Bernard or Barend Fokke, sometimes known as Barend Fockesz, was a 17th-century, Frisian-born

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

for the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

. He was renowned for the uncanny speed of his trips from the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

. For example, in 1678, he traveled the distance in 3 months and 4 (or 10) days, delivering governor

Rijckloff van Goens Rijcklof Volckertsz. van Goens (24 June 1619 – 14 November 1682) was the Governor of Zeylan and Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. He was the Governor of Zeylan from 12 May 1660 to 1661, then in 1663 and finally from 19 November 166 ...

a stack of letters from which the traveling time could be confirmed. In later times, a

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or Casting (metalworking), cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to ...

was erected of him on the small island Kuipertje, near the harbor of Batavia. The statue was destroyed by the English in 1808. His fast trips caused people to suspect that he was aided by the

Devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...

, and he is often considered to have been a model for the legendary captain of the ''

Flying Dutchman The ''Flying Dutchman'' () is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the sea forever. The myths and ghost stories are likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dutch East India C ...

'', a ghostly ship doomed to sail the seas forever.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * 17th-century births Year of death uncertain Dutch sailors Sea captains People from Friesland Dutch folklore Flying Dutchman Frisians Deal with the Devil Maritime folklore Folklore of the Benelux {{Netherlands-bio-stub