Maritime tragedies are the stuff of legend, and through the years have had a profound effect on the Portland Harbor community. Portland Harbor Museum's new exhibit, "Shipwrecks!!!" opening April 17, will tell the story of a number of local shipwrecks to illustrate causes, rescue methods, and shipwreck prevention progress.

The exhibit's exciting innovations are the result of grants from the Institute for Museum and Library Services and Cole Haan. Expanded video, upgraded exhibit lighting, and professionally produced panels of text and images are just part of the innovations. An interactive computer kiosk, which will remain as a permanent part of the gallery, uses video game technology to present the history of Portland Harbor in an engaging way to the younger exhibit audience. Additionally, Portland Harbor Museum has developed a partnership with Maine College of Art to produce professional-quality exhibit educational materials. MECA instructor Mark Jamra's Design Class and Museum Curator Ned Allen developed the text and format of the exhibit's explanatory boards.

The Portland Harbor Museum's exhibit presents the variety of shipwreck causes, both man-made and natural that occurred over the years. The exhibit explores efforts to prevent disaster through the development of lighthouses and other aids to navigation. Finally, the exhibit traces the evolution of life-saving techniques and equipment to deal with the results when these efforts fail.

Although the steamship Portland did not sink in or near the harbor, due to the huge loss of local lives, few disasters have had a more profound effect on this community. One of New England's most famous wrecks, the 281-foot-long steamer sank in a "perfect storm" dubbed the Portland Gale off Cape Cod in 1898 with no survivors. The Portland Harbor Museum's exhibit supplements artifacts from the Portland with exciting video and side-scan sonar images taken of the recently discovered wreck.

An oar from the Oakey Alexander illustrates the story of that vessel, which came to grief in 1947. After the bow broke off about four miles from land in high seas, the Captain managed somehow to steer what was left of it to a spot about 150 yards off shore below High Head in Cape Elizabeth. "Shipwrecks!!!" also tells the story of the Bohemian, which sank off Cape Elizabeth in 1864. There are descriptions of Broad Cove full of wreckage and cargo in the days following that incident. Some of these artifacts have survived in local families, and Museum Curator Ned Allen found and made arrangements to include some of the artifacts in the exhibit.