History: Literature / FlyingDutch

''Flying Dutch'' is a comic fantasy novel by Creator/TomHolt, ''very'' loosely based on the legend of the FlyingDutchman. Creator/RichardWagner got it [[ExternalRetcon all wrong!]]

Captain Vanderdecker was an ordinary 16th century ship's captain until an accident involving an alchemist on the run from the Inquisition, and a mishandled magic potion, left him and his crew immortal, indestructible, and incredibly ''stinky!'' Not just unwashed-sailor stinky. This was a stench that could make rotting corpses mixed with diarrhea seem like a breath of fresh air. Unfit for human company, Vanderdecker and his crew set out to sea. Fortunately, every seven years, the stench vanishes for about a month, allowing them to land and restock. Then it returns, and it's off to sea once more. It's a boring life, but what are you going to do?

What Vanderdecker doesn't know is that the life insurance policy he took out when he was young pays ''compound interest'' for every year he lives past seventy-five. It was a sucker bet at the time--sailors notoriously die young--but now Vanderdecker will own more money than there is in the world. If he dies.

Jane Dolen is a clerk who works for the Lombard Bank. A bank that happens to be owned by a very old insurance company. Jane is an ordinary young woman with a ordinary, boring job. There's just one thing about her: she has ''absolutely no sense of smell.'' When this little fact comes to the attention of her superiors, Jane suddenly find herself with a very unusual, and very secret assignment: contact Captain Vanderdecker, and make a deal with him, before the economy of the entire world is destroyed!
----
!! Tropes in this novel:
* AgentMulder: Danny Bennett, a recurring character in several Holt novels, is a BBC journalist with a wide range of conspiracy theories, all tying to the ultimate power behind world history: The [[MilkmanConspiracy British Milk Marketing Board]]. He is slightly vindicated in this novel when he gets caught up with Montalban and the Lombard Bank.
* AlchemyIsMagic: The alchemist Montalban developed the immortality potion that blighted the lives of Vanderdecker and his crew, and also routinely turns lead into gold--a technique he actually taught Vanderdecker to help make up for the immortality/horrible stench thing.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: The immortal alchemist Montalban turns out to secretly be responsible for pretty much all of modern science and technology--all of which he developed in an attempt to cure the horrific stench that was an unfortunate side-effect of his immortality potion.
* CompleteImmortality: The Flying Dutchman and his crew. They drank a magical potion--by accident--and now they can't die no matter how hard they try, and have an unbearable stench that makes them unable to come ashore, except for a brief period every seven years when the stench fades. One crew member spends all his free time jumping from the crow's nest in the hopes that maybe ''this'' time, he'll finally die.
* CompoundInterestTimeTravelGambit: An accidental example--Vanderdecker doesn't ''realize'' his life insurance policy had compound interest, but now it's worth so much that it will bankrupt the world if he dies.
* ConspiracyTheorist: Recurring character Danny Bennett, who also appears in several other Holt novels, actually manages to uncover some real conspiracies this time--although he remains convinced, despite the lack of any evidence, that the [[MilkmanConspiracy Milk Marketing Board]] must be involved somehow.
* ExternalRetcon: The entire book is a retcon of the story of Creator/RichardWagner's opera, ''The Flying Dutchman''.
* FlyingDutchman: subverted; the Flying Dutchman and his crew had accidentally drunk some elixir which gave them immortality, but also the most outrageous body odour for all but one month in every 7 years. In the book, Wagner is said to have been given direct inspiration from the captain of the crew.
* HappilyEverAfter: ''Exaggerated''. HappilyEverAfter really ''means'' something when the elixir of life is a major plot point.
* MayflyDecemberRomance: One seems to be starting to develop between Jane and Vanderdecker.
* UnnecessarilyLargeVessel: After the Flying Dutchman discovers that he's the richest person in the world, thanks to compound interest, he trades in his old ship for a used aircraft carrier. For his crew of less than a dozen.
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Vanderdecken (aka "The FlyingDutchman") and his functionally indestructible crew, forced to sea by the horrible stench that hangs around nearly all the time thanks to a dodgy elixir of life. One of them has adopted a hobby of regularly throwing himself off the top of the mast in the hope that this time it'll work. (All it usually results in is extra work for the ship's carpenter.)
----

Troperville

Tools