1898 — Nov 26-27, Portland Gale, NY, MA and ME maritime, esp. MA, esp. Portland–~337
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 9-8-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
— ~337 Blanchard estimate.*
— 500 Coleman. “Today in Cape History: Portland Gale Claims 500 Victims.” 2007.
— 456 Snow. Storms and Shipwrecks of New England. 1943, 246.
— 450 History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, November 26, 1898
— 450 Zielinski. New England Weather, New England Climate. 2005, p. 178
— 404 All districts, all year. U.S. Steamboat Inspection Service. Annual Report 1899, pp. 8.[1]
— 400 Horrigan, John. “The Portland Gale.”
–>400 Wikipedia. “Portland Gale.” 5-26-2020. (No source citation.)
— 337 Blanchard tally from MA, NY and RI breakouts below.
–326 Massachusetts
–193 Steamer Portland (thought to lost off coast of Massachusetts)
–127 Losses from twenty-nine named vessels.
— 6 On land.
— 10 New York
— 1 Rhode Island
*Though we show seven sources noting between 400-500 fatalities none provide any detailed information indicating how the number cited was derived or from whence it came. As we note in our footnote to the U.S. Steamboat Inspection Service annual report for the previous twelve months, there were but 404 maritime deaths nationwide for the year. Thus to the extent this is close to accurate, it would not be possible that there were 400-500 deaths in this event alone. Our attempt to create a breakout of deaths by locality comes to 337, which is the number we choose to use.
Massachusetts: (326)
–193 Portland steamer. (Using NOAA’s number of crew and passenger fatalities
–127 Other MA maritime.
— 6 Land (though two possibly drowned in a river).
Steamer Portland 193 – relying on NOAA
–150-200 U.S. Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of…Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1899, 26.
— <200 Stewardson. “Remembering the Portland Gale.” SouthCoastToday.com. 11-29-1998.
— 193 NOAA, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. “Passenger and Crew Lost…”
— 63 named crew
–130 named crew
— 192 Genealogy Trails History Group. “Greatest Maritime Ship Disasters (in Peacetime).”
— 192 Horrigan, John. “The Portland Gale.”
— 190 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 491.
— 176 Snow. Storms and Shipwrecks of New England. 1943, p. 256.
–108 passengers –68 crew members
— 176 Snow, Edward R. Strange Tales from Nova Scotia to Cape Hatteras. 1949, p. 167.
— 176 Workers of the Writers’ Program. Boston Looks Seaward. 1941, 153-154.
— 175 Coleman. “Today in Cape History: Portland Gale Claims 500 Victims.” 2007.
— 157 Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 76.
— 157 Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours, 1977, p. 692
— 127 U.S. Steamboat Inspection Service. Annual Report 1899, pp. 8, 41.[2]
–60 passengers –67 crew
— 117 New York Journal. “117 Souls Go Down in the Wrecked Portland…” 11-30-1898, p1.
Rhode Island
— 1 Cassia. Sloop; driven ashore at New Shoreham. US Life Saving Service. 1890, p. 139.
MA Maritime Losses Other Than the Portland
— 8 Abel E. Babcock. Schooner; wrecked on Toddy Rocks near Hull Beach, MA, Nov 27.[3]
— 3 Addie Sawyer. Schooner; captain and two crew drowned off north side Martha’s Vineyard.[4]
–>3 Addie E. Snow. Schooner, (wreckage at Peaked Hill Bars, Cape Cod, MA. Snow 1943, 246.[5]
— 3 Albert L. Butler. Schooner, Peaked Hill Bars, Cape Cod, MA. Snow. Storms… 1943, p246.[6]
— 1 Amelia G. Ireland. Schooner; wrecked near Gay Head, MA. US Life-Saving Service, p. 41.
— 5 Barge. Unnamed coal barge ashore off Cohasset Breakwater, Cohasset, MA.[7]
— 3 Barge No. 4. Consolidated Coal Co. Struck and broke on Toddy Rocks near Hull, MA.[8]
— 3 Bertha A. Gross. Schooner, wrecked off House Island, Manchester, MA.[9]
— 3 Calvin F. Baker. Schooner, Little Brewster Island, off Boston Harbor, MA. Snow 1943, 246.[10]
— 6 Clara Leavitt. Schooner; wrecked near Gay Head, MA. US Life-Saving Service, p. 41.
