BOSTON – Underwater explorers have located the wreck of a 19th century steamship that sank in one of the worst hurricanes in New England’s history, taking more than 190 people with it.

The Portland, known as the “Titanic of New England,” sank off the Massachusetts coast Nov. 26, 1898, after it sailed from Boston, ignoring forecasts of an impending storm.

Its whereabouts were never firmly established until Thursday, when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the wreck was found in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, an area about the size of Rhode Island between Cape Ann and Cape Cod.

“This discovery closes the chapter on one of the greatest maritime disasters in New England,” said Ben Cowie-Haskell, NOAA’s primary investigator of the Portland expedition.

Researchers were able to identify several distinctive features of the wreck that prove it’s the Portland, Cowie-Haskell said. Among them: the rudder assembly, paddle guard, wheel hub, and the twin side-by-side smokestacks.

The wreck was first located in 1989 by two underwater explorers, Arnold Carr and John Fish, but they could never prove it was the Portland.

NOAA researchers used sonar equipment and remotely operated machines that were able to take high-quality video footage of the wreck.

Cowie-Haskell said the ship is sitting upright on the sea floor with its hull largely intact, though much of the ship above the main deck is gone. No bodies or artifacts with the Portland’s name on it were found, he said.

Cowie-Haskell would not reveal the exact location of the ship, for fear the wreck would be plundered.

The 291-foot Portland left Boston’s India Wharf for Portland, Maine, as scheduled, ignoring forecasts of an impending storm and the decision by the captain of a sister ship to stay in port.

Capt. Hollis Blanchard may have believed the Portland could outrun the gale, but the storm was actually two separate storms that collided at sea and grew exponentially in force as they fed off each other’s energy. Winds reached 100 mph, and waves crested at 60 feet.

The ship pushed north through wind and waves, with witnesses spotting it hugging the coast near Gloucester.

By early morning on Nov. 27, witnesses saw the Portland reverse course as it was dashed to pieces. Samuel Fisher at the Race Point Life Saving Station, near Provincetown, reported hearing four distress blasts from the steamer’s whistle, but he couldn’t see the struggling ship.

Bodies and wreckage began to wash up on the shores of Cape Cod shortly after the storm, which eventually became known as the “Portland Storm.”

Scientists estimate 192 passengers and crew died on the Portland, but no one really knows how many lives were lost because the only passenger list went down with the ship. Only about 40 bodies from the vessel were recovered.

The Portland’s sinking prompted a change in the design of all coastal ships from paddlewheel to propeller.