Here you see the Pride of Baltimore in 2012, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the war of 1812 by sailing past and saluting Fort McHenry.
Leighton Archive Images
The Fort is where Francis Scott Key penned his patriotic poem “The Star Spangled Banner.” Key was inspired by the unexpected American defeat of the British invaders, which prevented them from capturing Baltimore, Maryland, late in the War.
His poem became the lyrics to our national anthem, which will be heard countless times throughout our land today and tomorrow.
There were other significant American victories in that War to keep our independence, especially by the emerging Navy and citizen privateers who were licensed to harass and capture British ships. This is where the Pride of Baltimore fits in.
The 100-foot Pride is a reproduction of a typical 19th Century Baltimore Clipper Topsail Schooner of the type used as privateers in the four-year War. Those clippers were small but agile warships that were remarkably successful in capturing and harassing enemy merchant and war ships.
The clipper shown here actually is Pride of Baltimore II. She was launched in 1988 as a replacement for another reproduced clipper of the same name that was sunk in a squall in 1986. However, both Prides were named indirectly in honor of the Baltimore Clipper Chasseur, one of the most famous of the American privateers.
The Chasseur (meaning hunter in French) sank or captured at least 17 enemy vessels before returning to her hometown at War’s end. Upon seeing Chasseur’s victorious return up the Chesapeake Bay, the city’s largest newspaper dubbed her “the pride of Baltimore.” (From Brooklin, Maine)