— 1 Clara Smith. Schooner sinks off Horse Shoe Shoal, Martha’s Vineyard.[11]
— 5 Columbia. Pilot boat, Scituate, MA. Snow. Storms and Shipwrecks of New Eng. 1943, 248.[12]
— ? Edgar S. Foster. Schooner; founded on Brant Rock, Marshfield, MA, on Nov 26.[13]
— 7 Etta A. Stimpson. Schooner; capsized Muskeget Channel just east of Martha’s Vineyard.[14]
–15 F. R. Walker. Fishing schooner; last seen Nov 26; wreckage picked up Race Pt. Cape Cod.[15]
— 1 Governor Ames. Schooner; ashore on Georges Isl. Boston harbor,[16] steward Edward Proffet.[17]
— 3 H. C. Higginson. Sailing ship; Nov 26, location not noted: “sunk during the Boston Gale.”[18]
— 2 Island City. “Two unknown members of the crew of the Island City.”[19]
— 1 Jordan L. Mott. Schooner. Sunk in Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod, MA, early Nov 27.[20]
—>3 King Philip. Schooner, wreckage ashore at Brewster, Cape Cod, MA. Snow 1943, 246. [21]
— 9 Leander V. Beebe. Schooner; wrecked near Toddy’s Rock. New England locale not noted.[22]
— 5 Lester A. Lewis. Schooner; Sunk in Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod, MA, early Nov 27.[23]
— 2 Lucy A. Nichols. Barge, wrecked on Gun Rock, MA; Cpt. John Peterson and Andrew Brown.[24]
— 7 Lunet. Schooner; dragged anchor/wrecked west side Tarpaulin Cove, Naushon Isl., MA.[25]
— 5 Mertis H. Perry. Fishing schooner, Brant Rock, MA. Snow. Storms… 1943, p. 252.[26]
—>3 Narcissus. Canadian schooner, lost at sea, Boston to Shelburne, Nova Scotia, Nov 27.[27]
–16 Pentagoet. Steamer (wreckage ashore at Peaked Hill Bars, Cape Cod, MA. Snow 1943, 264.
— 1 Startle. Fishing vessel; seaman John Healey.[28]
— 2 Virginia. Schooner, “…wrecked on Thompson’s Island [Boston Harbor]; two drowned.”[29]
— 1 W. H. Y. Hackett. Schooner, wrecked off South Boston flats, one drowned.[30]
— 3 Unknown craft; three men washed ashore at Fort Cliff, Scituate, MA.[31]
127
Massachusetts (other): ( 6)
Beachmont, Revere ( 1)
–1 Michael Lee; drowned trying to rescue a family at Beachmont.
Duxbury, MA ( 2)
–2 Ernest Raymond, a gunner, drowned in shooting box[32] at Duxbury, and Russell Haskins.[33]
Scituate, MA ( 3)
–2 North River, Scituate. Otis Ewell and Bert Tilden, drowned.[34]
–1 Mrs. Wilbur, of Raynham, at Scituate, caught by a high wave and washed into deep water.[35]
New York: (10)
—>1 Good Luck. MA Schooner; ashore about mile from Oldfield Light, Port Jefferson, NY.[36]
—>3 Hard Chance. Schooner; wrecked on Oldfield Reef near Port Jefferson, NY.[37]
— 3 J. N. Ayres. Schooner sunk; Robins Island, Peconic Bay, Suffolk County, Long Island.[38]
— 3 Unknown men, bodies washed ashore at Horton’s Point Lighthouse near Greenport, L. I.[39]
General:
Coleman: “Starting on the evening of this day in 1898 and continuing for three days, one of the worst storms to ever hit Cape Cod, the Portland Gale, sweeps across the region and drowns 500 people, including all 175 people on board the steamer Portland bound from Boston to Maine.
“As described by Jack Sheehy in the “Summerscape’98” supplement published by The Barnstable Patriot, the Portland Gale was “believed to have been two storms which collided over southeastern New England.”
“Twenty minutes before eight that evening snow began to fall,” Sheehy wrote. “Between 9:30 and 11 p.m., the two storms combined to become one. The snow became very heavy; the winds shifted from north to northeast, reaching about 40 miles per hour at 11 p.m. The wind grew steadily throughout the night, reaching 70 miles per hour around 3 a.m. At Nantucket, 90 miles per hour winds were reported. A tempest had been unleashed, pounding the Cape and the waters surrounding her with a force which surpassed even the great October Gale of 1841. Cape Codders had never seen a force of such magnitude.”
“By daybreak a foot of snow was on the ground and the storm continued unabated,” as described by Sheehy. “The railroad lines were hopelessly blocked and in other areas swept away completely. Telegraph lines were down and Cape Cod found herself cut off from the rest of the world. And out there, on the raging seas, hundreds of vessels and thousands of crewmen battled their lives throughout the long night and the relentlessly stormy days to follow. By Tuesday morning the storm had blown itself out and the waves cast wreckage and bodies upon the shoreline. Between 150 and 200 vessels were lost. With them drowned some 500 people, including the 175 who went down on the Portland alone!” (Coleman. 2007.)
