Lost Steamer Portland

John Fish, director of the Historical Maritime Group of New England traces his group's decade-long effort to find the Portland's final resting place and to divulge the clues that led them there.
The loss of the passenger steamer Portland in November, 1898 represents one of the worst maritime disasters in coastal New England. With over 190 lives lost in the sinking, significant changes were subsequently made in ocean transportation regulations, as well as in the design criteria for new coastal passenger vessels.

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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!