Launched in 1889, the Portland was one of the most palatial coastal steamships afloat as it traveled between Portland, Maine and Boston with the Portland Steam Packet Company. The Maine- built 290 foot long wooden-hulled side paddle wheel steamship transported passengers and freight with a relatively uneventful record until its loss with all hands in November 1898.

At 7pm on 26 November 1898, the Portland left Boston Harbor bound for Portland, Maine with Captain Hollis Blanchard at the helm and approximately 192 passengers and crew. As the steamer progressed northward, a storm developing south of Cape Cod quickly moved into Massachusetts Bay until local weather stations registered wind gusts near 90 miles per hour. Ferocious winds, waves, and driving snow persisted through the evening and into the following day. Hundreds of vessels were wrecked along the Eastern seaboard as a result of the storm, later named the Portland Gale.

The Portland was last seen on the 26th off Cape Ann fighting the waves. Late in the day on the 27th, debris from the Portland as well as the bodies of its passengers and crew started washing up on the outer Cape Cod beaches.

Boston Herald headline
on 2 December 1898