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.

Headlines from the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald report the tragic sinking of the Portland with all hands.

Crew

63 in number with 16 bodies recovered

Passengers

130 in number with 35 bodies recovered

Additional 52 Names of Passengers Possibly Onboard

* Passengers or crew whose body was reported as washed ashore on Cape Cod. Newspapers often reported conflicting information about the identity of a body. Ultimately, some bodies could not be identified.

The above information is a compilation of all names associated with having been aboard the Portland on its last voyage. An attempt has been made to eliminate individuals who were initially reported as lost with the steamship, but were subsequently reported as not having been aboard. These lists are a work in progress and should not be considered exhaustive nor error free. It is the sanctuary's hope that persons having information about an ancestor listed above would contact the sanctuary so that the information may be refined. As research progresses along this track, information about individual people will be added. Please visit this webpage periodically to learn more about our ancestors and the nation's maritime heritage.