PRIDE is in Port Washington, Wisconsin. This tall ship festival with three vessels…PRIDE, NIAGARA & FRIENDS GOODWILL…marks the beginning of PRIDE’s homeward bound trek from the Great Lakes. PRIDE left Baltimore May 30 and visited 12 ports to reach Port Washington August 18. From Port Washington PRIDE will visit 11 ports to reach Baltimore on November 1st. As much work as all of this represents to the crew that sail PRIDE, maintain her and explain her, the crew would have it no other way. The most intense learning is aboard a busy vessel. A busy vessel that is visiting a new port every time it moves presents a whole lot more learning. This is what any up and coming sailor seeks…as much learning as possible in as short a time as possible. It helps with promotion and the obtaining of professional licensing which also helps with promotion. Meanwhile PRIDE’s fame continues to be supported and expanded by her travels sharing her stunning image to her viewers in all the ports she visits…always leaving a good impression of Baltimore and Maryland.
PRIDE’s goal during this 2011 Campaign in the Great Lakes is to make everyone aware of the coming Bicentennial of the 1812 War and how much of that history took place in Baltimore & Maryland, and all of it is available for visitation, so make plans to visit Baltimore & Maryland to see that history. Interestingly she is not completely alone in her efforts. Brig NIAGARA and square-topsail sloop FRIENDS GOODWILL are two other vessels of the 1812 War…but specifically of the Great Lakes. PRIDE is from the Atlantic. Here in Port Washington, as it was in last weeks maritime festival at Navy Pier in Chicago, all of the vessels of the festival represent aspects of the 1812 War. In Chicago there was the additional vessel Privateer LYNX…she, like PRIDE, is from out of the Great Lakes. I find it interesting there is this concentration of vessels representing the 1812 War. But when one considers how many fronts there were in that war it starts to make some sense. Brig NIAGARA, built in Erie, Pennsylvania, represents the successful naval campaign between the US and British (Canada) that took place in Lake Erie under the leadership of Oliver Hazard Perry. FRIENDS GOODWILL represents an 1810 built vessel from Detroit that sailed for both the Americans and the British, having been caught by the British, eventually playing a roll in the Battle of Lake Erie. Privateer LYNX is a miniature of a Baltimore Privateer that was caught by the British in the lower Chesapeake Bay before she could perform any privateering voyaging, instead being used by the British to blockade American vessels from departing the Chesapeake Bay.
By the above sampling, one can begin to see that there is a lot about the 1812 War to be learned. The most significant activities of the war took place in Maryland. Where the burning of Washington, DC by the British Army took place, where the successful defense of Baltimore from British invasion took place and is the story of our National Anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, and is home of the most famous Baltimore Schooner Privateer CHASSEUR (nicknamed “pride of baltimore”). I hope, during the next three years of the Bicentennial, all of you will come see and learn.
Cheers,
Jan C. Miles, Captain aboard PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II
