Alan D. Hyde
07-08-2005, 12:43 PM
http://www.sailnet.com/images/content/authors/rousmaniere/101402_jr_steaming.jpg
Courtesy of www.barnstablepatriot.com (http://www.barnstablepatriot.com) ---
November 26, 1898 began peacefully enough, in no way suggesting the doom that was to come over the hours and days to follow. During the course of the day the seas began to grow with an increasing north wind. Around mid-afternoon, New York was reporting heavy snows and heavy winds. By nightfall, prudent sea captains were heading their vessels toward safe harbor. Meanwhile, at Boston's India Wharf, some 175 Thanksgiving passengers had boarded the 290-foot paddle-wheel steamer Portland for an overnight 100-mile sojourn home after the holidays. By morning, they imagined, they would be docking at the vessel's namesake Maine city. At 7 p.m. the Portland left India Wharf. Little did she know of the fate which awaited her.
The storm which would become the "Portland Gale" is believed to have been two storms which collided over southeastern New England. One storm was coming from the south. The captain and owners of the Portland were well aware of this storm and, it is assumed, decided their vessel could outrun it on her way north to her home port. This thinking is confirmed by the fact that the Bay State, the Portland's sister ship which was scheduled to make the trip south from Portland to Boston at the same time that the Portland was heading north, remained safely at her Portland, Maine berth rather than heading south into the storm. The Portland Steam Packet Company, though, was not aware of a second storm carrying hurricane force winds racing southeast from the Great Lakes.
Twenty minutes before eight that evening snow began to fall. Between 9:30 and 11 p.m., it is believed, the two storms combined to become one. The snows 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 mile 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 storm of such magnitude.
By daybreak a foot of snow was on the ground and the storm continued unabated. 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 for their lives throughout the long night and the relentless 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!
With the telegraph lines down, the country learned of the disaster which was washing up along the Cape Cod coastline via France. News was cabled across the Atlantic where it was relayed back to New York via Ireland and Newfoundland. The full weight of the tragedy began to settle in with each piece of twisted wreckage and with each bloated body found along the lower Cape from Provincetown to Chatham. The list of vessels lost or presumed lost seemed without end: Lester A. Lewis, King Philip, F.A. Walker, Albert A. Butler, Addie E. Snow, Jordan L. Mott, James B. Paceand, of course, the Portland.
Meanwhile, on land the damage was without precedent. Ice-laden trees were uprooted all over the Cape, numerous homes and buildings were damaged, streets were flooded. Normal life ground to a halt as Cape Codders dug out and then began to piece their homes and businesses back together.
The storm would be named for its biggest prize*the Portland. Cape Codders would talk of the "Portland Gale" for decades to come, comparing every storm which followed to the "hundred year storm" of 1898. Even today, a century later, her memory and the memory of those souls lost to her fury command our respect.
http://www.sailnet.com/images/content/authors/rousmaniere/101402_jr_sidescan.jpgThe hulk of the steamship Portland was finally identified in this recent NOAA sonar image, taken almost 104 years after she sank near Cape Cod.
Courtesy of www.sailnet.com (http://www.sailnet.com) ---
As a vessel, the Portland was totally unsuited for the storm. Wide, shallow, and top-heavy (the ship’s bell, way aloft, weighed more than 500 pounds), she had been built to run rivers, not survive storms at sea. What another captain said of his side-wheeler applied to the whole breed: “She is only fit for smooth water.” Yet Captain Blanchard kept this immense pumpkin-seed-shaped ship not only afloat, but twice that night—in acts of astonishing seamanship — he succeeded in turning her around, passing through the trough of the sea without breaking waves’ getting under the sidewheels and lifting off the deck.
The nor'easter pressed the Portland down from her intended route (from Boston around Cape Ann to Portland, Maine) almost onto Cape Cod. Captain Blanchard, with remarkable seamanship, succeeded in turning her around twice before she finally foundered near the "X."
http://www.sailnet.com/images/content/authors/rousmaniere/101402_jr_map.gif
Blanchard’s seamanship and luck ran out on Sunday morning at about 9:30 (we know the time because watches on the bodies of victims were stopped at around that moment). That was soon after the storm’s eye passed over Cape Cod. The wind briefly died, then backed into the northwest at its old velocity. The confusion of the sea can only be imagined. I believe (and the recent discovery proves) that one or more rogue waves broadsided her and ripped her deck right off before she filled and sank.
