In memory of

CAPT.

R. A. WAMACK

BORN

In Prince George Co. Va.

Died in Richmond.

January 6^th, 1870

In the 50^th year

Of his age.

REQUIESCAT IN PACE.

According to “the Protection and Relief of American Seaman” document, stating he was an American citizen, Captain Richard Albert Wamack was a strapping five feet, nine inches tall with a light complexion, hazel eyes, brown hair, with a scar on his right temple and one on his left cheek.  The picture of a ship’s captain.

Wamack was a veteran sea captain, sailing various steamships—the Daniel Webster, the Prometheus, and the North Star—for none other than “the Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt.  Wamack had such a good reputation that Vanderbilt wanted no one else but Wamack to pilot the yacht Vanderbilt named after himself—the Vanderbilt. 

Like many men, their occupation defined who they were in life and in death.  Recognized for his love of the sea, and according to a letter found in a document trove about Wamack, a friend wrote to him, “if you left off going to the sea, you would never live happy.”  The testament to that sentiment is the carved image in white marble on the side of his draped column monument—a sailing boat, with its flags flying and sails billowing on the gentle waves of the ocean.