Pride of Baltimore II departed the Inner Harbor Thursday afternoon to spend the weekend in Chestertown. Lest the departure go unnoticed, the crew fired off a four cannon salute as they readied the ship to sail out of the harbor.
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Archives for April 2011
A Final Tribute to a Visionary
William Donald Schaefer, the man most credited with the realization of the world famous Inner Harbor of Baltimore, Maryland, has passed on. On Monday of this week, his casket was taken on a long sojourn from Annapolis, where he worked as Governor and Comptroller, to Baltimore…his home town…where he experienced his most personally meaningful government position…Mayor of Baltimore from 1971-1987.
PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II was moved to the Inner Harbor West Wall near to the bronze statue of William Donald Schaefer in preparation of a cannon salute to the former Governor, whose casket would be driving by as part of the farewell tour of the city, giving citizens the opportunity to pay their respects to William Donald Schaefer.
At the last minute the casket and escort actually made a lengthy stop at the staute, with the honor escort exiting the automobiles to mingle with the gathered crowd and view Schaefer’s statue as well view and ponder the changes made to the Inner Harbor since it’s initial rennaissance in the early 1970s.
The key escort to Schaefer’s casket was long time staffer and close friend Lainy LeBow-Sachs. She is almost as well known to everyone as is Schaefer. She took time to accept best wishes and token gifts in memorial to Schaefer. Time was taken to view Schaefer’s statue and recognize those behind establishing it. Many in the crowd were associated with Baltimore Tourism…marked in the Inner Harbor by the handsome Visitor Center adjacent to Schaefer’s statue…set looking out toward the Inner Harbor with the National Aquarium in the background and PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II in the foreground. At a key moment when all of the hellos & best wishes were about completed, Captain Jamie Trost, commanding PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II, announced loudly to the crowed that there would be a cannon salute in honor of Governor Schaefer. The first shot was loud and stimulated the crowed to start clapping. The clapping continued through the rest of the three cannon salute.
Afterwards Lainy Lebow-Sachs took time to approach PRIDE and notice the uniformed crew standing at attention as well a number of key photos of Schaefer aboard PRIDE. Remembering me she appeared surprised that I was still a captain with PRIDE. I shared with her my discovery that there was nothing else better to do! I went on to share that as a result of the voyages far and wide of the two PRIDE’s…Baltimore today is home to the most well known American traditional sailing vessels in the world….because of William Donald Schaefer’s understanding for good symbols that would demonstrate why Baltimore citizens have a lot to be proud of ~ Baltimore Harbor is surely something of which to be very proud.
Vale William Donald Schaefer!!!
Signed,
Jan C. Miles
Captain of the PRIDE’s
A Tribute to William Donald Schafer – NY Times Photo Slideshow
Ship Salute to William Donald Schaefer
Pride of Baltimore II Cannon Salute and Open Houses to Honor Pride’s Champion
Baltimore’s Topsail Schooner, Pride of Baltimore II, and her crew will honor William Donald Schaefer as his casket is driven by the Inner Harbor on its way to lie in state at City Hall. Pride of Baltimore II will be docked at the West Wall of the Inner Harbor in front of William Donald Schaefer’s statue. Pride of Baltimore II’s cannon will salute William Donald Schaefer as he is driven by his bronze statue near the Visitor Center. Pride of Baltimore II will then be open for free deck tours until 9:00 p.m. Monday, April 25. The ship will also be open for free deck tours on Tuesday, April 26 from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and on the day of Governor Schaefer’s funeral Wednesday, April 27 from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. At 12 Noon on April 27, Pride of Baltimore II’s crew will again salute Don Schaefer with the ship’s cannon fire.
Pride of Baltimore was, and Pride of Baltimore II is, a manifestation of then Mayor Schaefer’s “do-it-now” mandates. He was a champion of both Prides and the nonprofit organization Pride of Baltimore, Inc. It was his vision that not only built the two Prides, but also his vision to use Baltimore’s topsail schooner as a traveling international business development tool and goodwill ambassador for the City of Baltimore, the State of Maryland and its citizens. Pride of Baltimore II is now owned and operated by the nonprofit Pride of Baltimore, Inc. and she continues to sail internationally promoting Maryland and U.S. maritime history. On May 30, Pride of Baltimore II departs for New York, Boston, Canada and the Great Lakes. She will return to Baltimore in November 2011.
