"Return of the Flying Dutchman" is the first segment of the thirteenth episode of Spider-Man. It originally aired on ABC on December 2, 1967.
Plot[]
The segment opens on a dark and stormy night, with a fishing boat and a crew of only two men out on the water. Suddenly, the captain is alerted by his crew member about something he spotted on the port side of the ship. What they spot is a floating white ship, which a captain on the shore saying its the phantom ship, the Flying Dutchman. The next morning, J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, and Peter Parker are discussing the report that the fishing captain sent them about the Dutchman. Jameson says that every time a storm comes in, they get the same report. And so, Jameson sends Peter to get a photo of it anyway.
That night, another storm comes in, and the same Captain from earlier is keeping his weather eye out on the sea with his spy glass, when Spider-Man comes up and explains that he heard that the Dutchman has been spotted in the area. The captain explains that the ghost ship has been spotted over a cove called Smuggler's Cove. Spider-Man asks how he can get there, and the captain tells him to follow a path to the immediate left. The captain tells Spider-Man to turn back, but the webbed wonder is just too curious. Once he gets near the cove, Spider-Man spots the Dutchman and snaps a photo just as it goes into the cove. Suddenly, Spider-Man feels his spider senses go off, and the reason being an attacker standing right behind him.
But just as Spider-Man defends himself, another attacker knocks him out with the handle of a handgun. The two men decide to report this to their boss, and they head to their hideout by moving a giant boulder that conceals a cave. In that cave, is none other than Mysterio. The two men tell Mysterio about what happened, and the master of illusion realizes that the person there speaking of is in fact spider man himself and decides to save the privilege of killing the wall crawler for himself, before a submarine arrives as part of his plan. Outside, the storm has calmed and Spider-Man comes to and spots footprints in the sand. He follows them all the way to a boat out on the water, but his spider senses go off as he gets on board the boat, and for good reason.
The ship appears to have come to life, and begins to attack Spider-Man. Soon, a familiar voice is heard, Mysterio's voice, who reveals that he was the one behind the ship effects. The two briefly battle, and Mysterio lures Spider-Man into the cabin of the ship, only to lock him in. Once Spider-Man breaks loose, he finds that the water has gotten a lot rougher than when he boarded. And on top of that, the wheel in the cabin and the rudder have been destroyed and the ship has no sail. Spider-Man decides to improvise on the sails, by making his own out of webbing.
The wall crawler decides to make a rudder out of webbing as well, and then, Spider-Man tries to sail his way back to shore. Meanwhile, Mysterio explains that they'll use a different view of the Dutchman to frighten the nearby villagers, so that the sub he mentioned earlier can surface, loaded with enough gold for him to buy all the power he wants. Meanwhile, Spider-Man spots the Dutchman, and then a submarine. Later, the submarine dives into the ocean, and Mysterio's hired thugs bring the loot into their hideout. Meanwhile, Spider-Man creates a giant web net to catch the submarine, and then heads to shore to confront Mysterio. Once inside, Spider-Man decides to confront the sword-wielding crooks with a sword made of tempered webbing.
Spider-Man manages to take out the hired thugs, but soon finds himself face to face with a cannon, loaded and ready to fire. However, Spider-Man manages to block the cannon with webbing, causing the cannon to explode. The thugs come to, but get webbed up. Soon, the captain who warned Spider-Man earlier sneaks in and saves him from getting shot by Mysterio, and allows the web-head to trap Mysterio for the police. Spider-Man tells the captain to inform the police about the submarine at the bottom of the cove. The next morning, Jameson gets the photos and the news about the whole thing being a hoax, but says that he knew that the Dutchman wasn't real.
However, Betty points to the window, and Jameson gets spooked by the sight of the Flying Dutchman right outside his window. Outside on the street, it's revealed that Spider-Man has the projector that created the images of the Dutchman and is using it to scare Jameson. Inside, Betty tries to wake up Jameson, who fainted at the sight of the Dutchman, as the segment ends.