Norwegian Lady Statues

They commemorate the lives lost in the 1891 shipwreck of the Norwegian barque Dictator off the coast of Virginia Beach and the lifesaving efforts of the community.

The sailing ship had been en route to West Hartlepool, England from Pensacola, Florida with a cargo of Georgia Pine lumber.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Known as the "Norwegian Lady", it was a landmark at Virginia Beach's Boardwalk at 16th street for more than 60 years as the town became incorporated in 1906 and grew to become a small city in 1923.

Every year on the anniversary of the wreck, the Ladies Auxiliary of the Virginia Beach Volunteer Fire Department places a wreath at the base of the statue there.