Virginia Beach: Norwegian Lady

Newer bronze
statue.

Thousands of tourists pass this statue called the Norwegian Lady located on the 25^th Street boardwalk in Virginia Beach, Virginia every summer. Few of these tourists know the incredible story connected to this 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 27^th 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 16^th 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 7^th 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.

Hindenburg Ghosts

“As the airship came in for a landing it suddenly exploded into flames. The rear was completely engulfed in a bright orange fireball. An eyewitness standing a half-mile away on the ground said an intense blast of heat blew over. Then, a blow torch-flame shot out of the airship’s nose.”

Zeppelins

In 1936 the future looked bright for rigid airships. These zeppelin ships were lighter than air and huge. They could travel at a speed of 84 miles an hour--which was the fastest travel mode at that time. Passengers traveled in luxury in the zeppelin's bellies.

Hindenburg flying over
Manhattan in April of 1936.

The Hindenburg was Nazi Germany’s pride and joy. It could carry up to 75 passengers. Hitler had wanted it named after him--but the German builders had "Hindenburg" put on its side quickly to prevent this.

In 1936 it was used for one glorious season ferrying over 1000 wealthy passengers back and forth across the Atlantic from Frankfurt, Germany to America. This trip took about 2 and a half days which was much faster than boat travel.

During its first trans-Atlantic crossing in May of 1937 it burst into flames over Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The ship was destroyed in less than 1 minute.

Thirty-five people of the 97 onboard were killed, including 13 passengers, 22 crewmen. One ground crew member died of burns he suffered when the hull of the ship fell on him--which took the tally to 36.

This disaster became the main focus of the international media and marked the end of the use of rigid airships in commercial transportation.

The Hindenburg at the time of the disaster was was using hydrogen gas to lift it which is highly flammable. 

The fire was officially attributed to a hydrogen leak that was set off by an atmospheric discharge. Despite this at the time it was speculated that the disaster was actually an act of sabotage that resulted from anti-Nazi sentiment--this theory was ruled out.

Today a new theory has been put forth as to the real cause of the accident. Here is a link to the video shown on PBS that discusses it. 

Haunted Naval Station

Hindenburg Memorial

At Lakehurst Naval Air Station a chain and a bronze plaque were placed in 1987 in the area where the Hindenburg came down to commemorate the 50th anniversary of this disaster.

In 1937, many of the 61 passengers and crew that survived were injured and burned so they were transported to the base hospital.

The 36 deceased where placed in a nearby hanger that would have housed the Hindenburg if it had successfully landed.

It was in this hanger--a makeshift temporary morgue--where survivors had the gruesome task of identifying the charred remains of the dead. It was said that the smell of burned flesh hung in the air for days.

Over 75 years later Lakehurst is still an active base and workers still report smelling burnt flesh in this hanger.

Over the years many who have worked at Lakehurst feel those who were killed when the Hindenburg burst into flames still roam the base.

The old hospital were the wounded were taken is a clinic today. Workers in this area have seen and heard things they cannot explain.

Witnesses have reported seeing lights flashing on and off with no logical reason.

They mention hearing strange footsteps; doors rattling and loud unexplained crashes.

One staff member who was working alone in the building that houses the clinic heard one of these loud crashes.

When he went to check out the area in the clinic where the sound came from he found a large pamphlet rack had fallen over and the pamphlets were scattered across the floor.

Irritated, he announced out loud that he didn’t make the mess so he wasn’t going to clean it up. He told the ghost that he should “do it” instead. Then he went home.

The next morning, the rack and pamphlets were back where they belonged.

This staff member and others that work in the clinic still do not know how this rack got back in its proper place.

The Hindenburg disaster was made more compelling because a radio reporter for WLS by the name of Herb Morrison was describing the arrival of the zeppelin when it caught on fire. His live on-air vivid description of this disaster is heart-rending.

Here is video of the disaster with the audio of his description.

Pearl Harbor: The Ghost of the USS Arizona

The USS Arizona has been a tomb ever since the morning of December 7th. 

When this ship was bombed and sunk, 1,177 crew members perished with her, making it the most significant loss of life on any United States warship in American history. 

On this date in 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into the Second World War. 

Today the USS Arizona rests in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor off Oahu, Hawaii, as a tribute to all those who died.

Sunk

Forward Magazine Explode

The USS Arizona was based along with seven other battleships in Pearl Harbor's "battleship row," its shallow waters ideal for these massive ships. 

During the attack, several bombs hit their mark, one of these penetrated her forecastle, which detonated her forward ammunition magazines. The resulting massive explosion wrecked Arizona’s forward hull, collapsing the forward superstructure, and causing her to sink. 

After the attack, in the following months, much of her armament and topside structure was removed. Two of her aft triple 14^th gun turrets were transferred to the Army encampment as coast defense batteries for Oahu.

Arizona’s wrecked hull remains where she sank. 

In the 1950s, she began to be used as a site for memorial ceremonies, and, in the early 1960s, an official memorial was built. 

It is run by the National Park Service. It is a permanent shrine for all those brave souls who lost their lives in Pearl Harbor, and those who died fighting the Pacific war that began there. 

All warships that enter and leave Pearl Harbor, pause and salute the USS Arizona.

Countless visitors to this memorial, which stands on pillars astride Arizona’s broken hull, pay their silent tribute to this tragedy. 

A few bits of this sunken hull, rusted, twisted metal, can be seen near the shallow waterline. Still attached to the deck is the ship’s flagpole; Arizona’s hull still leaks oil from her bunkers—all these decades later. 

Some state this is a fitting tribute for she appears to still bleed for all who were lost on the day Franklin D. Roosevelt called, “a date that will live in infamy”.

For years, people who have visited this memorial and park service employees have witnessed some strange activity. 

Many photographs that have been taken around the memorial have captured strange foggy spots and misty human figures seem to appear in the background of these photographs.

 One specific ghost that appears is said to be the officer who was posted on Arizona’s deck the morning of December 7, 1941.  

Distracted by something personal, he left his station briefly. It was during this time the Japanese planes attacked. This officer was killed. 

Some speculate he is seen because he is driven by guilt to walk the deck, and then look out near the flagpole. He is seen mostly at night, low tide, and in the dim light of dawn.

USS Arizona in the 1930s