Cornell: “Portland, Cape Cod, November 27, 1898. A large storm off the New England coast destroyed nearly 200 vessels, including the side-wheeler Portland….” (Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 400.)
United States Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of …Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1899:
“The Great Storm of November, 1898.
“Wrecks of the Columbia, Abel E. Babcock, Barge No. 4, Calvin F. Baker, Mertis H. Perry, Jordan L. Mott, Lester A. Lewis, Albert L. Butler, Amelia G. Ireland, and Clara Leavitt.
“The ten wrecks, the details of which follow, occurred in the now memorable cyclonic tempest which struck the New England coast, especially the south shore of Massachusetts Bay, in the evening of Saturday, November 26, 1898, and raged with almost unprecedented violence for twenty-four hours, and with gradually abating force for twelve hours longer – two nights and one day.
“Probably this storm will longest be remembered and generally designated as that which destroyed the steamer Portland with all her crew and passengers, estimated as numbering between one hundred and fifty and two hundred people. No such appalling calamity has occurred anywhere near by the coasts of the United States, or on the shore, for almost half a century, and it is doubtful whether there has been within the same period a coast storm of such Titanic power.
“When the Portland steamed away from her pier in Boston Harbor, about 7 o’clock p.m., scores of sailing vessels between Gay Head and Cape Ann were hunting for harbors of refuge. Forty took shelter in Vineyard Haven (Holmes Holl), of which number more than half suffered injury. Many found anchorage in Provincetown and Gloucester, while others were crowding every stitch they could bear to reach port. Those already there passed additional stout lines to the dock or dropped another trustworthy anchor.
“Where the apparently ill-fated steamer finally gave out and foundered has never been conclusively determined, but sufficient facts have been gleaned to make it clear that she went down at sea. Therefore her destruction did not lie within the scope of the Life-Saving Service, and is referred to simply as one of the most impressive evidences of the overwhelming destructiveness of the tempest.
“That stormy weather was threatening during the afternoon and early evening of November 26 is not within dispute, for besides the warning of the Weather Bureau, the conditions were unmistakably proven by the flight of many vessels into port….
“Snow began falling early, and the wind increased until by 10 o’clock, says Keeper Joshua James of the Point Allerton Station, only nine or ten miles from Boston, ‘it was blowing a gale from the northeast with sleet and snow that we could not see one hundred yards at most. At midnight it was a hurricane.’ The captain of a large, steel trans-Atlantic steamship, which was stranded by the storm much nearer the city, states that he could scarcely see across the ship. The expanding force of the cyclone swept in with the rising tide, causing the waters to flood the beaches far beyond well defined storm limits, and to tear through the sand ridges and submerge the marshes for miles around. In the track of this overpowering deluge were havoc and destruction. It washed away large portions of the bank or sea wall in the rear of the beaches, and scooped out the latter in many places to a depth of five feet. Bulkheads constructed to protect roadways near the shore were battered down by the resistless shocks of the waves, and roads were buried and obliterated beneath piles and windrows of sand and stones. Houses were blown from their foundations, and in many instances hopelessly shattered, in some wholly destroyed.
“At Scituate Point, the whole village, numbering upward of one hundred dwellings, was almost ruined, while many of the inhabitants narrowly escaped with t heir lives. In one instance a woman was drowned while her husband was trying to assist her to escape from their dwelling. The boathouse of the Massachusetts Humane Society near Scituate Light was swept to the south side of the harbor, the boat gone one way and the boat carriage another. The wind at this time is said to have something terrific – its intensity could not be described, nor could words convey an approximate idea of its terrifying effects.’
“In the town of Hull, which includes Nantasket Beach, damage was inflicted estimated at upward of two hundred thousand dollars. There was hardly a building, says one witness, that escaped some injury. The railroad sea wall, constructed of heavy granite stones, was ruined for a mile, and the beaches were lowered two or three feet in some places, and narrowed ten or fifteen feet. On Monday, November 28, when the storm had spent its fury, the shores and surroundings were a stretch of wreck and ruin.
“Against such an indescribable pandemonium of wind and sea as the foregoing fragmentary review suggests, few craft, steam or sail, could successfully contend on a lee shore, and the deplorable consequence was that the coast, rocks, and islands from Gay Head to Cape Ann were strewn with wrecked or disabled vessels, while an uncertain but considerable number foundered not far away at sea. Of the latter class, of course, none are included in this part of the report, and of the former, only those from which there was loss of life.” (pp. 25-27) [We note specific vessels separately and alphabetically below.]
