Pride Of Baltimore

GO SAIL IN THE HARBOR Visit the Pride of Baltimore II when it docks in Baltimore this weekend. The tall ship, an 1812-era reproduction Baltimore clipper, will be open throughout the weekend for free deck tours and day sails, including a one-way trip from Baltimore to Annapolis. .................... The Pride of Baltimore II will be in the Inner Harbor tomorrow through Sunday and in Annapolis Tuesday. Free deck tours will be available 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday. Day sails will be held tomorrow and Saturday at the Inner Harbor and Tuesday in Annapolis 4 p.m.-7 p.m.; Sunday, day sails will be 9 a.m.-noon and 2 p.m.-5 p.m. Tickets are $45. The one-way day sail from Baltimore to Annapolis is 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday, and tickets cost $65. Day sails are limited to 35 passengers; reservations required.

In a sepia-tinted scene lifted straight from a 19th-century Baltimore shipyard, men wielding ancient mallets and caulking irons worked their way down the deck of the 1854 warship Constellation, hammering oakum yarn into the ship's seams, sealing them against the rain.This week, the riggers have held center stage, hoisting painted spars and freshly tarred lines into place. Below them, shipwrights armed with saws and sledges raced to wrap up 2 1/2 years of restoration work, readying the ship for Friday morning's return to the Inner Harbor.

Ann Roche Kidd, 71, former Otterbein residentAnn Roche Kidd, a devoted wife and mother, died Tuesday at Northern Michigan Hospital in Petoskey, Mich., from complications from a stroke. She was 71.Mrs. Kidd was born in New York City and raised in Newburgh, N. Y., where she attended St. Mary's Seminary.Mrs. Kidd graduated from the former Maryland College for Women in Baltimore in 1950, where she was listed in Who's Who in American Universities and Colleges.She married John C. Kidd in 1951, and moved with him to Trieste, Italy.

In the last half-century, Maryland built connectors between big chunks of geography:A bridge over Outer Baltimore Harbor, twin spans over Chesapeake Bay, a bridge over the Susquehanna River, two tunnels under the harbor, a speedway around Baltimore, superhighways east and west, north and south and an airport to the world.As we near the moment when we first face the strangeness of writing "2000" on checks, some Marylanders wonder if they have connected enough with each other in a state whose population has quadrupled since 1900.

SHANGHAI, China -- "Look! Look!" Samantha Heyman said excitedly as she grasped a fried crab cake between a pair of chopsticks while standing along the banks of the Huangpu River."

OSAKA, Japan -- Maryland's goodwill ambassador, Pride of Baltimore II, is scheduled to arrive here today, making its first visit to Japan.The Pride -- the only existing replica of an 1812-era "Baltimore Clipper" topsail schooner -- is touring Asia on its longest voyage, with stops that have included ports in China.The crew includes Leslie Ann Bridgett, a Charles County teacher who will be visiting schools in Japan during stops here and in Nagoya, Yokohama, Kawasaki and Tokyo. The Pride will turn homeward July 31, calling on ports along the West Coast before an expected arrival in Baltimore in late November.

Social calendarDec. 13: 1998 AIRS Holiday Gathering will be held at a Guilford home at 5 p.m. Benefits the Don Miller House and AIRS (AIDS Interfaith Residential Services) Family Program. $60. Call 410-433-1109.Dec. 18: The Maryland-DC Minority Supplier Development Council is sponsoring Business After Dark, BAD, at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Cocktail reception and a performance Handel's "Messiah." 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tickets $150 for reception and performance. Call 410-997-7599.Dec. 19: Maryland Artists Equity Foundation's Winners Circle Exhibition will feature the works of 28 alumni, all of whom are winners of past scholarship competitions.

ABOARD THE PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II -- "Let's shoot all four of them!" called Capt. Jan Miles, to the ship's eager gunner, John Paul Hope, who scurried into place."

SHANGHAI, China -- If you're planning a trade mission in the rapidly changing world of global finance, you might do better to rely on a 747 than a 19th-century Baltimore Clipper ship.That's one of the early lessons of the Pride of Baltimore II's goodwill tour of Asia, which until last summer was the star of the world's economy. As the Pride arrived here last week at its first port of call in China, the region continued its struggle to climb out of a financial crisis that has seen currency values plummet and millions lose their jobs.

Daniel S. Parrott, who swabbed the decks of the original Pride of Baltimore and met his wife on the second one, rejoined the schooner this week to skipper a leg of its yearlong voyage to Asia.The Pride of Baltimore II appointed Parrott, 36, interim captain for 5,000-mile stretch from Panama to Hawaii. The trip amounts to a tryout for Parrott, the leading candidate to become one of the ship's two permanent captains."I'm delighted to be aboard," Parrott said yesterday, speaking by satellite phone as the Pride sailed in a warm, windy Caribbean about 240 miles east of the Panama Canal.

