Sailing, Sailing

The morning of September 28, I was going to sea in a tall ship. The day was cold and gray with a slow steady drizzle. Fog was creeping in. I was wondering how the captain would be able to see where he was going. The ship looks so old-fashioned that I had forgotten about radar, compasses, and modern navigational equipment. The ship was waiting for a few more passengers before it set sail.

My son, Jim, came to the dock to say good-bye, but I couldn't talk to him. The gangplank had been taken in and we were underway. It made me think of all the real sailors who had to say good-bye to their families for such a long time - sailors like the crew of Pride of Baltimore II. I didn't have time to think for very long because the crew was setting the sails (putting them up). You know, a mast on a tall ship is very high. Pride II's masts are around 100 feet.

Do you remember how scary it was when the gym teacher made you climb the rope to the ceiling of the gym? Well, imagine that you are ten times higher, and there is wind and rain while the ship is rocking! That 's what our crew does every time they set sail. I hope they don't have to ask me to do that! A little while later, it started to really pour down rain. The captain told me that the only thing that would make him take down the sails was lack of wind.

I wished he hadn't said that because a little while later we slowed down to about 2 or 3 knots (a knot is about 1.1 miles per hour). Then we ran out of wind. You might think that I'm going to tell you that we are still out there, or we had to be rescued. But not so!

Captain Miles turned on our trusty, twin 150 horsepower diesel engines, and off we went heading for Baltimore Harbor. I forget to tell you about the sails. After all the work of putting them up, we had to take them down again. Everyone who wanted to was invited to help. I helped, too. It is hard to work as a team when there are so many people doing the same job. But sailors have songs and chants like you do when you jump rope. That helps keep everyone together. Not too long after that, we passed the Bay Bridge. I wondered if we would touch the bridge with our mast, but we cleared it with ease. It just looked scary.

It was a blast coming into Baltimore's harbor. Really! The gunner, Dave Brindle, was preparing the cannon for firing. Usually, Pride II fires her four deck cannons when she enters a harbor - to get everybody's attention. The gunner had prepared the load (gunpowder) earlier in the day and it was ready to go. First he placed it into the cannon with a ramrod. He packed it tight. The tighter the load, the louder the sound. Then he put loose gunpowder down a small hole in the back of the cannon, called a touch hole. He first cleared the touch hole with a pick. He told us to watch for him putting on his safety headset - that was when he was about to fire it. He also told us to listen for him to yell, "Fire in the hole!" That's when we should cover our ears.

Just as we were passing Fort McHenry, the gunner looked for a signal from Captain Miles. When he saw the signal, he lit the touch hole with a slow light (long wooden stick) yelling as he did it, "Fire in the hole!" What happened next was awesome. The noise was so loud it felt like shock waves through my body. The smoke was so thick you hardly see the front of the ship. Just then it came to me what the words "rockets red glare and bombs busting in air" really meant.

I knew from the story that it was hard for Francis Scott Key to see the huge flag flying over Fort McHenry from the ship where he was watching the bombardment of the fort during the War of 1812. In that battle, smoke came from many more cannons then we fired. (Key's ship might have been sitting at this very spot in the harbor!) When the smoke did clear and the dawn broke, Francis Scot Key saw the American flag flying over Ft. McHenry. He then knew that the Americans had withstood the bombardment and that the British had not won the battle. He was so thankful that he was inspired to write The Star Spangled Banner.

Our gunner repeated this lighting process three more times. Every deck cannon was fired. A funny thing happened just as the gunner was ready to fire one of the cannons. We were passing the old burned out Baltimore and Ohio Railroad building. One of the passengers said to the gunner, "Look, you hit your target!" Everyone thought that was funny. These cannons have no cannon balls, so they can't hurt anything. It just seemed like perfect timing. We continued to move down the harbor until we reached our destination near the Science Center. We will be docked here in Baltimore's Inner Harbor for the rest of the week.

Baltimore, Pride II's Home Port

While Pride II is in port, the crew does maintenance on the ship and Erin goes out to buy supplies for her cooking needs. Did you know that ships dress? That's what its called when you see all those flags draped over the masts. They are placed in a certain order and mean certain things. Pride II only does this for special events, like the Open House in Annapolis. When we went through that terrible rain, the flags got wet. For a few hours, we had our cabins dressed while the flags dried out.

Then Tim, the Second Mate, carefully rolled each one and placed in it a special box made just for holding flags. While he did the flag folding, he gave me an unscheduled mini-lesson on the use of flags and their messages. Flags aren't used much today as signals because there are more modern ways to send messages. But sometimes ships do fly flags in a new harbor. If you see a ship in a harbor flying a yellow square flag, that means that they have their own pilot aboard and won't need help getting into port. Do you fly a flag at your house? Does it give a message?

While the ship is in port, there might be a change of captains or crew members. On some days, school children are scheduled to tour Pride II. Have you ever taken a School Tour of Pride II? You could. During School Tours, the crew gets to do my job and become teachers. They teach children about a clipper ship.

My job will be to take you around my new neighborhood here in Baltimore. Do you know your neighbors pretty well? My neighbors are the people on the boats that surround me. Instead of robins or finches, I see sea gulls and pigeons.

I hear the sound of ship horns, not car horns. How about the sounds in your neighborhood? Listen for them tomorrow morning on your way to school. Sunrise and sunset over the harbor is very beautiful. It is almost too beautiful to describe. I hope you get to see it one day. But you can always look outside your house on a clear day and see a beautiful sunrise or sunset.

Now that I'm in Baltimore, I thought it would be a great idea to invite you along on a tour of some of the newer attractions in the Inner Harbor. I haven't seen then before, so we will go exploring together. I'm going to take a Water Taxi because two of the buildings are across the harbor and it might be a faster way for me to get there. Besides, who could ask for a better way to get to work? Once I got on the Water Taxi, they gave me a tattoo (stamp on my hand) so that I could ride all day for $4.50. What a deal!

Continue with Part 3 of the Oct. 4, 1999 Log

Return to Part 1 of the Oct. 4, 1999 Log