Don Wilding When the steamer Portland was lost off the coast of the Outer Cape during Thanksgiving weekend of 1898, it was the greatest maritime disaster that New England had ever seen. The disaster also proved to be the inspiration behind a poem, “The Loss of Steamer Portland,” which was written by Captain Frederick R. Eldredge and Hydrographer George Eldredge of Chatham. The 326-word poem opened with the lines: “On the twenty-seventh of November, In the year of ninety-eight, A northeast blizzard swept the sea, Death following in its wake.” Nearly 450 people perished at sea during the storm, named for the steamship S.S. Portland. The vessel left Boston on the night of Nov. 26, heading for her namesake city in Maine, but never made it.