The Portland daily press., 1899-03-31
THE MYSTERY OF THE poRTLANI

In Boston, wedre day, Agent Will
liams OF the Portland and Boston steam
boat line said:
"I do not know as am thoroughly sat
isned that the Portland went down Oh
Stellwagen's bank. Evon in view OF the
articles brought in, which men from the
Bay State say positively came from the
Portland, it Is difficult for me to abandon
my theory that shc sunk somewhere of
Cape Cod The steward says that the
frame of the berth picked up by the Maud
5. came from the lsdiss' cabin, and from
what he says about the cross pieces, l
have no doubt that 1t belonged to the
Portland. The electric fixtures also are
identified by steward harris OF the Say
State
"Ihe finding OF these articles in my
opinion, deepeDs the nv stery, instead OF
solving 1t. Befors this the general opin-
ion was that 1.-THE Portland went down
near the Cape. Now you can bring
material to support an argument that she
is there and also that she lies on Stell-
wagons bank. l am CONVINCED that the
Portland's bull is badly broken up, for it
must have been If she was In collision
with some vessel, as now believe To have
been her misfortune.
One of the Boston pilots. Captain Fair
| field of the Varuna, spent thirty hours n
| the great storm of last November with
two other pilots on the Varons. Capt Tins
Mcmillan andspeterson. .7Ca ptain Fair.
neia stated that he thought the / ortland
never got near Cape Goa.
When asked for the reasons which
prompted him, at the time of the disaster,
to inoiint to the belief that the boat was
lost near the hanks, he said he thought
tnat Captain blanchard undertook TO get
TO Cape hlizatetn, after eoiog by
Thatcher's island. ,Of course" he con.
tinued, ait wns clear then but he weather
began 10 look nasty and there WAS quite
little sea on. but he attempted TO make
his trip, when the snow and wind came
on halfway to Cape Elizabeth. he could
not run for Cape Ann then, because he
would be- running for n lot of rocks. SO
be haul, d off ana the boat began to drift
to leewaid. lie could not 90 to the east
or the southeast lie could 20 almo't
west southw, st before the wind, but that
would fetch him down on the banks.
When the heavy top-hamper got broken
the steamer began to I'LL and break up,
and down she went.
.'NIy idea" said Captain Fairfield, "is
that it was blowing hurricane before
the barometer got down low, and be
thought be could reach Cape Elizabeth
tefore ii got too heavy and thus get into
L, rtlaI d. but he was deceived. 1t looked
bad enough for any man TO get lnto
Glouce ster. | don't like to critieiss man
and no better man ever left the port OF
Boston than Captain Blanchad-but he
oup hit never to have gone by gloucester
that evening he was fooled some show
| by his arJinetsr. 1t must have got so
| nd that he besan to drag her-kept
her to-dropped an anchor with lot of
chain tn ii and kept her to the wind But
there was 50 much top-hamper that she
went down lie wouli not try to run for
! Cape Cod because there was SO much sea
that she would II over. The boat may
have und r,d farther to the eastward OF
here she has ueen found. and fetched up
there finally ON the bottom. There may
have been a collision, but she would not
have lived anyway.