Wreck of Steamship Lost in 1898 Storm Is Located

Underwater explorers have located the wreck of a 19th century steamship that sank in one of the worst hurricanes in New England’s history, taking more than 190 people with it.

The Portland, known as the “Titanic of New England,” sank off the Massachusetts coast Nov. 26, 1898, after it sailed from Boston, ignoring forecasts of an impending storm.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the wreck was found Thursday in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, an area about the size of Rhode Island between Cape Ann and Cape Cod.

“This discovery closes the chapter on one of the greatest maritime disasters in New England,” said Ben Cowie-Haskell, NOAA’s primary investigator of the Portland expedition.

Researchers were able to identify several distinctive features of the wreck that prove it’s the Portland, Cowie-Haskell said, including the rudder assembly, paddle guard, wheel hub, and twin side-by-side smokestacks.

The wreck was discovered in 1989 by two underwater explorers, Arnold Carr and John Fish, but they could never prove it was the Portland.

NOAA researchers used sonar equipment and remotely operated machines to take high-quality video footage of the wreck.

Cowie-Haskell said the ship is sitting upright on the sea floor with its hull largely intact, though much of the ship above the main deck is gone.

No bodies or artifacts with the Portland’s name on it were found, he said.

Cowie-Haskell would not reveal the exact location of the ship.

The 291-foot Portland left Boston’s India Wharf for Portland, Maine, as scheduled, ignoring forecasts of an impending storm and the decision by the captain of a sister ship to stay in port.

Capt. Hollis Blanchard may have believed the Portland could outrun the gale, but the storm was actually two separate storms that collided at sea and grew in force. Winds reached 100 mph and waves crested at 60 feet.

Bodies and wreckage began to wash up on the shores of Cape Cod shortly after the storm, which eventually became known as the Portland Storm.

Scientists estimate that 192 passengers and crew died, but no one really knows how many lives were lost because the only passenger list went down with the ship. There were only about 40 bodies from the doomed vessel ever recovered.

The sinking prompted a change in the design of all coastal ships, from being driven by paddlewheels to propellers.