Woods Hole researchers livestream underwater shipwreck exploration

BOSTON (AP) — A team of researchers will livestream their exploration of shipwrecks in Massachusetts waters, including the wreck of a 19th-century steamship that killed 190 people when it sank.

The steamship Portland ran between Boston and Portland, Maine, and sank in 1898 during a storm. Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, NOAA and Marine Imaging Technologies will return to the site of the wreck on Tuesday for the second year in a row.

The team is deploying an underwater robot with cinema-class video equipment to document the wreckage and will livestream parts of their expedition over three days, NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries said in a statement.

For almost a century, the location of the Portland wreck was unknown, the Boston Globe reported.

It wasn't until 2002 that researchers at NOAA confirmed the identity of the wreck, which was known as the "Titanic of New England," for its catastrophic death toll.

The wreck of the Portland is one of many in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, which is an 842-square-mile protected area in the waters of Massachusetts Bay, NOAA said.

The researchers will also visit a wreck of an unknown schooner, which likely transported coal. They hope to identify the ship and again will livestream parts of their work over two days on Wednesday and Thursday.

You can watch the live stream here.

Cox Media Group