Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1891 — BATTLED WITH WAVES. [ARTICLE]

BATTLED WITH WAVES.

WRECKED ON VIRGINIA’S DESOLATE COAST. Tne Captain’* Wife and Child and Six Sailor* Find Watery Graves—Hr rMo Rr*eue of Nine of the Craw of the 11lFated VesshL The Norwegian bark Dictator, from Pensacola, Fla., to West Hartlepool, England, laden with pine lumber, with a crew of fifteen and the captain’s young wife and little boy of 3 years, went ashore in-a strong easterly gale four miles south ts Cape Henry, Va , and two miles north of the Virginia Beach’UHotel. The weather was so thick that the vessel was not seen until 9 o'clock a. m., and then she was in the breakers broadside on, within a quarter of a mile of the shore. Full crews from two life-saving stations, those of Cape Henry and Seatick, under command of Captain Drinkwater, were promptly on hand and began firing lines to the ill-fated bark. The guns could not deliver the lines so far, though they were repeatedly fired. The ship finally succeeded in getting a line ashore tied to a barrel, which the sui'f carried to the life-savers. The breeches buoy was quickly rigged and sent to the vessel, but unfortunately the bark’s crew were ignorant of»its use, and the rescue was delayed until Captain Drinkwayer, of the life-saving crew, wrote instructions, put them in a bottle, and sent it to the Dictator by the lineVonnecting the vessel with the shore. The men on board broke the bottle at once, as could be seen by glasses from the shore, and proceeded to carry out the directions.

The first man was delivered ashore in eight minutes, and seven others were rescued before sunset, four of whom came ashore in a life boat which was capsized, but the men succeeded in reaching the shore in a half dead condition, one man having his arm broken. During the entire day the ship ro led and pitched terribly, and made the work of rescuing the unhappy sailors exceedingly difficult and slow, as the lifeline wouid tighten or slacken in response to the motion of the vessel. Once the line broke with a man midway to the she re. and he was hauled back to the bark half dead. The line was mended and the same man safely landed. The beach was lined with people who had come from the country houses and the hotel, and to the spectators the anxiety and suspense was awful, as they could plainly see the people on the bark and hear their constant cries for succor. At nightfall there were still nine persons on the bark, and among the number the captain, his wife, and little child. The captain had urged his wife all during the day to take the buoy and come ashore, but she steadily ,sho would not leave her husband and child, and only one could take the buoy at a time. The wife and child were already greatly exhausted, according to the report of the sailors At night the work of rescue was continued, and the captain vainly besought his wife to make the attempt for life. It has been impossible'to get the names of the rescued to-night, owing to the fact that they are entirely exhausted and all are foreigners. Lloyd’s register gives the captain’s name as Jorgonson. The bark is a complete wreck and went to pieces fast; the sea was tremendous. All that could be gathered from the half-dead sailors as to the cause of the stranding of the vessel was that they did not know where they were, the sun not having been seen for four days, and the weather so»thick last night and this morning that ,they struck the breakers before they could see the coast The life-savers worked all day with great heroism without food since morning. The apparently slow progress of the work of rescue is dua to the fact that a life-boat could not live in the surf, and that the guns would not reach the bark, and that the crew could not use the breeches buoy until they were instructed from shore, which caused great delay. The captain, just before the ship went to pieces, sprang into the sea with his son strapped to his back and reached the shore alive, but the boy was lost, making a total of eight lives The Dictator was trying to make Hampton Roads, having been fifteen days di.-abled by hurricanes.