Pride Memorial reminder that life at sea can be tragic-Picture by Rose Hammitt

While visiting Baltimore this Spring, my friend Rose and I found ourselves drawn over and over to the harbor. For two land locked Illinois girls, the water was like a magic call, luring us in. It was when we came to the memorial for the Pride of Baltimore that we received the stark reminder that although the water looks calm, looks can be deceiving. On the website for the ship, the history states, http://www.pride2.org/history/ogp.php , “Pride of Baltimore was built in 1977 in open air shipyard in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. This Pride was the first Baltimore Clipper built in 150 years. She sailed over 150,000 nautical miles in nine years before she was struck by a freak squall and tragically sunk off the coast of Puerto Rico in 1986.”

She sailed for nine years and logged over 150,000 miles serving as a goodwill Ambassador for Baltimore and Maryland. A permanent memorial to the original Pride of Baltimore has been erected in the Inner Harbor on Rash Field. Now the memorial sits in the harbor recognizing the Captain and three crew members reminding as the website states, “those who visit it of the precariousness of life at sea, a lesson the citizens of this great port city once knew well but had long forgotten.”