Zielinski: “This 36-hour storm on 26 to 27 November 1898 led to the sinking of at least 150 ships, including the steamship Portland, and an estimated 450 lives lost. In fact, in some areas of New England, such as Scituate, Massachusetts, ‘the Portland Storm’ was the hall mark nor’easter until the Blizzard of ’78.” (Zielinski. New England Weather, New England Climate. 2005, p. 178.)
Section on Individual Vessels Noted Alphabetically by Name or First Name
Abel E. Babcock, schooner
- S. Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of …Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1899.. 1900, p. 29:
“Even more calamitous than the destruction of the Columbia was that of the four-mased schooner Abel E. Babcock, which occurred on the same day, although far less is known of its details. The Babcock was a vessel of 812 tons, bound from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Boston, Massachusetts, with a cargo of coal. She was under command of Captain Abel E. Babcock, and is reported to have carried eight men, all told.
“Some time in the night of November 26-27, after coming to anchor, as is supposed, in an exceedingly dangerous place, but made unavoidable by the circumstances, she dragged onto Toddy Rocks, nearly a mile from shore, northwest of Hull, Massachusetts, and was pounded to fragments, all on board perishing on the spot. No person was found who knew anything more of the circumstances that is told above.”
Albert L. Butler, schooner
- S. Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of …Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1899.. 1900, p. 39:
“Two the of crew and a passenger of the above-named vessel were lost on the 27th of November near the Peaked Hill Bars Station, Cape Cod, where the wreck occurred. The sailors perished as a result of their own rashness and lack of self-possession, when they might certainly have been saved. The passenger, a colored man from Jamaica, West Indies, fell from the rigging while the schooner was plunging shoreward, and was beyond any help either from the vessel or the land.
“The Albert L. Butler, which measured 344 tons, was bound from Jamica to Boston with a full cargo of logwood, and carried a crew of 7 men….”
Alelia G. Ireland and Clara Leavitt, schooners
- S. Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of …Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1899.. 1900, p. 41:
“One life was lost from the schooner Amelia G. Ireland, and six from the schooner Clara Leavitt, both of which were wrecked near Gay Head, Massachusetts, during the storm of November 26 and 27….”
Barge No. 4
- S. Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of …Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1899.. 1900, p. 29:
“At the same place, and about the same time that the Babcock was lost, Coal Barge No. 4, of Baltimore, Maryland, was also destroyed. This vessel was almost brand new, having been built within the year 1898, and measured 920 tons. She struck on Toddy Rocks between 12 and 1 o’clock a.m. November 27, and speedily went to pieces. Of the five persons on board, two – the captain and a sailor – managed to reach the shore alive by clinging to a piece of the deck house. They made their way to a neighboring dwelling, where they received the most hospitable treatment until they, with the occupants of the house, were driven out by the encroachment of the sea, when they were conveyed in a wagon, procured by Keeper James, to the Point Allerton Life-Saving Station and cared for while the bad weather continued….”
Calvin F. Baker, schooner
- S. Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of …Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1899.. 1900, p. 30:
“Three persons were lost from the above-named vessel, which was wrecked on Little Brewster Island, Massachusetts Bay, or Lighthouse Island, as it is designated on the chart, in the morning of November 27, two or three hours before daylight….”
Schooners Jordan L. Mott and Lester A. Lewis
- S. Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of …Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1899.. 1900, p. 36:
“One life was lost from the two-mased schooner Jordan L. Mott and 5 from the three-masted schooner Lester A. Lewis, both of which sunk in Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod, in the early morning of November 27. This harbor is one of the safest on the Atlantic coast in northerly or easterly gales, and has from 3 to 10 fathoms of water with excellent holding ground.
“In anticipation of bad weather, and in order to ride it out in safety, between twenty-five and thirty vessels, large and small, took refuge there during the afternoon and evening of November 26, of which number ten of good size, and several smaller ones, were drive ashore. Some foundered at their anchors, some drifted into shoal water and pounded on the bottom until water-logged and others were driven high and dry on the land, one of the latter, a fish boat, having been found after the storm was over a spot which measured one hundred feet from the high-water mark. Eight or ten wharves were destroyed and twenty buildings were blown down. All the witnesses who testified to the character of the storm, some of them remembering as far back as fifty years, stated that it was the severest they had ever known. At this particular place, which is very well sheltered, as well as at two or three others where wrecks occurred, the chief cause of disaster, and that which most impeded the operations of the life-saving crews, was the terrible wind rather than the sea….”
Fishing schooner Mertis H. Perry
- S. Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of …Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1899.. 1900, p. 33:
“During the forenoon of November 27 the fishing schooner Mertis H. Perry was cast ashore 2 miles north-northwest of the Brant Rock Life-Saving Station, coast of Massachusetts Bay, and five of the fourteen men who composed her crew were lost – two from exposure and three by drowning….”
