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NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2008
NATIONAL
Divers finally able to reach shipwreck 110 years later
Mugs, plates and dishes seen but no remains found
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON — FiveMassachusetts men became the first divers to reach the wreck of a 19th-century steamship that sank in one of the most destructive storms in New England history, and say they saw an array of artifacts like dishes and mugs but no human remains.
The Portland, known as the
"Titanic of New England," sank off the Massachusetts coast Nov. 26, 1898, after it sailed from Boston, taking more than 190 people with it.
The recreational divers spoke this week for the first
"You have to give the wreck its respect. It's deep and it's dangerous, and you have to be at the top of your game."
storm was pushing them out to sea."
time about their three successful dives in August and September.
An image from team leader Bob Foster's camera depicts a starfish clinging to a mug. Another shows toppled stacks of sandy plates and dishes.
David Faye, one of the divers, said wreckage of the Portland was littered with artifacts like plates, dishes and mugs, wash basins and toilets — and even a few medicine bottles etched with the name of an apothecary in Maine.
The divers found no human remains. If there are any human remains, they were likely below decks, which the divers didn't
DAVID FAYE
Diver
"I immediately thought of these people — how horrible it must've been," said Faye, a lawyer in Cambridge, Mass. "They had no communication with shore. They had no idea where they were. The
explore because of the danger, they said.
Reaching the ship tested the divers' limits and their equipment because the wreckage rests so far below the surface. Their
dives — 460 feet below ocean surface — were so deep that some of the underwater lights imploded with a boom, Faye said. The divers could only spend 10 to 15 minutes exploring the wreckage site before returning to the surface.
The wreck was first located in 1989 by underwater explorers Arnold Carr and John Fish, but they couldn't prove it was the Portland.
It wasn't until 2002 that the ship's location in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary,
an area about the size of Rhode Island between Cape Ann and Cape Cod, was firmly established by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration team using sonar equipment and remotely operated submersibles.
Because the location is kept secret, the divers had to independently verify the location. They had no sponsors; they paid out of pocket for their dives. The diving equipment cost between $10,000 and $50,000 per person, Fave said.
For now, the Portland's resting place remains a secret to prevent it from being plundered.
"You have to give the wreck its respect," Faye said. "It's deep and it's dangerous, and you have to be at the top of your game."
The 291-foot Portland left Boston's India Wharf for Portland, Maine, as scheduled despite forecasts of an impending storm and the decision by the captain of a sister船 to stay in port.
Captain Hollis Blanchard may have believe the Portland could outrun the gale, but the storm was actually two separate storms that collided at sea and grew in force. Winds reached 100 mph, and waves crested at 60 feet, higher than the ship's smokestacks.
Bodies and wreckage began to wash up on the shores shortly after the storm, which became known as The Portland Gale.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-III.) greets Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) at the start of a town hall-style presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., on Tuesday.
ELECTION 2008
Candidates clash in town hall forum Pakistan, rescue package take center stage in second debate
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BY CHARLES BABINGTON
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Barack Obama and John McCain clashed repeatedly over the causes and cures for the worst economic crisis in 80 years Tuesday night in a debate in which Republican McCain called for a sweeping $300 billion program to shield homeowners from mortgage foreclosure.
He spoke after McCain accused him of foolishly threatening to invade Pakistan and said, "I'm not going to telegraph my punches, which is what Sen. Obama did."
In one pointed confrontation on foreign policy, Obama bluntly challenged McCain's steadiness. "This is a guy who sang bomb, bomb, bomb Iran, who called for the annihilation of North Korea — that I don't think is an example of speaking softly."
“It's my proposal. It's not Sen. Obama's proposal.” McCain said at the outset of a debate he hoped could revive his fortunes in a presidential race trending toward his rival.
The debate was the second of three between the two major party rivals, and the only one to feature a format in which voters seated a few feet away posed questions to the candidates.
"It's good to be with you at a town hall meeting," McCain jabbed at his rival, who has spurned the Republican's calls for numerous such joint appearances across the fall campaign.
They debated on a stage at Belmont University four weeks before Election Day in a race that has lately favored Obama, both in national polls and in surveys in pivotal battleground states.
Not surprisingly, many of the questions dealt with an economy in trouble.
"I would order the secretary of the Treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the new value of those homes at the diminished value of those homes and let people be able to make those payments and stay in their homes," he said.
Obama said the current crisis was the "final verdict on the failed economic policies of the last eight years" that President Bush pursued and were "supported by Sen. McCain."
"Is it expensive? Yes. But we all know, my friends, until we stabilize home values in America, we're never going to start turning around and creating jobs and fixing our economy, and we've got to get some trust and confidence back to America."
tant to reform the giant benefit programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
"My friends, we are not going to be able to provide the same benefit for present-day workers that present-day retirees have today," he said, although he did not elaborate.
He contended that Bush,McCain and others had favored deregulation of the finanancial industry, predicting that would "let markets run wild and prosperity would rain down on all of us. It didn't happen."
McCain's pledge to have the government help individual homeowners avoid foreclosure went considerably beyond the $700 billion rescue package that recently cleared Congress.
Obama said McCain was going to require taxes on the health benefits workers receive from their employers at the same time his plan would wipe out the ability of states to enforce their own regulations to require tests such as mammograms.
The two men also competed to demonstrate their qualifications as reformers at a time voters are clamoring for change.
McCain also said it was impor
McCain countered that under his rival's plan "Sen. Obama will fine you" if parents fail to obtain coverage for their children but had yet to say what the fine would be. "Perhaps we will find that out tonight," he said.
Obama quickly followed up. saying that McCain "voted against the expansion" of the children's health care program the government runs.
Each year, The University Daily Kansan surveys students to get their opinion on the best businesses in Lawrence. To vote for your favorite business in each category, fill out this ballot with your favorite business in each category by NO LATER THAN October 13th. Turn the ballot into Rm. 119 Stauffer-Flint and automatically be entered to win a FRAMED 2008 National Championship Kansan Front Page and Championship T-shirt. OR go to topofthehill.kansan.com to submit online.
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