The Portland Evening Express often covered news on Portland's waterfront with columns like "Along the Waterfront," which kept readers informed on what was happening in the port of Portland. These articles were usually accompanied by photographs relating to fishing, shipping, or natural disaster. A story similar to the S.S. Isaac Mann disaster ran in the Evening Express in December, 1933, titled "Schooner Sunapee Hobbles Into Port, Crippled By Storm." It included a photograph of the Sunapee caked in ice.

The freighter Isaac T. Mann carried coal back and forth from Norfolk, Virginia to Portland for the Pocahontas Steamship Company.