Pilot boat (schooner) Columbia
- S. Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of …Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1899.. 1900, p.27.
“Amongst all the wrecks along the South Shore [Boston toward Cape Cod region], none is better calculated to suggest the terrors that beset the mariner that night, and the adverse conditions which handicapped the operations of the Life-Saving Service, that that of the pilot boat Columbia, which was destroyed about two and one-half miles south of the North Scituate Station. This vessel was probably as staunch and seaworthy and ably manned as any craft within the whole radius of the storm. She was a schooner of 89 tons, built for the pilot service – famous for the superior character of its boats – designed for the roughest weather, and was only four years old. About a week before the disaster she sailed from Boston with a company of pilots, all of whom had been placed on board inward bound vessels, leaving her in charge of a captain – technically known as the boat keeper – and four men, who were to take her, as usual, back to Boston to await the return of the pilots, when she would sial on another cruise for incoming vessels.
“Where she was when the storm burst upon the coast, nobody knows, for none of her crew survived to tell the harrowing tale of that night’s experience. It is certain, however, from the condition of the wreck that she was compelled to come to anchor, and was wrenched from her moorings by the wind and awful seas. This is proved by the fact that both cables hung from the bows, while the anchors were missing. Nobody testified to having seen her during daylight of the 26th, and it is certain that nobody saw her after nightfall….
“The wreck of the vessel was complete to the last degree, and the cottage which she had demolished was lying upon her [North Scituate Beach]. Her starboard side was split open near the garboard, the planking was torn and chafed where she had hund and ground over the rocks on her frightful way shoreward, and her sternpost was rent in pieces. Her mainmast had been taken clear out of her, her foremast was broken short off, and her two anchor chains hung from the hawse pipes, both anchors gone….”
Steamer Portland
Berman: “Foundered off Peaked Hill Bars, Provincetown, Mass. Passenger vessel. Wood vessel. 157 lives lost…Nov 26, 1898. (Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, 76.)
Coleman: “More than nine decades later, the wreckage of the Portland was believed to have been found at the bottom of Stellwagen Bank 17 miles north of Provincetown. In the summer of 2002, researchers using sonar and remotely-operated vehicles confirmed the wreckage to be that of the Portland, for which the gale of 1898 was named.” (Coleman 2007)
NOAA, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. “Passenger and Crew Lost with the Steamship Portland.”
“When the steamship Portland sank on November 27, 1898, all onboard perished. Unfortunately, the exact magnitude of the human loss cannot be determined as the only passenger list went down with the steamship. Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary staff and research partners are attempting to discern the true dimensions of the disaster through historical and archaeological studies.
“The following information is based upon various Maine and Massachusetts newspapers, documents in historical societies and maritime museums around New England, court papers held by the National Archives Northeast Region in Waltham, MA, and the book Four Short Blasts: The Gale of 1898 and the Loss of the Steamer Portland by Peter Dow Bachelder and Mason Philip Smith.
“Crew – 63 in number with 16 bodies recovered [alphabetical list is provided].
“Passengers – 130 in number with 355 bodies recovered [alphabetical list is provided].
Snow: “….The paddle-wheel steamer, built at Bath, Maine, in 1890, was 291 feet long and of forty-two foot beam. Since this trip took place the Saturday after Thanksgiving, there were more passengers than usual who wished to made the return journey to Portland that night. Many were returning to Maine from Philadelphia, New York, and points south after spending the holiday with their families.
“That November morning the weather was pleasantly fair, with a light breeze. As the day wore on, however, the clouds above Boston grew heavier, the first signs of a growing condition of grave danger. A tremendous cyclone from the Gulf of Mexico was about to join forces with a storm of only slightly lesser proportions roaring across from the Great Lakes.
“Meanwhile, the loading of the steamer’s freight continued at India Wharf in Boston. Passengers who had made reservations for the trip began to come aboard. Some of them later cancelled their accommodations, but the majority, more than one hundred persons, sailed with the ship. With passengers and crew, there were 176 people aboard the Portland by sailing time….” (Snow, Edward R. Strange Tales from Nova Scotia to Cape Hatteras. 1949, pp. 167-180.)
Snow: “….Together with the crew, there were 176 persons (108 passengers and 68 crew members) aboard the Portland by sailing time. The general manager of the Portland Steam Packet Company, John F. Liscomb, on receiving warning of the approaching storm from New York, tried to communicate by phone from Portland with the steamer’s captain, Hollis H. Blanchard. Failing in this, he left word that the Portland’s companion ship, the newer Bay State, would not leave Portland until 9:00, when the size of the storm could be better gauged. When he returned at 5:30, Blanchard talked over the phone to the Bay State’s captain, Alexander Dennison….
