Greetings everyone! My name is Jamie Pepper and I will be your Teacher Aboard for the journey between Norfolk, VA, and St. Mary's City, MD. I came aboard in Norfolk, just after the Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race. The crew is still winding down from that. Today is Tuesday and Pride of Baltimore II is preparing for our journey to St. Mary's City. The sun is shining and the captain says he wants to get underway as soon as possible. Goodbye Norfolk, here we come St. Mary's! Some pelicans flew by to bid us a safe journey. It is a beautiful day for sailing I am very excited to be underway.

First problem, how do you walk on a ship that is rising and falling through the water? My solution, hang on to anything and everything you can! The crew has no problem maneuvering around on the ship while we are underway, but I am another story. We don't want those cannons flying around the deck while we are underway!

With a little teamwork and a lot of muscle, we are off to St. Mary's City. All across the ship you hear shouts that sailors have used on sailing ships for hundreds of years - phrases like "Hands to the starboard braces" (crew goes to the ropes that turn the big horizontal piece of wood that holds the topsail). "Trim the foresail sheet" (pulling a sail into a working position). "Haul away," (pull on the rope). And just when it seems you have pulled as hard as you can and it would be impossible to pull that rope one more inch, you might hear "pull harder!" (That means pull harder!)

Finally after a couple of harder pulls, you hear "vast hauling" (stop pulling on the rope) and "up behind" (drop the rope). As soon as one sail is up and catching the wind, the crew races to another spot on the deck to raise another sail. This is hard work. All twelve crew members are needed to hoist and set all the sails.

Unfortunately for us, the winds are coming from the wrong direction. The ship has to keep tacking east and west and that is not getting us north fast enough. So, after hoisting all the sails and a quick lunch, most of the sails have to be brought down again. We will use our engines to motor the rest of the way to St. Mary's City.

School Tours

The day after we arrived and docked at the pier at St. Mary's College of Maryland, school tours of Pride II were on the schedule. These tours are an opportunity of students using the Maryland with PRIDE Internet curriculum to come aboard and learn about their ship first hand.

Guess what school was scheduled to come aboard this morning? Yep, Bannaker-Loveville Elementary - my very own school! It was a big thrill to see my students and show them around Pride II. It was especially fun to show them "my" cabin. They were impressed.

Come along with me and my students from Banneker-Loveville as we take a hands-on School Tour Pride of Baltimore II.

To get you warmed up, you will be raising a sail at your first station. You and a bunch of your classmates will gather in the bow of the ship. Working as a team, you will set the fore staysail - one of the three triangular sails up front. See if you can find the staysail on the ship's Sail Plan. Your tour guide, a member of the crew, will help you pull together by calling out "2 -6." When your guide calls "2-6," that is your cue to yell "heave" and pull together as hard as you can.

As you are pulling on the line, you will notice the huge sail rising in front of you. Can you believe you and your classmates can raise that sail all on your own? Once the sail is set, you will get to take a break and admire your hard work. Then it's back to the downhaul line to pull the sail back down. A sailor's work is never done.

At midship, you will get to see some of the tools a sailor uses. A block and tackle (like a pulley) makes the sailor's work much easier by adding mechanical advantage to raising the sails. A block and tackle (pulley) is like having 5 people help you pull on a line. Look around the ship. How many block and tackle do you see?

The crew uses a caulking mallet and an iron to pound caulk (looks like a piece of rope) and tar in the narrow spaces between the boards on the deck. This will help prevent the ship from leaking down below, which the crew appreciates on a rainy day.

At the stern of the ship you will see the helm. The helm is like a giant steering wheel. The helm controls the rudder which turns the ship. The captain uses a chart to plot his course and a compass to help guide the ship while it is underway. Other instruments tell the captain how fast the wind is blowing and how far over the ship is leaning (heeling).

Down below, you get to see where the captain, officers, and crew live, eat, and sleep. Their kitchen is called a galley and their bathroom is called a head. In the aft cabin, the captain, first mate and, second mate live and work. Here you will find many important instruments that help them guide the ship safely from port to port.

At the end of the tour, the First Mate, Mr. TomTom, gave all my students wooden nickels with the Maryland with PRIDE web address on it as a souvenir. They thought that was cool.

Go to Part 2 of the October 25, 1999 Log