society for Psychical Research. In 1939 the Flying Dutchman was seen by people ashore and German admiral Karl Doenitz maintained his U Boat crews logged various sightings. In 1941 people at Glencairn Beach saw the phantom ship vanish before she crashed into the rocks. In 1942 four witnesses saw the ship enter Table Bay and in 1959 the Magelhaen nearly collided with the phantom ship.