Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1898 — ENGULFED BY THE SEA. [ARTICLE]

ENGULFED BY THE SEA.

Passenger Steamer Portland Is Loat with All an Hoard. The steamer Portland of the Boston and Portland Steamship Company, plying between Boston and Portland, was wrecked at 10 o'clock Sunday morning off Highland fight, and the entire crew and passengers, fifty-seven persons, perished within a short distance of land. A large quantity of wreckage, including trunks, was washed ashore, and at dark Mondaynight thirty-four bodies had been recovered from the surf by the life-saving crew at High Head station. One body was that of a woman. The vessel had a miscellaneous cargo aboard, valued at about $25,000. From reports that have come from New England points it is difficult to estimate the total loss of life and damage to shipping nlong the coast as the result of the recent storm. The list of disasters seems to grow, and from dispatches received it appears that at least fbirty schooners have been wrecked at different points from Eastport, Me., to New Haven, Conn., eighty-six schooners have been driven ashore and fourteen barges, loaded or empty, are aground. In Boston harbor alone over forty lives and thirteen vessels were lost. Twenty-four craft went r.gronnd and fifteen were sent adrift or damaged by fouling. The loss to shipping was at least $500,000. The damage to railroad and telegraph companies in Boston City will foot up another $500,000, Shipping seems to be favored most on the Massachusetts coast. Near Cape Cod —that graveyard of many a ship and sailor—twelve vessels were lost. Life-sav-ers were vigilant and only five lives were lost. At Salem nine vessels were lost and twelve damaged. Three men went to watery graves. At Gloucester thirty vessels went ashore and were sunk. At Quincy four vessels were wrecked. At Vineyard Haven, twenty-two vessels went ashore and seven were damaged. Pour lives were lost. On the Maine coast forty-seven vessels went ashore at Portland, Rocklqnd and Belfast. The loss of life is hard to determine. It is known that nearly fifty persons perished in and about Boston harbor. Reporta from other places in some cases state that the crew of this or that vessel escaped.