''The'' ''Flying Deer'' (

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

: ''Het fliegende hert'') was a 17th-century

ship. She was lost at sea with all hands during a hurricane off

St. Kitts Saint Kitts, officially Saint Christopher, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis constitute one ...

in 1638.

History

''The Flying Deer'' was an early 17th-century sloop in Dutch service. She was recorded as participating in the lucrative trans-Atlantic

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

trade. In August 1638, the sloop was anchored off island of St. Kitts when the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

-flagged ''

Kalmar Nyckel was a Swedish ship built by the Dutch famed for carrying Swedish settlers to North America in 1638, to establish the colony of New Sweden. The name comes from the Swedish city of Kalmar and meaning in Swedish. The name was also a tribute to K ...

'' (which was returning from its first voyage to establish the colony of

New Sweden New Sweden () was a colony of the Swedish Empire between 1638 and 1655 along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a g ...

) also dropped anchor off the island. The captain of ''The'' ''Flying Deer'' was a friend of

Peter Minuit Peter Minuit (French language, French: ''Pierre Minuit'', Dutch language, Dutch: ''Peter Minnewit''; 1580 – August 5, 1638) was a Walloons, Walloon merchant and politician who was the 3rd Director of New Netherland, Director of the Dutch Nort ...

, a prominent explorer aboard the Swedish ship, and so Minuit and Captain Jan Hindricksen van der Water of ''Kalmar Nyckel'' were invited aboard ''The Flying Deer''. During the visit, a powerful storm (possibly a

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its ...

) swept up on the island, battering the ships at anchor. ''Kalmar Nyckel'' rode out the storm at sea, but ''The Flying Deer'' was never seen again and presumed to be lost with all hands.

References

Ships lost with all hands Age of Sail merchant ships of the Dutch Republic 1630s ships {{Merchantship-stub