“Captain Dennison told Blanchard of manager Liscomb’s suggestion to hold the Portland until 9:00. Captain Blanchard replied that the Portland would sail on schedule at 7:00, giving as his reason the direction of the storm, which he predicted would not reach the city of Portland until after the steamer had safely docked. Dennison, said Blanchard, would be proceeding southward, and would run into the storm before he reached Boston….” (Snow. Storms and Shipwrecks of New England. 1943, pp. 256-257.)
US SIS: “The steamer Portland, a staunch, well-build, modern steamer, well equipped with all the life-saving equipments required by law, lifeboats, life rafts, and life-preservers, left Boston in charge of a most competent commander and other officers and crew at 7 p.m.…with only a moderate wind blowing, but snowing, but was evidently overtaken by the hurricane between two and three hours after she left port, somewhere in the neighborhood of Cape Ann; and the opinion is that in trying to turn around to return to port she became unmanageable in the trough of the sea, probably by the parting of her rudder chains, in which condition, in the tremendous gale then blowing and heavy seas running, her destruction with the loss of all on board was inevitable. The bodies of a number of people from the wreck came ashore at Cape Cod, having on their bodies life-preservers, which evidently had buoyed them up until washed ashore by the breakers.” (U.S. Steamboat Inspection Service. Annual Report 1899, pp. 8-9)
“The number of persons on board [60 passengers and 67 crew] is taken from the report of the manager made to this office, and is stated by him to be as near as he can arrive at the facts.” (U.S. Steamboat Inspection Service. Annual Report 1899, p. 41.)
Writer’s Program: “Outside the harbor [Boston] this same night occurred one of the most horrible sea tragedies in New England history. At exactly 7 o’clock Saturday evening the handsome side-wheel steamer Portland sailed for Maine under command of Captain Hollis Blanchard, with 108 passengers and a crew of 68. In service for only 8 years, she was equipped with adequate lifesaving devices, including 758 life preservers, 8 metallic lifeboats and 4 metallic life rafts.
“Snow was softly blanketing the water as the Portland sailed out of the island-dotted harbor and turned northward to fight her way into a raging blizzard. At 9:30 p.m. she was seen by a schooner about 4 miles off Thatcher Island, making little headway. The increasing wind apparently kept driving the Portland offshore, for when next sighted, by the captain of the schooner Grayling at 1 o’clock, she was 12 miles south by east of the island but still headed into the wind. Shortly after that another schooner passed her. At 11:45 p.m. a large paddle-wheel steamer, believed to be the Portland, was sighted by a fourth schooner. This time the effect of the gale was evident. Lights were out and the superstructure showed signs of damage.
“Exactly what happened aboard the Portland is not known. The engines may have failed or the force of the gale been greater than their power. Whatever the reason, she was pushed across the 40-mile wide mouth of Massachusetts Bay to a position off Cape Cod. The keeper of the Race Point Lifesaving Station heard 4 distress signals on a steamer’s whistle at two o’clock Sunday morning and at about the same time the crew of the schooner Ruth M. Martin sighted the Portland and another steamer, the Pentagost, about 4 miles off Peaked Hill Bar. The first wreckage drifted to land at 7 o’clock Sunday night at Race Point. Bodies began coming ashore all along the Cape from Highland Light to Chatham, and during the course of the next 2 weeks 35 bodies were recovered. The steamer undoubtedly sank off the tip of the Cape, but no one lived to tell the tale.” (Workers of the Writers’ Program. Boston Looks Seaward. 1941, 153-154.)
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Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. Boston: Mariners Press Inc., 1972.
Boston Globe. “Vessels Aground or Thrown on the Beach.” 11-28-1898, p. 1. Accessed 7-14-2020: https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=39603198&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjQzMDgxMDAwOCwiaWF0IjoxNTk0NzY5NDc1LCJleHAiOjE1OTQ4NTU4NzV9.0lk45npsubmsXEshGlu5MtaDR5sRqR8TjZBXbRpEckc
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Hervé, Levano. “History,” 5-9-2013. H. C. Higginson (+1898). Wrecksite.eu. Accessed 7-14-2020 at: https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?201153
History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, November 26, 1898. “Winter Storm Paralyzes Southern New England.” Accessed 11/25/2008 at: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&displayDate=11/26&categoryId=disaster
Horrigan, John. “The Portland Gale.” Lecture and Slide Show. Accessed 8-25-2011 at: http://www.historylecture.org/portland.html
Ingo, Siert. “History,” 2-19-2012. SV Henry R. Tilton (+1898). Wrecksite.eu. Accessed 7-14-2020 at: https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?172730
Lettens, Jan. “History.” SV Lunet (+1898). Wrecksite.eu, 6-30-2014. Accessed 7-14-2020 at: https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?220355
Lettens, Jan. “History.” SV Narcissus (+1898). Wrecksite.eu. 5-2-2017. Accessed 7-14-2020 at: https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?35733
Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours – A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters from Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Pocket Books, Wallaby, 1977, 792 pages.
