 |
| Newer bronze statue. |
This story includes a
shipwreck, tragic deaths, heroic rescues and a haunting that has occurred for over a
century.
On March 3, 1891, the small
3-masted bark called Dictator sailed
out of Pensacola, Florida headed with its cargo of yellow pine lumber to
England.
 |
| Another view of the bronze statue. |
On board was its Captain,
J.M. Jorgensen, his 15-man crew, his wife Johanne Pauline and his young 4-year
old son, Karl.
Three weeks out, the Dictator
was just north of the Bahamas Islands when she ran headlong into a violent
nor’easter. She was tossed about by brutal hurricane-force winds and huge
waves.
Two of the ship’s five
lifeboats were swept overboard and lost. The ship then sprang a leak.
Captain Jorgensen wanted to
ride the storm out but his crew insisted he alter his course. The Dictator
headed toward Hampton Roads, Virginia, to make repairs.
On March 27th the
ship was spotted off the coast of Virginia Beach.
A large crowd gathered at
9:30 a.m. at the Princess Anne Hotel at 16th Street. These witnesses
watched in horror as the ship struggled—headed north.
Within the hour the Dictator
foundered on a sandbar three-hundred yards offshore.
Rescuers onshore desperately shot a buoy cannon with a line to the ship
but the high winds fought their efforts.
The ship by this time had
lost three more of its remaining four lifeboats. Captain Jorgensen sent four crew members
in the last lifeboat. They barely made it to shore through the crashing surf.
After several more attempts, the line from the beach cannon reached the Dictator. This line was then secured
to the top of the ship’s main mast.
The ship was rolling so
violently that the first crew member sent out on this line clung tightly as the
line tightened and then went limp. This man was flung into the ocean and then
high into the air but he managed to make it ashore.
Several more crew members
were able to climb across the line, hand over hand, and made it to the beach.
The Captain then wanted his
wife to try it but she paralyzed with fear refused. So the Captain dispatched
several more of his crew—and most made it.
The Dictator trapped on the
sandbar and mercilessly pounded by the waves was now breaking up. The line was
no longer an option.
As a last resort, the Captain
strapped his son to his back and lowered himself into the water that was now
littered with the pine boards from the ship’s cargo. The violent surging waves
ripped his son from his back and Karl drowned.
His wife Johanne, lowered
herself into the water with one of the remaining crew members on board—neither
made it to shore alive.
The Captain washed ashore and
was later found unconscious on the beach--he survived.
The next day, the robust
female wooden figurehead from the Dictator was found and placed on the
boardwalk as a makeshift memorial to those who had lost their lives.
The bodies of the crew that
didn’t make it, as well as Mrs. Jorgensen were buried at the Elmwood Cemetery in
Norfolk.
Little Karl’s body was found
several days later. A beachcomber saw it near 7th Street. This man
not knowing it was connected to the Dictator wreck took the body to his
minister. Karl then was buried at this church south of Rudee Inlet.
Within days, witnesses
reported hearing the eerie sound of a child crying for his mother in this
cemetery. These cries continued to be heard day after day.
When the minister found out
the body of Captain Jorgensen's son had never been recovered he put two and two
together.
Karl’s body was then exhumed
and reburied at Elmwood Cemetery next to his mother’s grave. After this, the
ghostly cries were never heard again.
 |
| Postcard of the original figurehead from Dictator. |
The original wooden
figurehead of the Norwegian Lady decayed over the years. In 1962, a bronze
memorial, crafted by Norway’s famed sculptor, Oernulf Bast, replaced it.
This Norwegian Lady statue
stands on the boardwalk gazing out over the Atlantic Ocean. It is a memorial to those lost in this tragedy.
No comments:
Post a Comment