***
Alan
[ 07-08-2005, 05:43 PM: Message edited by: Alan D. Hyde ]
Courtesy of www.barnstablepatriot.com (http://www.barnstablepatriot.com) ---
November 26, 1898 began peacefully enough, in no way suggesting the doom that was to come over the hours and days to follow. During the course of the day the seas began to grow with an increasing north wind. Around mid-afternoon, New York was reporting heavy snows and heavy winds. By nightfall, prudent sea captains were heading their vessels toward safe harbor. Meanwhile, at Boston's India Wharf, some 175 Thanksgiving passengers had boarded the 290-foot paddle-wheel steamer Portland for an overnight 100-mile sojourn home after the holidays. By morning, they imagined, they would be docking at the vessel's namesake Maine city. At 7 p.m. the Portland left India Wharf. Little did she know of the fate which awaited her.
The storm which would become the "Portland Gale" is believed to have been two storms which collided over southeastern New England. One storm was coming from the south. The captain and owners of the Portland were well aware of this storm and, it is assumed, decided their vessel could outrun it on her way north to her home port. This thinking is confirmed by the fact that the Bay State, the Portland's sister ship which was scheduled to make the trip south from Portland to Boston at the same time that the Portland was heading north, remained safely at her Portland, Maine berth rather than heading south into the storm. The Portland Steam Packet Company, though, was not aware of a second storm carrying hurricane force winds racing southeast from the Great Lakes.
Twenty minutes before eight that evening snow began to fall. Between 9:30 and 11 p.m., it is believed, the two storms combined to become one. The snows 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 mile 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 storm of such magnitude.
By daybreak a foot of snow was on the ground and the storm continued unabated. 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 for their lives throughout the long night and the relentless 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!
With the telegraph lines down, the country learned of the disaster which was washing up along the Cape Cod coastline via France. News was cabled across the Atlantic where it was relayed back to New York via Ireland and Newfoundland. The full weight of the tragedy began to settle in with each piece of twisted wreckage and with each bloated body found along the lower Cape from Provincetown to Chatham. The list of vessels lost or presumed lost seemed without end: Lester A. Lewis, King Philip, F.A. Walker, Albert A. Butler, Addie E. Snow, Jordan L. Mott, James B. Paceand, of course, the Portland.
Meanwhile, on land the damage was without precedent. Ice-laden trees were uprooted all over the Cape, numerous homes and buildings were damaged, streets were flooded. Normal life ground to a halt as Cape Codders dug out and then began to piece their homes and businesses back together.
The storm would be named for its biggest prize*the Portland. Cape Codders would talk of the "Portland Gale" for decades to come, comparing every storm which followed to the "hundred year storm" of 1898. Even today, a century later, her memory and the memory of those souls lost to her fury command our respect.
http://www.sailnet.com/images/content/authors/rousmaniere/101402_jr_sidescan.jpgThe hulk of the steamship Portland was finally identified in this recent NOAA sonar image, taken almost 104 years after she sank near Cape Cod.
Courtesy of www.sailnet.com (http://www.sailnet.com) ---
As a vessel, the Portland was totally unsuited for the storm. Wide, shallow, and top-heavy (the ship’s bell, way aloft, weighed more than 500 pounds), she had been built to run rivers, not survive storms at sea. What another captain said of his side-wheeler applied to the whole breed: “She is only fit for smooth water.” Yet Captain Blanchard kept this immense pumpkin-seed-shaped ship not only afloat, but twice that night—in acts of astonishing seamanship — he succeeded in turning her around, passing through the trough of the sea without breaking waves’ getting under the sidewheels and lifting off the deck.
The nor'easter pressed the Portland down from her intended route (from Boston around Cape Ann to Portland, Maine) almost onto Cape Cod. Captain Blanchard, with remarkable seamanship, succeeded in turning her around twice before she finally foundered near the "X."
http://www.sailnet.com/images/content/authors/rousmaniere/101402_jr_map.gif
Blanchard’s seamanship and luck ran out on Sunday morning at about 9:30 (we know the time because watches on the bodies of victims were stopped at around that moment). That was soon after the storm’s eye passed over Cape Cod. The wind briefly died, then backed into the northwest at its old velocity. The confusion of the sea can only be imagined. I believe (and the recent discovery proves) that one or more rogue waves broadsided her and ripped her deck right off before she filled and sank.
***
Alan
[ 07-08-2005, 05:43 PM: Message edited by: Alan D. Hyde ]