Jersey Shore Magazine

j e r s e y s h o r e • S P R I N G 2 0 2 1 39 The clipper ship Ontario became grounded off the tip of Long Beach Island on March 8, 1876. No lives were lost out of the 27-men crew on board, but its whereabouts on the bottom of the sea eluded divers for decades. Then divers aboard the Black Whale, owned by Deb Whitcraft and her former business partner Robert Yates, happened upon the Ontario's anchor by accident far from the actual site of the vessel. They retrieved the 13-foot, three- and-a-half-ton artifact in the spring of 1980 and donated it to the Long Beach Island Historical Association Museum, where it still lies in the grass on the west side of the building facing the Surflight Theatre. The Stolt Dagali Anchor New Jersey Maritime Museum 528 Dock Road, Beach Haven The 583-foot, 19-plus-ton Norwegian steel hulled tanker Stolt Dagali collided with the luxury liner S.S. Shalom on November 26, 1964. Dense fog set the fast-moving Shalom careening straight into the Stolt Dagali and its bow sliced it in half. The tanker's stern sunk immediately in 120 feet of water, killing 19 of its 43 crew members, while its bow remained afloat and was eventually towed away. The Ontario Anchor Long Beach Island Historical Association Museum 129 Engleside Avenue at Beach Avenue, Beach Haven Today, the stern lies about eighteen miles off Point Pleasant Beach in what local anglers and divers refer to as "Wreck Valley," with the wrecks of the Algol, Lizzie D, and Yankee nearby. Despite deteriorating over the years, the remains of the Stolt Dagali is a popular spot for divers and bottom fish alike. After a three-year long project, pro- fessional divers Steve and Maureen Langevin, along with a team of researchers and fellow divers, recov- ered the Stolt Dagali's five-thousand- pound, eight-foot-long anchor aboard their boat Dive Voyager in June 2009. With help from Bill Lockwood from South Amboy's Lockwood Boatworks and Belmar scallop boat captain Mark Vitolo, the anchor was lifted and then towed to Beach Haven. "I received a call from the Langevins, who said they were bringing me a present," said Whitcraft. "Here comes this anchor on a flatbed with more than four feet of growth on it. Boy, did it stink, and our neighbors weren't too pleased until we could power wash it clean," she chuckled. A dedication ceremony for the Stolt Dagali anchor, which currently lies in front of the New Jersey Maritime Museum alongside several other arti- facts, was held in late 2009. Jill Ocone Jill Ocone courtesy of New Jersey Maritime Museum continued on page 40 The bow section of the Norwegian tanker Stolt Dagali. The ship was cut in two early on November 26, 1964 in a collision with the Israeli luxury liner S.S. Shalom about eighteen miles off Point Pleasant Beach. The aft section sunk minutes after the crash. Nineteen of forty-three men aboard the tanker were lost. The bow was towed to New York Harbor. The Stolt Dagali anchor. The Ontario anchor in Beach Haven.

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