Archives for May 2016

Calling all adventurers! Guest crew berths are still available on the following legs:

Baltimore, MD to Norfolk, VA, June 6-9
Norfolk, VA to Toronto, ON, Canada, June 12-30
Fairport Harbor, OH to Bay City, MI, July 10-14
Bay City, MI to Boyne City, MI, July 17-23

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On Saturday, May 14, with the sun high in the sky, Pride II welcomed over 150 guests to Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine for a memorial ceremony honoring the 30th Anniversary of the sinking of Pride of Baltimore. Guests came to pay their respects to a ship they remember, and still hold close to their hearts.

The event began with a beautiful rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” performed by members of the Maryland Choral Society. Guests were then treated to remarks by notable speakers that included Captain Jan Miles, the Honorable Helen Delich Bentley, Barbara Bozzuto, Dan Baker, Pride II Executive Director Rick Scott, and surviving members of the lost ship.

Jonathan Jensen, of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, was joined by two additional singers. Together, they performed the “Pride of Baltimore Ballad,” a powerful song that tells the story of the first vessel. Close to the end of the ceremony, condolences letters were read aloud. These letters were sent to Pride Inc. offices during the months following the sinking. Folks from all over the globe sent their sincerest regrets at the loss, a reminder of the many lives the ship touched. Select members of crew and staff of Pride II, all who weren’t even born when the first vessel sank, were chosen to read the letters.

When the event drew to a close, guests were invited to make their way down to the seawall, where Pride II was docked. The Maryland Choral Society performed a trio of songs that included “The Water is Wide,” “Navy Hymn,” and “America, The Beautiful.” While they sang, a wreath was brought onto Pride II and then rowed out onto the water by both surviving crew members and current Pride II crew. The wreath was dropped onto the water’s surface in a display of remembrance, a Baltimore City Fireboat and tugboat joined the ceremony by spraying water high into the sky as a tribute to the lost crew members, and Pride II fired her canons three times in memory of Pride of Baltimore.

As morning met its end, the singers finished their songs, the audience offered a final salute, and guests were invited to come aboard Pride II for deck tours. There, old friends reunited, sharing stories of the past, and new connections were made.

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We are pleased to be partnering with one of our fellow institutions, Carroll Museums, on their upcoming All American House 2016 at Carroll Mansion. This national exhibition of American design and manufacturing, secured from the DC-based nonprofit MADE: In America, will run through July 10, 2016. To extend the exhibition’s reach citywide, Carroll Museums invited Pride of Baltimore and other institutions to be Baltimore’s American Treasures Affiliates and cross-promote with our own programs, events, and exhibitions. More than a dozen affiliates are helping to showcase Baltimore’s role, past, present, and future, in shaping America’s design aesthetic and innovation in manufacturing.

Pride of Baltimore II is certainly one of Baltimore’s American treasures, a maritime treasure. She is a reconstruction of an early 19th-century Baltimore Clipper, a ship design developed in, for, and unique to the Chesapeake Bay area.

A combination of geography, settlement patterns, and even weather spawned the design of the Baltimore Clipper. The Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States, stretches 200 miles, but is surprisingly shallow. Its average depth is about 21 feet, although there are deep troughs — believed to be remnants of the ancient path of the Susquehanna River — running much of the Bay’s length. The Chesapeake Bay also has about 24 navigable tributaries, meaning that navigating between towns, when water transportation was the easiest form of transport, entailed navigating long, narrow, and shallow rivers. As for weather, winds on the Bay are often very light in the summer. Over time, Chesapeake Bay shipbuilders combined different facets of design to build ships best suited to the local sailing conditions. Baltimore Clippers were one of those designs.

Baltimore Clippers were topsail schooners, sharp built (meaning they had a V-shaped hull) with strongly raked stem and stern posts and masts. These design factors, along with others, created sleek, fast, and maneuverable vessels. They could sail closer to the wind than all of their contemporaries and faster than most of them. It’s no surprise then that Baltimore Clippers gained fame as privateers during the War of 1812 – they could outmaneuver and sail faster than the British ships. Their success in capturing British merchant ships provoked the Royal Navy to attack Baltimore in 1814.

So, come aboard for a deck tour during the month of May and our knowledgeable captains and crew can tell you more about the history behind the design of Pride II and the Baltimore Clippers of yore that inspired her construction.