The captain and crew of Maryland's Pride of Baltimore II are turning to technology to tackle a centuries-old problem: how to keep the tall-masted clipper cruising comfortably when sails are unfurled and winds kick up. Seafarers say the challenge has grown more acute as masters and mates move from ship to ship with the seasons, producing new skippers who may not know enough about the conditions that could tilt the decks of classic vessels to uncomfortable, or...

Gerald Frank Lewis Trobridge, a mariner who sailed around the world in a boat that he built and later used his blacksmithing and machinist skills to help build the original Pride of Baltimore, died Sunday of complications from a stroke at St. Agnes Hospital. He was 94. Mr. Trobridge, who was known as "Gerry," was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. He dropped out of high school during the 1930s and became an apprentice blacksmith to help support his family after his father lost his job during the Depression.

As the Pride of Baltimore II cleared the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and headed toward Annapolis, the young crew flew into action. They yanked lines to adjust the heavy canvas sails of the clipper ship to move against the wind. The captain swung the wheel to steer parallel to shore in a zigzag pattern. With the sun lowering in the sky, the six-hour jaunt from Baltimore was nearly over, but the work was picking up. In windy, 30-degree temperatures, the 10-person crew raced from one side to the other, often heaving their entire bodies to move the heavy lines just a few feet to adjust the sails of the 185-ton ship.

Children from Roye-Williams Elementary near Aberdeen had boned up on state history, wrapped up a week of standardized tests and arrived ready yesterday to assess their seamanship during a one-hour tour of Maryland's famous tall ship. With the waters of the Susquehanna River glistening in the background and a stiff breeze blowing through the rigging, the crew introduced the children to the Pride of Baltimore II, which had docked in the harbor at Havre de Grace for a four-day visit. As it makes its way to various ports along the Chesapeake Bay and beyond, this symbol of maritime heritage offers children hands-on learning aboard a Baltimore clipper, which was the fastest ship of its era, said Linda Christenson, executive director.

GO SAIL IN THE HARBOR Visit the Pride of Baltimore II when it docks in Baltimore this weekend. The tall ship, an 1812-era reproduction Baltimore clipper, will be open throughout the weekend for free deck tours and day sails, including a one-way trip from Baltimore to Annapolis. .................... The Pride of Baltimore II will be in the Inner Harbor tomorrow through Sunday and in Annapolis Tuesday. Free deck tours will be available 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday. Day sails will be held tomorrow and Saturday at the Inner Harbor and Tuesday in Annapolis 4 p.m.-7 p.m.; Sunday, day sails will be 9 a.m.-noon and 2 p.m.-5 p.m. Tickets are $45. The one-way day sail from Baltimore to Annapolis is 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday, and tickets cost $65. Day sails are limited to 35 passengers; reservations required.

HOLIDAY EVENT THANKSGIVING PARADE Usher in the holidays with the Best Buy Thanksgiving Parade downtown Saturday. This year's 55th annual parade includes marching bands from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Randallstown High School and Dulaney High School, as well as the Baltimore Westsiders, Charm City Challengers and USA Cheerleaders. Other participants include Miss Maryland 2006, Mrs. Maryland International, the Baltimore City Mounted Police and performers from the Night of 100 Elvises.

What can a landlubber say about riding with a seasoned crew of the Pride of Baltimore II? My head still swims with the nautical terminology that I couldn't quite grasp. I boarded in Solomons for the two-day trip up Chesapeake Bay to the Pride's home port. It was intimidating, as I gingerly went below deck for the first time, wondering how many people busted their behinds after slipping on the almost-vertical stairs. Fortunately, I have not one mishap to report. Not that such thoughts didn't cross my mind.

The Volvo Ocean Race fleet was competing in the Chesapeake Bay yesterday, but even on land Valerie Callahan could relate to the sailors. The Anne Arundel County woman took a turn in a Volvo boat simulator at the Inner Harbor during yesterday's Waterfront Festival, emerging from the van-sized moving theater slightly soggy. "It was fun, yes," said Callahan, who hails from Shady Side, as she took off a yellow poncho provided to riders by ABN AMRO, a Netherlands-based international bank sponsoring two racing teams, which brought in the simulator.

Pride of Baltimore Inc., the nonprofit group that sails a replica of a 19th-century clipper ship from the Inner Harbor, will continue to sell ice cream at a kiosk under a legal settlement approved by the Board of Estimates yesterday. The agreement, which requires the group to pay $25,000 in annual rent, ends the group's long-running battle with the city over its vending business on the waterfront. As part of the settlement, City Hall will make a $40,000 grant to the group that will be used for its capital campaign to re-rig the Pride of Baltimore II. The ship lost both masts while sailing off the coast of France last year, according to the group's Internet site.

Capt. Paul J. Esbensen, retired senior marine investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board who investigated the sinking of the Pride of Baltimore and later helped restore the Liberty ship John W. Brown, died of heart failure Thursday at Anne Arundel Medical Center. He was 76. Captain Esbensen was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised on Staten Island. After graduating from New Dorp High School in 1947, Captain Esbensen began his maritime career as an ordinary seaman on an Army transport until entering the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, N.Y., in 1948.