The Portland daily press., 1899-03-29


travis in Massachusetts bay, yesterday,
the crew of fishing schooner Maud :.
brought to the surface quantity of
steamer FURNISHINGS, which it is believed
will definitely determine the location OF
the hull of the ill-fated steamer Portland,
after four months of conjecture.
The wreckage consists of two electric
light brackets, "A mattress, some minor
cabin furnishings, a heaving line and
garter, and the point in the bay is given
by Captain Thomas as % 1-2 miles east
one .naif north from Boston light, seven
teen miles south, southeast of Cape Ann
and twenty-four miles north, three
quarters west from Highland Light, the
depth of the water being between fifty
and 81 xty fathoms.
Only a few weeks ago another fisher
man, at very nearly tho same place,
drought up some washbowl fittings, but
these could not be positively identified.
The articles just found, when brought
ashors today were positively identified ty
Agent c. +. Williams sof. the Portland
line as being part of the furnishings in
one of the cabins of the steamer, while
the finding of the garter leads to the be-
lief that thsrs ara bodies in the wreck.
OF tn. two hundred human beings,
more or less, who went down with the
stea mer in the gale of November 26.27,
the remains of less than thirty were re-
covtrsd along the shore of Cape Cod, over
tnirty miles away. 1t is possible, there
fore, in view f..the very plausible theory
that a greater portion of the hull is still
intact, that many of the bodies ara in the
wreck. and with careful graphing may
be recovered.
| 1t will be impossible, however, owing
! to the great depth of the water TO uss
divers in exploring the hull, and grap-
Ming irons must be used in bringing TO
| light any additional portions of the yes
| sci.
| The steamboat. psople, while pleased
that the location of the steamer has at
lens tn, possibly been determined, will
| take no further action in the matter,
leaving it TO the owner of the vessel, MIR.
John + Burke Of New Yorke from whom
| the bo,t was chartered A number of
propositions have already been submitted
! to Mr. Burke for the raising of the steam
er, and there is possibility that he may
| now see I'll to accept them. Ihess pro-
| portions are, however, bassd on the theory
that very little of the vessel was washed
away before she sank and that with heavy
chains under her, she may be raistd, and,
perhaps, be mads serviceable.
| In the course OF an interview tonight,
Captain William Thomas of the schooner
| Maud s. described how his crew hooked
up the Portland wreokage. He said the
| travis had been set about six hundred
feet apart, ON line running north and
south. They covered range OF 240p feet
| or SO and when each was pulled into "a
dory some portion of the wreckage came
| with it.
| W. A. Heating, in one of the dories,
found that he had an excessively heavy
| weight on his lines. and succeeded in
| bringing to the surface what he thought
| to be a part OF the pilot house of some
vessel. 1t was too heavy for him to get
| into his dory and SO he broke of Part
| of an electric light ixturs which was at
| tached to it, and let the balance sink
| back to the bottom. Bernard Stewart.
Louis c. Doughty and Aleck Daigle wers
the fishermen in other dories and they
found attached to their lines a spring bed
| frame, another electric light bracket, II
| tan pound sounding lead and about
twenty fathoms of line, and portions or
female wearing apparel.
AT the office Of the Portland line,
Steward Harris OF the steamer Bay State
identified the articles He said the bed
was in the ladies cabin and poiu ted out
some repairs that had been made to 1t.
Captain Dennison of the steamer Bay
State and Quartermaster Burnet also
aided in the MITIGATION.
Agent Williams gives his opinion that
the steamer was in collision with the
schooner King Philip, while the former
was irving 60 weather the storm. When
asked IL the company would send tug
to locate the wreck, Mr. Williams said:
"Oh no, she is in over sixty fathoma of
dspth. The chances ara that she Is all in
pieces 1t is a strange thing how she was
wrecked in the vicinity of Stillwagon
bank. am willing to do everything in
my power to locate the wreck, want
the facts given the widest publication.
MAUD S. LAST SAW PORTLAND.
Boston, March 2s. 1t is pointed out as
n singular coincidence that the schooner
Maud s., which now brings in positive