Lost Steamer Portland

[@verilyheld]

FIRST! Also, two stories about the Portland. After it was lost at sea the number of people who claimed to have been on board it and left it was amazing. The Portland would have sunk at the dock if all those people had truly been on board. That said, there were two people who are known to have first boarded the Portland and then left it before it went on its last voyage. One was a woman, who received a telegram from her mother begging her to get off the Portland, as she (the mother) had had a dream. The woman obeyed her mother, and left it. The second was a man who had boarded, stowed his belongings belowdecks, then went up on deck to watch people. While doing so he noticed the ship's cat padding down a gangplank carrying a kitten. She went off to some spot on the docks, then returned to the ship. All told she made five trips. The man watched the cat make those trips, then when it was clear the cat had off-loaded all her kittens, he went below, grabbed his valise, and left. As he explained, he wasn't about to argue with Mama Cat!