Dec 10, 1956
Mrs. Everett H. Scannell of Falmouth Heights read with interest last week about the unveiling at Race Point Coast Guard station of a plaque bearing the names of the victims of the sinking of the steamer Portland in November, 1898. This fresh news story will now take its place in an old scrapbook, along with yellow, fragile clippings telling of the Portland's launching and eventual loss. Mrs. Scannell is the great granddaughter of Captain John Brown Coyle of Portland, Maine, who, in 1843, formed the Portland Steam Packet company which had the sidewheeler built at Bath, Maine, by the New England Steamship company.
In the scrapbook, kept by her mother and grandmother before her, one may read from the Bath Express of October 14, 1890, that "Bath was crowded with strangers today, the occasion being the launching of the new steamer Portland this afternoon, the finest steamer that will travel eastern waters." When the boat slipped into the Kennebec river, Emily Coyle, a granddaughter of the captain and Mrs. Scannel's cousin, was the sponsor. The Portland had a hull 275 feet long, a 42 foot beam, 15 foot depth, and her paddlewheels were 35 feet 10 inches in diameter. Built at a cost of $240,000, she was steam heated and electrically lighted. At a time when all steamers had bars, the ones on Coyle operated boats were closed.
John B. Coyle's father, Patrick, came from Ireland, and served in the American Revolution. He was sixty when his son was born and when the boy was young he apprenticed to a shoemaker. Cobbling, however, was not to his liking and he ran away from his Connecticut home to New York and became a cabin boy on a steamer.
He evidently liked the business, for during his career he was manager of three companies, the Portland Steam Packet company, the International company, and the Maine Steamship company, and was one of the founders of what eventually became the Eastern Steampship line. During forty years as manager and treasurer of the packet company, which ran between Boston, Portland, Eastport, and St. John, N.B., not a passenger or a pound of freight was lost. After Captain Coyle's death, his sons ran the line for many years, and Mrs. Scannell's grandfather, George Coyle, was chief engineer. At the time of the Portland disaster, the line had passed from the Coyle family into other hands. The Portland was the last steamer built by the company during the Coyle regime.
Another great granddaughter of the old captain was the lat Mrs. David Quinn of Falmouth whose granddaughter, Patricia Quinn, now lives here. Great grandson Captain Henry Coyle was a former resident of Woods Hole while serving in the Coast Guard. Other descendents of the patriarch Coyle are the Scannell' son Everett Jr. and his sons, Wayne and Brian, who live in Connecticut.