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February 19, 2012
Take the Journey
The Portland at sea
The Ship

At the end of the 19th century, the side-wheel paddle ship Portland was the queen of a fleet of boats running up and down the New England coast, offering a luxurious, state-of-the-art journey between Boston, Mass., and Portland, Maine.

Built in Maine in 1889, she was lavishly appointed with opulent furnishings and elegant touches like velvet carpeting, Corinthian architecture and a dome skylight in the saloon.

For a sea-going vessel, she was not very stable. Her long, shallow wooden hull, huge overhanging side paddlewheels, and tall, top-heavy superstructure made her unsuited to bad weather and rough seas. She had been built to run in flat coastal bays or rivers, not battle ocean storms.

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