An Interesting Day, It Was

[Oswego John]

Hello All,

I spent today down at the waterfront in Oswego. The tall ships are in. Not the entire fleet, but a small contingent of it. Apparently, some of the ships that comprise the fleet are already sailing their home waters of the Great lakes.

During the off time when I wasn't on duty, I chatted with many of the crew of the various ships. Let me tell you, I was in my element. Not much, if anything, has changed. If I were to ignore the date on the calendar, everything I saw today was a carbon copy of life as it was on a sailing ship, sans a new generation of eager civilian cadets. All of the young sailors that I talked with were brimming with the youthful, adventurous attitude and comaraderie that exists in a close quarters exigency. Same ol', same ol'. Just a new day, a new era. A new generation.

Thursday afternoon and early evening, the Unicorn, the Pride of Baltimore and the Lynx eased in to wharf and secured their lines. The crew of each tall ship had different stories to relate. I got the biggest surprise when told of the journey of The Unicorn. It traveled from Halifax westerly up the St Lawrence Seaway to Lake Ontario. The kicker that floored me was that the ship had an all female crew. Is it politically correct for me to say "WOW"?

The crew of the Lynx was nursing their bruises. They had apparently had an unusually rough trip the last week or two and many of them enjoyed a brief, but welcome R & R in town.

As for the Pride of Baltimore, I can't at this time verify the fact, but I think I overheard someone mention that the ship was named P. O. B. II. Maybe some reader can fill us in if this is so, or not. I must inject the fact that I don't recall ever seeing a sailing ship before that had the severly raked masts as that of the Pride. (as the crew referred to their ship)

All in all, for me it was a great day, a great weekend. For the youthful crews, it will be a great summer ahead.

Enjoy life,
O J

[renmihalov]

"On May 14, 1986, returning from Britain on the trade route to the Caribbean, what the US Coast Guard later described as a microburst squall, possibly a white squall, 250 nautical miles (463 km) north of Puerto Rico struck the Pride. Winds of 80 knots (150 km/h; 92 mph) hit the vessel, capsizing and sinking her. Her captain and three crew were lost; the remaining eight crewmembers floated in a partially-inflated life-raft for four days and seven hours with little food or water until the Norwegian tanker Toro came upon them and rescued them." [Wikipedia]

It had been launched in February 1977 as a clipper ship replica to promote Baltimore and its new inner harbor.

[Klem]

OJ,

i thought that I would chime in about the Pride a bit. I have never worked aboard but I have several friends who have and have worked on similar vessels. As mentioned above, you did in fact see Pride II, the original having been lost at sea. The actual story of how it was lost is tragic but also interesting with the problems they had trying to get a liferaft to inflate and not having gotten off a distress call.

Pride is a replica of a Baltimore clipper which were very interesting square topsail schooners. The hull had a very distinctive shape and did not draw very much water since they often sailed in shallow waters and hull design was not as advanced then. Their sailplans were massive for the light summer airs and it made them very fast but they were kind of tender. Just like the old coasting schooners, many of them capsized. Their masts had a lot of rake for several reasons. The rake helped to deal with the lack of a fixed backstay and it helped in conditions where the vessel would roll a lot since it made the sails tend to swing to center. Many offshore schooners have this rake such as Pride, Pride II, Lynx, Harvey Gamage, Bill of Rights, Shenandoah, etc.

There has been lots of debate over the years as to why the original Pride sank. Some contributing factors included off center companionways, a huge rig, and the classic baltimore clipper hull. Some people point to the use of modern rigging since the type of vessel often was dismasted before capsizing but the use of stronger modern rigging prevented that. Pride II is a much more conservative vessel that draws more water and has a much smaller sailplan and more ballast. It is still quite a spectacle when she flies everything including the stunsails and ringtail. Pride II was dismasted in the Med a few years ago when a bowsprit ironwork failed. I believe there is a bunch of information on it on their website but basically, a single point failure lead to the loss of the entire rig very quickly.

I hope that this is useful information on the vessels. For someone who is interested, there is lots more information out there.

[Oswego John]

Klem,

Thanks a lot for the interesting data you provided.

But you got me with the stunsail and ringtail?????

Again, thanks
O J

[Klem]

OJ,

A stunsail is like an extension to a squaresail. There are extra spars that slide out along the yards and another square is flown next to the square topsail/topgallant. I have seen Pride II fly theirs several times. A ringtail is very similar but for a gaff rigged main (or whatever the aftermost sail is since it could be a mizzen or even spanker). The extensions slide along the boom and the gaff. As you can imagine, both of these sails are for light air only and are very rarely used.

[Kquist]

I would love to see pictures if you took any.

[RMeigel]

I paid the big bucks to participate as observer/crew on the Pride II a couple of years ago in the annual Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race. As with many of these ambassador ships, they take on paying guests for passages or daysails. But if they are keeping to a schedule you can end up motor sailing. I wanted to see and feel the crew sailing the boat as hard as they could in a 100% sail effort. It was a great experience. There is a good natured but serious rivalry between the Pride II (Maryland) and the Virginia (guess which state). The Virginia was specially commissioned with the objective of beating Pride II. It took several years for it to happen, that the Virginia is favored by design in certain conditions all other things being equal. In a dramatic development, around midnight with the boats side by side a boat length apart, a mighty crack resounded through the darkness and mist. Scurry and noise on the deck of the Virginia, flashlights pointed up. The gaff timber atop the mainsail had broken close to the mast. She peeled off to collect herself and arrived in Norfolk several hours after the first boats. We stood and lined the length of the Pride as the Virginia passed by where we were tied up, and fired the Pride's cannon to acknowledge their effort. (The Pride II was first in class that year )

A memory that will last a lifetime.

Robin Meigel
s/v Pacem
1979 CD 27