Th e outward-bound st ea msh ip Portland and the Boston pilot schoon er Co lumbia inbound for Boston under ominous skies. I n No vem ber 1898 the "Portland Gale" wrecked bo th ships w ith the loss of all hands. (Evening Shipping on Boston Bay, 1898, by W illiam G. Muller, oil on canvas, 24" x 40': 2003). lose power, allowing it to swing broadside to the waves? When the steamer did not arrive in Portland the next morning, as scheduled, rumors began to fly abo ut the whereabouts and fare of the vessel. Two revenue cutters were sent to search for the vessel but found nothing. Wreckage and bodies from Portland began washing up on Cape Cod's beaches that next ni ght. The public did no t yet know of the disaster because telegraph wires on Cape Cod had come down in the storm. Ir was not until the next day that daylight revealed the
horror of the situation. Bodies strapped in life belts with "Str. Portland" stenciled on them were found along Cape Cod. Ir was not until later that day, when Portland's running mate Bay State arrived from Portland reporting no trace of the missing packet, that everyone there was convinced that the ship was lost. Approximately 40 of the 200 individuals onboard the vessel washed ashore. The appropriately-nam ed "Portland Gale" damaged or destroyed many vessels and hundreds of lives . Portland's African American communi ty felt the ramiSS Po rtland's starboard quarter. fications of the loss acutely. H alf of the ship's crew and many passe ngers we re black and hailed from Portland. The loss of these breadwinners dealt a devastating fin ancial and em otional blow to their fa milies. Most of the passe nge rs o nboard the steamer were res idents of Portland returning hom e afte r spending the Thanksgiving holiday
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in Boston. The events that led up to the ship's demise and the location where it plummeted to the sea floor have haunted the citizens of Portland and Boston for over 90 years. The horrified-yet fascinated- inhabitants of N ew England have speculated about the vessel's final hours. This sense of mys tery has led explorers to search for the vessel throughout the las t century. In 1989 the Historical M aritime Group of New E ngland discovered the exact position and positively identified the ship within what is now the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Recent expeditions to the shipwreck by the Stellwage n Bank National Marine Sanctuary and Na tion al U ndersea Research Center in 2002 and 2003 have returned with stunnin g image ry. These images allow the public to get a glimpse of th e ghostly remains of a once-gallant vessel that now embodies the unimaginable devastati o n and horror that occurred that wee kend in N ovember 1898. ,t
Deborah E. M arx is a maritime archaeologist with the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in Scituate, MA and a consultant with Landfall Archaeological Resource Consultants in Weymouth, J\1A.
SE A HISTORY 107, SPRING/SUMMER 2004