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NOAA's Heritage Success Stories
Steamship Portland
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
Top: Historical photograph of the Portland taken in the 1890s (Landfall Archaeological Resource Consultants).
Bottom: Side scan sonar image of the Portland taken in 2002 (Klein Sonar Associates)
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The culmination of three years of historical and archaeological research on the steamship Portland by the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and the National Undersea Research Center at the University of Connecticut has resulted in the vessel’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Register of Historic Places is the Nation's official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation.
The Portland represents a site significant to American history because of its historical and archaeological importance. The shipwreck’s high degree of archaeological integrity and cultural significance provides archaeologists and historians an excellent opportunity to examine life onboard a New England passenger steamship at the turn of the century. The Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary will continue to investigate the Portland to gain further knowledge of the history and development of steam navigation in New England in the late nineteenth century.
Located at the mouth of Massachusetts Bay, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary sits astride the historic shipping lanes and fishing grounds for such ports as Boston, Gloucester, Plymouth, Salem, and Provincetown. These ports have been centers of maritime activity in New England for nearly 400 years. As a result, the sanctuary is a repository for this nation’s maritime heritage resources in the form of shipwrecks.
Click here for a copy of the Portland’s National Register of Historic Places press release.
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