Oct 24, 2008 1:24 pm US/Eastern
First Underwater Look At New England Shipwreck
CAPE COD (WBZ) ―
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The Steamship Portland as she sits now.
Boston Deep Wrecks
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The Steamship Portland before she sank.
Boston Deep Wrecks
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Dinner plates scattered in the wreckage.
Boston Deep Wrecks
The Steamship Portland went down off the New England coast during a terrible storm back in November 1898. It became known as the Titanic of New England. Now, over a century later, divers have reached the wreck for the very first time.
"When we came down on the wreck, this was one of the first things we saw," said Bob Foster, pointing out dinner plates in underwater video taken by his dive team.
Watch: Video Tour of the Steamship Portland Shipwreck "It was a thrill just to be there," Foster described. "We had been working for two years just to get to that point."
Foster recently led a team of divers to
the wreck of the Portland, the first divers ever to accomplish that. At a depth of almost 500 feet, the divers could only survey the wreck for 15 minutes before returning to the surface. They plan to resume their dives in the spring.
"It's really a funny feeling to come down on this wreck for the first time and see all these real personal artifacts," Foster said. "It really brings it home just how many people were lost on this ship."
The Steamship Portland sank north of Stellwagen Bank in what is now
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. The sanctuary holds the wreck in trust. No sunken artifacts can be removed, maintaining what amounts to an underwater museum.
"New England's stormy weather has resulted in
hundreds of shipwrecks," said Matt Lawrence, a maritime archaeologist with the sanctuary.
The weekend of October 25, the Cape Cod Maritime Museum is hosting a two day event on marine archaeology. The museum is located at 135 South Street in Hyannis (508-775-1723).
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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