New York Journal, NYC. “117 Souls Go Down in the Wrecked Portland…” 11-30-1898, p. 1. Accessed 7-14-2020 at: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030180/1898-11-30/ed-1/?sp=1&st=text&r=0.352,0.039,0.626,0.501,0
New York Journal, NYC. “Fateful Record of New England’s Coast.” 11-30-1898, p. 2. Accessed 7-14-2020 at: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030180/1898-11-30/ed-1/?sp=2&st=text&r=-0.08,0.312,0.404,0.323,0
New York Journal, NYC. “Many Wrecks on North Shore.” 11-30-1898, p. 1. Accessed 7-14-2020 at: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030180/1898-11-30/ed-1/?sp=1&st=text&r=0.352,0.039,0.626,0.501,0
New York Journal, NYC. “Victims of the Storm Outside Portland’s Loss.” 11-30-1898, p. 2. Accessed 7-14-2020 at: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030180/1898-11-30/ed-1/?sp=2&st=text&r=-0.08,0.312,0.404,0.323,0
NOAA, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. “Passenger and Crew Lost with the Steamship Portland.” Website accessed 9-8-2024 at: https://stellwagen.noaa.gov/maritime/portland-list.html
Snow, Edward Rowe. Storms and Shipwrecks of New England. Boston: Yankee Pub. Co., 1943.
Snow, Edward R. Strange Tales from Nova Scotia to Cape Hatteras. NY: Dodd, Mead, 1949.
Stewardson. “Remembering the Portland Gale.” SouthCoastToday.com. 11-29-1998. Accessed 7-14-2020 at: https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/19981129/news/311299992
Tony, Allen. “History.” FV F/ R. Walker (+1898). Wrecksite.eu. 2-21-2014. Accessed 7-14-2020 at: https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?214642
United States Commissioner of Navigation. Thirty-First Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States…For the Year Ended June 30, 1899. Washington: Government Printing Office 1899. Accessed 7-14-2020 at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044050659754&view=1up&seq=7&size=125
United States Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of the United States Life-Saving Service for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1899. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1900. Accessed 9-7-2024 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=LYBKAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
United States Steamboat-Inspection Service. Annual Report of the Supervising Inspector General, Steamboat-Inspection Service for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1899, 323 pages. Digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=4IspAAAAYAAJ
Vineyard Gazette. “Hurricanes and Storms — The Storm: Destruction by Land and Sea. “ 10-18-1878. Accessed 9-8-2024 at: https://vineyardgazette.com/news/1878/10/18/storm-destruction-land-and-sea
Wikipedia. “Portland Gale.” 5-26-2020. Accessed 7-14-2020 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Gale
Workers of the Writers’ Program (Work Projects Administration in the State of Massachusetts). Boston Looks Seaward – The Story of the Port: 1630-1940. Boston, MA: Bruce Humphries, Inc., for Boston Port Authority, 1941. Accessed at: https://archive.org/details/bostonlooksseawa00writrich
Zielinski, Gregory A. and Barry D. Keim. New England Weather, New England Climate. UPNE, 2005. Google preview accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=k-ASosvSGW8C&pg=PA178&lpg=PA178&dq=Nor+easter+1898&source=web&ots=HfO09lIKod&sig=DRnOLUQOuFrHtGy7bSplSLMUTG4&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result
Additional Reference
Conway, J. North. The Wreck of the Portland: A Domed Ship, A Violent Storm, and New England’s Worst Maritime Disaster. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., 2019. Google preview accessed 7-14-2020 at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Wreck_of_the_Portland/-3umDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=portland+gale+1898&pg=PA188&printsec=frontcover
[1] If this Steamboat Inspection Service report of 404 fatalities for all districts for the year is correct, then there scarcely could have been 400-500 maritime deaths attributed to this gale.
[2] “The number of persons on board is taken from the report of the manager made to this office, and is stated by him to be as near as he can arrive at the facts.” (p. 41.)
[3] U.S. Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of…Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1899, 1900, p. 29.
[4] New York Journal, NYC. “Victims of the Storm Outside Portland’s Loss.” 11-30-1898, p. 2.
