Norwegian Lady Statues - Wreck of The Dictator

Wreck of The Dictator

On Good Friday, March 27, 1891, the Norwegian barque Dictator, whose home port was the coastal town of Moss, Norway, was lost in the Atlantic Ocean south of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay off Virginia Beach, Virginia. The Dictator had a crew of 15 and the captain's family aboard. The sailing ship had been en route to West Hartlepool, England from Pensacola, Florida with a cargo of Georgia Pine lumber. After being caught and disabled in several storms along the East Coast of the United States, she was headed up the coast for port at Hampton Roads at Norfolk, Virginia to make repairs when she encountered gale force winds.

Just a few miles south of Cape Henry, and the comparative shelter of the Chesapeake Bay, the sailing ship was driven aground on a sandbar over 300 yards (300 m) offshore of Virginia Beach near present-day 37th street. Her only two lifeboats were destroyed as the main mast and other rigging fell onto the deck. As the vacationing guests of the Princess Anne Hotel and area residents of the small new resort town watched, members from Seatack and Cape Henry Lifesaving Stations of the United States Lifesaving Service (a predecessor agency of the United States Coast Guard) worked in the high winds and seas at rescue efforts beginning about 10:45 A.M.

Combined with efforts of the ship's crew, 8 of the 17 persons aboard were saved using several methods including a breeches buoy before it was too dark to continue. Johanne Jørgensen, the pregnant young wife of Captain Jørgen M. Jørgensen, and their 4 year-old son Carl Zealand Jørgensen, were among those who drowned in a final escape attempt as the ship broke up. One more sailor survived, but other five sailors were also drowned. The Captain was somehow spared and washed ashore semi-conscious, but still alive.

Captain Jørgensen and the 9 surviving members of his crew were taken to Norfolk. They were aided by the Norwegian Consul and various religious and benevolent shipping groups. All but one of those drowned were buried in Norfolk's Elmwood Cemetery. The remaining sailor, whose body washed ashore a few days later after the wreck, was interred at a local cemetery near the Oceanfront.

In those days, the tragic shipwreck of the Dictator (and the resulting loss of life) was not an unusual event for the local citizenry in this northernmost area of the Graveyard of the Atlantic. The treacherous waters in the area extend south along the North Carolina coast and had claimed many hundreds of vessels. However, as an impromptu memorial was erected shortly thereafter, the story of the Dictator and the souls aboard her would become part of both local tradition and legend in coastal Princess Anne County and Virginia Beach.