The Captain's Logs are below.

Back to Captain Logs 2000

Our Stay in St. Michaels

Our stay in St. Michaels was a very productive one for maintenance. We had discovered a minor problem with the sheave pin of the starboard coarse yardarm while we were still in Baltimore - a matter of its not spinning freely. So the coarse yard was lowered in St. Michaels and work commenced on it. The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels is one of my favorite stops in Chesapeake Bay. The Museum is very understanding about ship maintenance. The visitors to the museum also understand about ship work. I bet they prefer to see a real ship under repair instead of a pristine life size model of an 1812-era privateer.

We also took advantage of the Museum's work floats (rafts) and the crew spent a whole day sanding and painting Pride II's black hull and bulwark paint.

Ever seen pictures of coal minors after a long day of work? The crew had that look at the end of the day. But after all was cleaned up, the improvement to the ship was very noticeable.

Sailing Chasseur

Since Pride II was not scheduled to do any day sails while in St. Michaels, the crew decided to take advantage of the pleasant surroundings and launched our deck boat, Chasseur, in preparation of its use during the crew's time off. Chasseur is a very nicely finished clinker-built (lap-strake planked) pulling boat of European heritage. Her plumb stem, plumb transom, full sections, and notched out oarlocks cut into her sheer plank are all features common to 18th century European boat construction. American privateers are reputed to have freely commandeered these small boats from their captured prizes instead of depending only on American built small boats. Chasseur was built at the same time as Pride II by Mike Medford, one of the shipwrights who worked on Pride II. In fact, he was the one who knew where Chasseur's original drawings were. Tom Gillmer, Pride II's designer, reworked the plans to fit her aboard Pride II. Chasseur has a sailing rig and can be rowed by four oars or sculled by one oar. She is unique in that she has no centerboard. This was a decision arrived at by Pride II's builder, Peter Boudreau, after consulting with me. His idea was that by leaving out the centerboard, it would be possible to load 55-gallon drums into Chasseur if ever Pride II found herself in a remote location where she could not get along side a dock. This would not be practical if Chasseur had a centerboard. I agreed and so we now have a ship's boat that sails, but not close to the wind. She can be tacked and is pretty easily driven in light airs. But in choppy water, she would be hard pressed to claw to windward. However, she reaches very well! She also rows quite well, although her hefty beam prevents her from being as fast as other vessels of similar but narrower design. During our stay in St. Michaels, the crew took full advantage of Chasseur and added another very pretty picture to the St. Michaels scene.

Poplar Island Reclamation Project

Our transit toward Cambridge started out Sunday in a flat calm, part of the current heat wave. By midday, Pride II was again in Chesapeake Bay near Poplar Island, which is being re-established with dredge material from maintenance dredging of the commercial shipping channels leading into Baltimore harbor. Those of us who know the local area marveled at the scope of the retaining wall establishing the new Poplar Island. Knowing about the reclamation project and seeing it first hand are two very different things. My father knew the island when it was a lot larger than it is now. I knew it as a kid when it was larger than it is now but smaller than when my father knew it. The reclaimed island is planned to be larger than when I knew it as a kid.

The Poplar Island Reclamation Project represents an interesting partnership between organizations that often find themselves in conflict. Everyone who lives near the water of Chesapeake Bay share a concern about the collapsing shoreline. This phenomenon has several negative effects. The deep-water channel fills in with the fallen in land and run off silt. The landowners lose their valuable waterside land. Meanwhile, with the sea life of the Bay already affected by silting and pollution, there are few places to put dredge material for fear of acerbating the dwindling sea life problem. Over time, even the option of putting the dredge material ashore is disappearing as the popularity (and cost) of waterfront land increases beyond anything except high density use.

However, with a little cooperative ingenuity, a plan has been reached that helps the Maryland Port Authority find a place to put clean dredge material, helps reduce the rate of land erosion, plus provides an unexpected boon to area birds. By rebuilding Poplar Island with dredge material and keeping the renewed land as a protected nature preserve, the birds get a new place to nest. At the same time the land to the east and southeast of the island does not erode away as quickly during the winter winds that come out of the west and northwest, since Poplar Island now acts as a barrier.

As magical as this appears, there are still problems. The distance the dredge material must be hauled is so great that it drives the cost of dredging higher than it has ever been. So there are still efforts to find other less costly places to put the material. Cost is a taxpayer issue as well as an issue for commercial ships, which could go to other ports instead of Baltimore. If they do, what happens to the jobs that exist now because of ships calling on the port? Also, what happens to dredge material when Poplar Island is complete? With the rising desire to live near the Bay, will Poplar Island be enough to help the displaced bird population? Will the reclamation project provide marshland (the most important food source for Bay area wildlife) that is also disappearing due to population encroachment? As you can imagine, these arguments (and more) will go on for some time. But I think it is wonderful that one of Chesapeake Bay's disappearing islands is being rebuilt and being left to nature through an effort to solve an entirely different and modern problem.

On to Cambridge

As we passed by Poplar Island and the light breeze filled in from the southeast, the crew got another chance to drill on sail evolutions. Pride II tacked down the Bay to a point just south of (the former) Sharp's Island, which is no longer visible due to erosion, and sailed into the Choptank River. We finally anchored on the river's south shore just west of Castle Haven Point at 1900 hours. By 2000 hours the crew was done securing the ship. By 2030 hours the ship was quiet.

After a full night's rest at anchor in calm conditions and a good breakfast, the crew spent an hour this morning scrubbing Pride II down with soap and lots of water. They also polished the brass. With some free time to kill before it was necessary to get underway, I held another crew muster and we talked about sail evolution. But soon it was time to get underway and prepare to arrive off Cambridge at midday. All sail was set, including maintopsail, gants'le and jibtopsail. In the heat and light wind, this was hot work. But still the work was not as hot as being ashore where temperatures were promised to get into the low 90's. Then the wind died. So we had to motor to keep to the schedule.

Once all sail was set, the crew got into their public uniform and the gunner got the cannons ready. As Pride II eased along the town waterfront, we discharged some six cannons. Once Pride II entered the little channel of Cambridge harbor, all sail came down quickly and orderly. As crew cleared decks of loose line and set up the dock lines and fenders, I maneuvered Pride II near to the dock. At the last minute, the last two guns were shot into the inner harbor of Cambridge. Once alongside the dock, the crew set about getting the laundry sent ashore with two of their mates. Then the rest of the crew turned to getting the small boats over the side, two awnings set, and Pride II's literature on display for visitors to see (which included the schedule of events while in Cambridge). Once that was done, it was on to stowing the three jibs, the foretopsail, the gants'le and the maintopsail. Somewhere in there, time will be taken to connect electrical power and drinking water from shore to ship. All these chores won't be finished till near 5 p.m., another active day for the crew of Pride of Baltimore II.

Cheers,
Captain Miles