The Tall Ship, Pride of Balitimore II , will be open to visitors Saturday and Sunday at Maine Maritime Museum in Bath.
A topsail schooner measuring
157 feet in length, the Pride of Baltimore II is a magnificent vessel.
This reproduction of the privateer that sank
British ships during the War of 1812, commonly known as a Baltimore Clipper, is a sight to behold. It’s a star attraction for the
Maine Maritime Museum’s 50th anniversary exhibit.
On Saturday and Sunday, the Pride of
Baltimore II will be docked at the museum’s Deering Pier, just south of
Bath Iron Works on the Kennebec
River. It will be open for boarding from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. both days, for $5 per person.
“The Pride of Baltimore II is just a beautiful ship,” said
Dave Garrison, director of marketing and communications at the Maine Maritime
Museum. “She’s very sleek — very fast.”
Yet for all its majesty, the
Pride of Baltimore II wasn’t all that imposing a sight during the
War of 1812.
“It was a relatively small ship, and they were going out into the ocean and challenging these British ships,” Garrison said. “It gives the visitor perspective and context. It just brings it into focus.”
American privateers, many of them sailing out of Chesapeake Bay in Baltimore Clippers, captured or sank some 1,700 British merchant vessels during the two-and-a-half year war. Other Baltimore Clippers served as cargo vessels to bring needed munitions and other armaments through the naval blockade that the British imposed on the U.S. coastline.
Visitors to the museum this weekend also can view documents signed by President James Monroe, as well as other artifacts.
It’s all part of the museum’s 50th anniversary celebration exhibit “Subdue, Seize and Take: Maritime Maine and the Unwelcome Interruption of the War of 1812.” The exhibit will be on view until Oct. 28.
The War of 1812, Garrison noted, marked a turning point in this country’s history.
“It changed us,” he said. “It finally made us a nation.”
The crew of Pride also will conduct two-hour river sails for a limited number of passengers each day at 2 p.m. and at 5 p.m. for an additional fee. Reservations for the river cruises can be booked online at www.pride2.org.
Pride is scheduled to arrive in Bath on Friday afternoon, between noon and 2 p.m.
On Friday evening, the ship’s captain, Jamie Trost, will give a lecture regarding the important role privateers played in the War of 1812. The lecture will be at 6 p.m. Admission is $7 for nonmembers and $5 for museum members.
Since her commissioning, Pride II has sailed nearly 200,000 miles and visited more than 200 ports in 40 countries in North, South, and Central America, Europe and Asia.
Pride II was commissioned in 1988 as a sailing memorial to her immediate predecessor, the original Pride of Baltimore, which was sunk by a white squall off Puerto Rico in 1986, taking her captain and three crew members down with her.
Both were built in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
The vessel is owned and operated by the nonprofit organization Pride of Baltimore, Inc.
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