St. Paul daily globe., 1891-03-28
Terrible Fight for Life Of the
Crew of the Lumber Bark
Dictator.
Eight Of Them Perish in an
Awful Easterly Gale Or
Cape Henry.
Strong Men From the Life
Saving Stations Battle
With Waves.
The Beautiful Young Wife Of
the Captain One OF the
Seas Victims.

NORFOLK, va, March 2i.-Elgnu
lives were lost to-day in a wreck. The
Norwegian bark Dictator, from Pensa-
cola, Fla, to West Hartlepool, Eng,
laden with pine lumber and a crew of
fifteen and the captains young wife and
little boy of three years, came ashore in
a strong gale this morning, four miles
south Of Cape Henry and two miles
north OF Virginia Beach hotel. The
weather was so thick that the vessel was
not seen until 9 o'clock. 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 Seatack, un-
der command OF Capt. Drinkw ater.
were promptly on hand, and began fir
ing lines to the Inflated bark. The guns
could not deliver the lines so far,
though they were repeatedly fired. The
ship finally succeeded in getting line
ashore tied to barrel, which the surf
carried TO the life savers. The breecheS
buoy was quickly rugged and sent to the
vessel, but unfortunately the bark's
crew were
Ignorant of Hts Use,
and the rescue was delayed until Capt.
Drlnkwater, of the life-Saying crew,
wrote instructions, put them in bottle
and sent it to the dictator by the line
connecting 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 de-
livered ashore in eight minutes, and
seven others were rescued before sun
nf nf ocI, i,,o i fo
boat which was capSiZed, but the men
succeeded in reaching the shore in half
dead condition, one man having his arm
broken. During the entire day the ship
rolled and pitched terribly, and made
the work of reScuing the unhappy sail
orS exceedingly difficult and slow, as
the life line would tighten or slacken in
response to the motion of the vessel.
Once the line broke with man mid
way to the shore, and he was hauled
back to the bark half dead. The line
was mended and the same man was
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
nine persons on the bark, and among
the number, tue 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 re-
fused, as she would not leave her huss
band and child, and only one could
take the buoy at time. The wife and
child were already exhausted according
to the report of the sailors. Tonight
the work of rescue was continued and
the captain vainly besought his wife to
make the attempt for life. 1t
has been impossible to get the
owing to the fact that they are
entirely exhausted and seem to be for
eignerS. Lloyd's register gives the cap
tain's name as Jorgenson. 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 having not
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-sav-
ers have worked all day with great
heroism, without food since early this
morning. The apparently slow progress
of the work of rescue is due to the fact
that lifeboat 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 in
structed from shore, which caused
great delay.
The End at Last.
Later-The bark has gone to pieces
and the seven that remained on her
have been lost, including the wife of the
captain. The captain, just before the
ship went to pieces. sprung into the sea,
with his son strapped to his back, and
reached the shore alive, but the boy
was lost, making total loss of eight
lives. The list of the saved is as fol-
lows: Capt. j. NJ. Jorgonsen. Second
Mate Julius Anderson. Ampler Barrett,
John Steven, John Patterson, Yelmer
Olsen, John Mall, Carlo Olsen (broken
ARM, CHARLES Joseph (colored). The
Dictator was trying to make Hampton
Roads, having been disabled by hurri-
panPS Slnpa the 10Th inst