Divers reach steamship that sank off US in 1898
Thursday, October 9, 2008 at 4:10 am
Five Massachusetts men became the first divers to reach the wreck of a 19th-century steamship that sank in one of the most destructive storms in New England history, and say they saw an array of artifacts like dishes and mugs but no human remains.
The Portland, known as the “Titanic of New England,” sank off the Massachusetts coast November 26, 1898, after it sailed from Boston, taking more than 190 people with it.
The recreational divers spoke this week for the first time about their three successful dives in August and September.
David Faye, one of the divers, said wreckage of the Portland was littered with artifacts like plates, dishes and mugs, wash basins and toilets — and even a few medicine bottles etched with the name of an apothecary in Maine.
“I immediately thought of these people — how horrible it must’ve been,” said Faye, a lawyer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “They had no communication with shore. They had no idea where they were. The storm was pushing them out to sea.”
An image from team leader Bob Foster’s camera depicts a starfish clinging to a mug. Another shows toppled stacks of sandy plates and dishes.
The divers found no human remains. If there are any human remains, they were likely below decks, which the divers didn’t explore because of the danger, they said.
Reaching the ship tested the divers’ limits and their equipment because the wreckage rests so far below the surface. Their dives — 460 feet below ocean surface — were so deep that some of the underwater lights imploded with a boom, Faye said. The divers could only spend 10 to 15 minutes exploring the wreckage site before returning to the surface.
The wreck was first located in 1989 by underwater explorers Arnold Carr and John Fish, but they couldn’t prove it was the Portland.
(Agencies)
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