Portland (shipwreck)

Drawing of the marine painter Samuel Ward Stanton, 1895 ( Stanton died in 1912 on the Titanic )

Company registration number: 2150488

The Portland was a 1889 put into service passenger ship in the American shipping company Portland Steam Packet Company, which was used in passenger and freight traffic between Portland, Maine and Boston, Massachusetts. On November 26, 1898, the ship sank off the coast of Massachusetts in a violent storm, and all 192 people on board were killed. The tower was named after the ship, and went as The Portland Gale ( to German in about: " The Portland Storm " ) in history. The sinking of Portland is also one of the most severe accidents off the coast of New England and is known by locals as " the Titanic of New England ".

The ship

The 2,284 -ton Portland was founded in 1889 by the resident in Bath in the State of Maine Navigation Company Portland Steam Packet Company (later New England Shipbuilding Company ) commissioned and built by the shipyard New England Shipbuilding Corporation. She was the largest ship of her shipping company and one of the largest and most luxurious passenger ships of New England. Her hull was built out of wood and they had two paddle wheels. The Portland transported passengers and cargo in a daily rhythm from Portland to Boston, where they at 19 clock at the pier India Wharf in Portland took off every night and the next morning broke in again in Portland. She used this route with the ship Bay State. The steamer took eight to nine hours for the approximately 100 -mile route. The passage cost $ 1 per person.

Portland Gale

The later as The Portland Gale designated natural disaster was a storm that hit the coast of New England on 26 and 27 November 1898. He was born on the coast of Virginia, as two low pressure areas came together and migrated to the north. In Cohasset (Massachusetts ) proposed more than three meters high storm surges along the coast and on Nantucket reached the winds hurricane proportions. Dozens of homes were destroyed, many roads, railway lines and telephone lines were severely damaged. The roller coaster in Hull and the Port of Duxbury had been affected. A total of 141 ships and boats were sunk by the storm and 456 people lost their lives. The storm had also announced a change of the river of the North River result, which is now near the town of Scituate (Massachusetts ).

Sinking off Cape Ann

On Saturday, November 26, 1898 put the Portland in Portland at 19.07 clock from under the command of Captain Hollis H. Blanchard to a further passage to Boston. It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving. She had 127 passengers and 65 crew members on board. During the descent prevailed snowfall and strong wind gusts. Due to the bad weather returned, many ships, which expired in Portland, back to port and waited for an improvement in the weather. Captain Blanchard had to continue the journey. Among the passengers on this ride was the soprano Emily Cobb, who was to sing in Portland the following day in the First Parish Church and Dudley E. Freeman, a prominent lawyer, member of the Governor 's Council and former Senator for the State of Maine.

Finally, the Portland was to 21 clock of the schooner Maude S between Thatcher 's Iceland and Eastern Point, about 30 miles northeast of Boston, seen. She passed Cape Ann near the city of Gloucester. Your superstructure already reported on storm damage. Shortly thereafter came the ship in the foothills of a snow storm, which was accompanied by violent Strong winds, and disappeared. The steamer was not equipped with wireless telegraphy, so no emergency could be sold to other ships.

None of the 192 people on board survived the tragedy. There were no survivors, the exact circumstances of the sinking could never be clarified. It is assumed that the accident had occurred 21 to 22 clock because all wristwatches later recovered dead were stopped during this period. One of the assumptions was that Portland was accrued in the current very dangerous cliffs of Peaked Hill bars. The area around this reef was also called the Graveyard of New England ( " Cemetery of New England ").

On the morning of the following day it was noted that the ship had not returned to Portland. At the same time at Cape Cod the first bodies were washed ashore. The families of passengers and crew was still told that there was no reason for concern. At 5:45 clock on 27 November were in that area signals a ship's horn heard, but they could be assigned to a ship. Some thought this was Portland. Between High Head and Chatham numerous debris of various kinds were washed up in the days and weeks after the disaster. It was noted that neither the rescue boat nor rafts were among them. A total of 40 bodies have been recovered, the others were gone. The decision of Captain Blanchard, continue the journey despite the obvious bad weather and not to return to the port of Portland, was afterwards severely criticized.

The sinking of Portland is one of the heaviest shipping accidents off the coast of New England and is also called " the Titanic of New England ". The city of Portland was hit hard, as many well-known citizens were on board, including teachers, shopkeepers and members of prominent families.

The wreck

The wreck of the Portland lies in the Marine Reserve Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, which extends between Cape Ann and Cape Cod. It was soon revealed and was only in 2002 by employees of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA) found. The seabed of the Stellwagen Bank was searched by the American Underwater Search and Survey, thereby finally the remains of the ship could be identified. In September 2003, a research team from the NOAA together with employees of the National Undersea Research Center at the University of Connecticut ( NURC - UConn ) and a camera crew returned to the wreck to make it as part of a TV documentary on the U.S. television The Science Channel to film and photograph.

In autumn 2008 the wreck was first visited by divers. The five men from Massachusetts took three ten to 15 minutes long dives to the wreck, which lies in 140 meters depth. After each dive, a four- hour-long decompression had to be done. In accordance with regulations of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary were no artifacts are removed from the wreck. According to the diver no human remains were found. The exact position of the Portland remains under wraps to avoid looting the wreck.

On 13 January 2005, the wreck of Portland in the list of monuments National Register of Historic Places ( Registration No. 04,001,473 ) was recorded.

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