THE PORTLAND GALE
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"The Portland Gale"

Description: Join Weather Historian John Horrigan as he recounts the tragedies brought by the Portland Gale. On November 26th, 1898, the steamship SS Portland left India Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts for Portland, Maine on a regularly scheduled run. She never made it to port. None of the 192 passengers and crew survived the massive storm that wreaked havoc on New England's coast — a storm that was later dubbed "The Portland Gale". The storm that struck the coast of New England on November 26th and 27th, 1898 formed when two low pressure areas merged off the coast of Virginia and travelled up the coast. At its peak, it produced a storm surge of about ten feet in Cohasset harbor and wielded hurricane-force winds in Nantucket. The storm took 400 lives and sank more than 150 boats and ships. It ended Provincetown's regin as a great fishing port and changed the course of the North River, separating the Humarock portion of Scituate, Massachusetts from the rest of the town.





IMAGES



  • At 8:00 PM on November 26th, 1898, a monster Nor'easter brewed off of the New England Coast.






  • The S.S. Portland was launched on October 14th, 1889 in Bath, Maine.






  • Hollis H. Blanchard was employed by the Portland Steamship Authority and was captain of the Portland.






  • As soon as it left India Wharf at 7:07 PM in Boston, the Portland ran into fierce weather.






  • This is the last known photograph of the S.S. Portland.






  • The S.S. Portland was swamped and sunk by huge ocean swells.






  • This is the last known photograph of the S.S. Portland.






  • The course of the North River before the Portland Gale.






  • The course of the North River was changed after the Portland Gale, isolating Humarock from Scituate, Massachusetts.





    THIS LECTURE HAS BEEN PERFORMED FOR:


  • Organization: Weymouth Historical Society
  • Contact: Herb Caldwell
  • Date: November 19th, 2008
  • Location: Weymouth Historical Society at the Jason Holbrooke Homestead in Weymouth, Massachusetts
  • Email: click to email

  • LISTEN TO THIS LECTURE right click - Save Target As - to download

    Running Time: 1 hour and 5 minutes Size: 62 MB



  • Organization: Ventress Memorial Library
  • Contact: Chris Woods
  • Date: November 27th, 2007
  • Location: Marshfield, Massachusetts
  • Email: click to email




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