Shore Lore: Poetry and the Portland disaster

Don Wilding  |  Wicked Local

When the steamer Portland was lost off the coast of the Outer Cape during Thanksgiving weekend of 1898, it was the greatest maritime disaster that New England had ever seen.

The disaster also proved to be the inspiration behind a poem, “The Loss of Steamer Portland,” which was written by Captain Frederick R. Eldredge and Hydrographer George Eldredge of Chatham.

The 326-word poem opened with the lines:

“On the twenty-seventh of November, In the year of ninety-eight,

A northeast blizzard swept the sea, Death following in its wake.”

Nearly 450 people perished at sea during the storm, named for the steamship S.S. Portland. The vessel left Boston on the night of Nov. 26, heading for her namesake city in Maine, but never made it.

The storm packed northeast winds gusting to 90 miles-per-hour, along with heavy snow and temperatures well below freezing. Despite warnings of the incoming weather system, it didn’t stop Portland Captain Hollis Blanchard from his appointed run.

Just before midnight, with the weather worsening, the damaged Portland, with its lights out, narrowly avoided colliding with a schooner off the coast of Gloucester. It’s believed that, overnight, hurricane-force winds drove the battered Portland southeast to the raging seas off Provincetown and Truro, and was overcome by high waves.

Thirty-eight bodies washed ashore along the beaches of the Outer Cape over the next several days. Surfmen of the U.S. Lifesaving Service, undertakers, newspaper reporters, and other public servants worked nonstop to find those lost at sea. The mournful citizens of Cape Cod were constantly on watch for weeks.

Chatham, which was home to three Lifesaving stations, was not spared. Memorial tributes to those lost were everywhere, and the Eldredges made their creative contribution in January of 1899.

“Hydrographer George Eldredge and Captain Frederick Eldredge, both citizens of this town, have each composed a poem entitled, ‘The Loss of the Portland,’” the Jan. 24, 1899 edition of the Chatham Monitor reported. “They are to be printed and offered for sale, we learn, by the principal newsdealers of the country. We do not think that the two Eldredges are in any way related, but both evidently have talents in the same direction.”

The paper also wished the native poets much success.

“Hydrographer Eldredge has a known reputation which will assist him in the sale of his work, while Captain F. Eldredge must depend largely on the merits of his production for financial returns,” the Monitor said.

Two months later, music was added to the mix. The Monitor reported on March 21 that “Hydrographer Eldredge has composed music for his poem ‘The Wreck of the Portland.’ An accompaniment for the piano is to be added, when we have no doubt it will be printed and placed on sale.”

The “Catalogue of Title Entries of Books and Other Articles” for that year listed music credit to Georgia French Perry, with words by Frederick R. Eldredge.

That summer, the song made a particularly large impact on a visitor from New York. E.W. Blanchard, the brother of Portland Captain Hollis Blanchard, was staying at the Monomoyick Inn, according to the July 18, 1899 edition of the Chatham Monitor.

“(Blanchard) drove about town with George Eldredge,” the paper said. “Mr. Eldredge sang to him the song of the Portland, which affected him very much.”

It affected many more as well. As the poem concluded:

“The news (of the Portland) was spread the world around Through country and through city, Which fill the hearts of young and old With horror and with pity.”

To read the entire poem, “Loss of the Steamer Portland,” visit https://www.mainememory.net/media/pdf/102277.pdf.

Don Wilding, a writer, tour guide, and public speaker on Cape Cod lore, can be reached via email at donwilding@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @WildingsCapeCod and on Facebook at @donwildingscapecod. Shore Lore appears weekly.