Divers Reach the Portland for the First Time

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chs4

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Location
Dracut, MA
# of dives
None - Not Certified
I did a search and didn't see this covered already, so my apologies in advance if I missed it.

Thought this might be of interest to the folks here:

The wreck of the steamship Portland off the coast of Cape Ann was one of the worst shipwrecks in the history of New England. Sailing into a “perfect storm” now known as the Portland Gale in November 1898, almost 200 people, including a senator from Maine, lost their lives returning home from a Thanksgiving holiday.

Little of the wreckage was ever recovered. Few victims ever turned up on shore. Even the exact location of the disaster remained a mystery for a century, until researchers discovered her in the summer of 2002.

The wreckage lies about 15 miles east of Cape Ann, and at 460 feet is about the limit that unprotected human divers can reach. Five Massachusetts men recently reached the Portland for the first time since she sank more than a century ago.

Even though the disaster was enough to rip the upper decks off the ship, many fragile class and porcelain items were found intact, including stacks of delicate china plates.

You can read more about the divers in the Boston Globe at Divers shed light on wreck of Portland - The Boston Globe.

A slideshow is also available at Divers shed light on shipwreck of luxury liner - Boston.com.

You can also read more about the wreck, and view a computer-animated video of what scientists believe happened to the ship, on the Science Channel at The Science Channel :: Wreck of the Portland.
SOURCE: New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) eNews Vol. 10, No. 41, Whole #395, October 8, 2008
 
Thanks for the posting. I read about the expedition on The Deco Stop but didn't think to post it here. Tremendous achievement for the folks involved and reflects a level of committment that few are willing to make but is absolutely essential to safely perform such feats.
Jim
 
I did a search and didn't see this covered already, so my apologies in advance if I missed it.

Thought this might be of interest to the folks here:

SOURCE: New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) eNews Vol. 10, No. 41, Whole #395, October 8, 2008

It's pretty humbling to know that their practice dives leading up to the Portland expedition were sub 350', and many on OC. A friend of a friend was a part of the surface crew for the Palmer/Crary 'training' dives. Very impressive story! On going dive reports and pics can be found here: Shipwrecks, New England, technical diving, Massachusetts Bay
 
Awesome! Don Morse was my OW instructor (and a good one at that). He's a very experienced diver and I've always been impressed by his diving resume!
 
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