[5] Snow does not indicate how many were on the Snow, only that all were lost. We place at least 3 as a placeholder.
[6] Also, U.S. Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of…Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1899, 1900, p. 39.
[7] New York Journal, NYC. “Fateful Record of New England’s Coast.” 11-30-1898, p. 2.
[8] U.S. Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of…Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1899, 1900, p. 29.
[9] New York Journal, NYC. “Fateful Record of New England’s Coast.” 11-30-1898, p. 2. Victims identified as Captain Thurston, his father, William Thurston, and his son, John Thurston. (New York Journal, NYC. “Victims of the Storm Outside Portland’s Loss.” 11-30-1898, p. 2.)
[10] Identified as Willis H. Studley, the steward, and Burgess S. Howland, the mate, and second mate McVeigh. (New York Journal, NYC. “Victims of the Storm Outside Portland’s Loss.” 11-30-1898, p. 2.)
[11] Vineyard Gazette. “Hurricanes and Storms — The Storm: Destruction by Land and Sea. “ 10-18-1878.
[12] Also: New York Journal, NYC. “Fateful Record of New England’s Coast.” 11-30-1898, p. 2; and US LSS. P. 27.
[13] Avec43. “History.” SV Edgar S. Foster (+1898). Wrecksite.eu. 4-19-2017.
[14] Vineyard Gazette. “Hurricanes and Storms — The Storm: Destruction by Land and Sea. “ 10-18-1878.
[15] Tony, Allen. “History.” FV F/ R. Walker (+1898). Wrecksite.eu. 2-21-2014.
[16] Boston Globe. “Vessels Aground or Thrown on the Beach.” 11-28-1898, p. 1.
[17] New York Journal, NYC. “Victims of the Storm Outside Portland’s Loss.” 11-30-1898, p. 2.
[18] Hervé, Levano. “History,” 5-9-2013. H. C. Higginson (+1898). Wrecksite.eu.
[19] New York Journal, NYC. “Victims of the Storm Outside Portland’s Loss.” 11-30-1898, p. 2.
[20] U.S. Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of…Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1899, 1900, p. 36.
[21] Does not indicate how many were on the King Philip, only that all were lost. We place at least 3 as a placeholder.
[22] By not noted, we mean we do not know location of “Toddy’s Rock.” New York Journal, NYC. “Fateful Record of New England’s Coast.” 11-30-1898, p. 2
[23] U.S. Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of…Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1899, 1900, p. 36.
[24] New York Journal, NYC. “Victims of the Storm Outside Portland’s Loss.” 11-30-1898, p. 2.
[25] Lettens, Jan. “History.” SV Lunet (+1898). Wrecksite.eu, 6-30-2014.
[26] Also: New York Journal, NYC. “Fateful Record of New England’s Coast.” 11-30-1898, p. 2; and Life-Saving Svc.
[27] Lettens, Jan. “History.” SV Narcissus (+1898). 5-2-2017. Wrecksite.eu. sites Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.
[28] New York Journal, NYC. “Victims of the Storm Outside Portland’s Loss.” 11-30-1898, p. 2.
[29] New York Journal, NYC. “Fateful Record of New England’s Coast.” 11-30-1898, p. 2.
[30] New York Journal, NYC. “Fateful Record of New England’s Coast.” 11-30-1898, p. 2.
[31] New York Journal, NYC. “Victims of the Storm Outside Portland’s Loss.” 11-30-1898, p. 2.
[32] “A cabin or small house in the country for use in the shooting season. (Merriam-Webster.com.)
[33] New York Journal, NYC. “Victims of the Storm Outside Portland’s Loss.” 11-30-1898, p. 2.
[34] New York Journal, NYC. “Victims of the Storm Outside Portland’s Loss.” 11-30-1898, p. 2.
[35] New York Journal, NYC. “Victims of the Storm Outside Portland’s Loss.” 11-30-1898, p. 2.
[36] Body of crewman found in cabin; rest of crew missing. New York Journal, NYC. “Many Wrecks on North Shore.” 11-30-1898, p. 1.
[37] Lost was Captain S. F. Weeks, of Five Islands, ME, and his crew, of unstated number. For the purpose of contributing to a tally we assume two or more crewmembers, and thus show the number 3. (New York Journal, NYC. “Victims of the Storm Outside Portland’s Loss.” 11-30-1898, p. 2.)
[38] New York Journal, NYC. “Victims of the Storm Outside Portland’s Loss.” 11-30-1898, p. 2. Article notes that the Captain and the crew were lost. For the purpose of contributing to a tally we assume at least two crewmembers.
[39] New York Journal, NYC. “Victims of the Storm Outside Portland’s Loss.” 11-30-1898, p. 2.