Spring Itinerary ~ Deck Tour and Day Sail Schedule
Pride of Baltimore II will be in Baltimore, Annapolis and Chestertown this Spring, before heading north for the Great Lakes. Come see us ~ take a tour or go for a sail!
Tuesday, April 19~ Baltimore, MD
Sail ~ 3:00 PM to 5:30 PM
Daysail Tickets $45 Adults/$30 age 12 and under
Post Dry-Dock ~ Rig-up Continues…
NORFOLK, VIRGINIA
Saturday April 2, 2011
We have been afloat since last Monday. It has been steady rain and cold since then. Today is the first dry & sunny day in a week. But it is still cold plus it is windy. USCG came back aboard yesterday for a very short boat ride to satisfy a new local to Norfolk area requirement to “view” (verify) that a recently dry-docked wooden vessel is no longer leaking before they award the dry-docking credit. This new requirement seems to be about checking that such leaking can no longer be “blamed” on “she is still swelling up” after drying out during dry-dock. Pride II passed with flying colors…meaning there was no leaking. Now we are fully focused on rig-up so that we can go sailing to check the ship and the rig and the sail and train the crew. It looks like we won’t be sailing till Monday.
Once we go sailing, we will take most of the week to return to Baltimore. The plan is to anchor during the evenings and sail during the days. There is a lot for the crew to learn…Setting and stowing sail…tacking and gybing sail…Fire drill….Man overboard drill…Abandon ship drill….Small boat deployment drill….Anchor handling….Just to name a small portion of all that needs knowing.
Amidst our post dry-docking week with the cold and rain we discovered the aft cabin shower stall basin was emitting ants. The shower stall basin had to be removed…which involved quite a bit of disassembly of wood trim and also the base to the aft head toilet. The 1st Mate Ryan Graham is a qualified carpenter so has taken lead on the project. But being 1st Mate means that he has been distracted by questions coming from crew. Yesterday was a fork-in-the-road day…do we continue to save the existing, custom made shower basin…or do we hunt down a ready-made replacement? In the end we are sticking with the original basin. Today things should start going back together. Even so, there is another delay. The 1st Mate is spending the first two hours today on administration. Printing extra deck log pages. Arranging the watch schedule for the coming week of sailing. Printing those out. Arranging the schedule of crew domestic chores for the next week. These activities are a demonstration of how things go day-to-day during spring rig-up. Plan on actually working…but become distracted by training, teaching, instructing and administration.
During rig-up, each day is a full 9-12 hours long. Typically we try to have breakfast at 7:30 AM and go to work at 8 AM. Lunch is a half-an-hour starting near noon. Supper is usually at 6 PM. But since being re-launched and moving back aboard to live we have had a hard time having dinner by 7 PM. The evening daylight goes till 7 PM and quitting before then has been hard. Not because anyone is happier to work than to quit working, but because it is so apparent to everyone that there is so much to do. Even then, for officers there are things that still need to be done after supper to keep up with details like log keeping, communications with the office and the needs of public relations like this blog, Facebook etc. The crew had its first day off in a month last Sunday, March 27, the day before we launched (their first day on the job was February 28). That last Saturday of work prior to re-launching did not end till 8:30 PM (after starting at 7 AM) because of the need to get the bottom painting done before the coming rain.
Now that sails are actually being tied on and the deck is becoming more clear of debris associated with rig-up there is a growing recognition that the putting-together aspect of rig-up is going into the final phases. Everyone looks forward to getting underway and going sailing with a completed vessel with all of its bits in their proper places. Reaching such a status will bring Pride II back to her proper and normal functional beauty. Once we reach that, the sense of accomplishment will be short lived because of all the mission preparations that need to be completed in preparation of the first public event…Privateers Day Weekend in Baltimore April 15/16.
Cheers,
Jan C Miles, A Captain aboard Pride of Baltimore II