title: Flying Dutch
author:  Tom Holt 
description: Alive for more than 450 years, doomed to ply the seas endlessly (except for shore leave), Capt. Cornelius Vanderdecker is the Flying Dutchman immortalized in legend and Wagner's opera. In a sophisticated fantasy that is occasionally hilarious but sometimes as creaky as the Dutchman's wood ship, levelheaded London accountant Jane Doland discovers some anomalies in an old ledger and sets out to find beer-swilling Vanderdecker to prevent him from cashing in on a life insurance policy that would bankrupt all of Europe. Meanwhile the captain, cursed with an unpleasant odor, seeks the Ultimate Deodorant from megalomaniac alchemist/inventor Professor Montalban, who invented the computer in 1694. Holt ( The Walled Orchard ) peppers these antics doings with jokes about accountants, history, death, taxes and the general rottenness of existence. His diverting story provides numerous compelling reasons why one would not want to live for centuries. <BR>Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  ![Cover](images/cover.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Flying Dutch
  
  
    
  
  
  ### Tom Holt
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It’s been 400 years since Dutch sea captain Cornelius Vanderdecker and his
  crew drank an immortality elixir that they mistook for beer. Now the
  compounded interest on a life insurance policy he took out in the 1500s makes
  him worth more money than exists in all the world…and he may be close to the
  end of his boring immortality.
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Tom Holt
  
  
  ## FLYING DUTCH
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## ONE
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  **I** t’s always a little startling to hear your name in a public place, and
  Vanderdecker froze. The beer in his glass didn’t, and the froth splashed his
  nose. He put the glass down and listened.
  
  
  “The story of the Flying Dutchman…” the man opposite had said. Slowly, so as
  not to be seen to be staring, Vanderdecker looked round. His profession had
  trained him to take in all the information he needed to enable him to form a
  judgement in one swift glance, and what he saw