Skipjacks

Opponent: Halifax CitadelsSite: Baltimore Arena, 7:30Radio: WITH (1230 AM)Tickets: Good seats available.Outlook: The Skipjacks will attempt to string 2 victories together before going on a road trip for 3 games. The Skipjacks will be without D Bobby Babcock (hand) and LW Steve Seftel (knee), who are injured. Coach Rob Laird will probably start Jim Hrivnak in goal. Hrivnak has been assigned to Baltimore by the Washington Capitals, and the Skipjacks goalie, Ollie Kolzig, has been sent to the Hampton Roads Admirals of the ECHL.

1st Mariner Arena will host the second Baltimore Hockey Classic next fall when the Washington Capitals play the Boston Bruins in an NHL preseason game on Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. "The Bruins coming to town makes this a special event," said Frank Remesch, general manager of 1 s t Mariner Arena. "That same night, the Orioles play the Red Sox, which adds to the spice. People can root against Boston twice. " Two years ago, in the first Baltimore Hockey Classic, the Capitals lost, 2-0 to the Nashville Predators before an announced crowd of 11,082.

VS. SPRINGFIELD INDIANS* WHEN: Tonight, 7:30.* WHERE: Baltimore Arena.* RADIO: WLIF-AM 1300.* OUTLOOK: This is the Skipjacks' last regular-season meeting with the Indians (37-27-9) and the series is tied, 2-2-1. The Jacks beat and tied the AHL North leaders in their last two meetings, both at Springfield. Clinging to third place in the South by two points over Adirondack, the Skipjacks hope they're catchinng Springfield, 1-2-2 in their last five games, at the right time.

April 20, 2002: The Ravens select Miami safety Ed Reed with their No. 1 pick (24th overall) in the NFL draft. It's the first time the club has failed to get a college player ranked among its top 15 choices. April 20, 1985: The Skipjacks, Baltimore's American Hockey League team, defeat the Rochester Americans, 6-1, to advance to the Calder Cup semifinals. Jon Casey's 20 saves spark the Skipjacks, who'll go on to reach the finals before losing to the Sherbrooke Canadiens. April 19, 1971: Fred Carter's basket gives the visiting Bullets a 93-91 Game 7 over their nemeses, the New York Knicks, and sends Baltimore to the NBA Finals.

Capt. Frank J. Coulter, a retired decorated career naval officer who commanded the submarine USS Skipjack in the Pacific Theater during World War II, died June 21 of respiratory failure at his Severna Park home. He was 93. The son of a police officer and a homemaker, Captain Coulter was born in Baltimore and raised in Canton, and later in the 1600 block of N. Broadway. After graduating from Polytechnic Institute in 1935, he earned his bachelor's degree from the Naval Academy in 1939.

Baltimore should have a landmark structure that is uniquely Baltimore and becomes its trademark to all the world. The Sun is right in its editorial ("Inner Harbor Eiffel Tower?" May 6) — none of the current proposals come anywhere close to making the grade. As we embark on the American Visionary Arts Museum annual Kinetic Arts Race, an idea occurs to me: How about a gigantic whirligig that towers over the Inner Harbor and incorporates iconic Baltimore images? Imagine our own Watts Tower that includes images of beehives and skipjacks, crabs and beer, Orioles and Ravens and Colts, tire planters and pink flamingos, Mr. Boh and Nipper.

Those who sail or make their living on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries know that the water is no stranger to sudden and freakish weather conditions. Such was the case in February 1939, when a squall swept across the bay and up the Choptank River, catching the oyster-dredging fleet unaware. And in a matter of minutes, the quickly moving storm left nine watermen dead while sending several skipjacks and bugeyes to the bottom. The forgotten disaster was resurrected in Christopher White's recently published book, "Skipjack: The Story of America's Last Sailing Oystermen."

ST. MICHAELS - The deck of the Caleb W. Jones gleams with a fresh coat of white paint, as does the new cabin aft. Down below, though, the 55-year-old skipjack is showing its age - and even some daylight. You can poke three fingers through a hole in its rotted wooden hull. Built in 1953, this remnant of the Chesapeake Bay's fading fleet of sail-powered oyster dredging boats is getting an extreme makeover at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. On dry ground for now, the Caleb's hull is being taken apart and put back together again, a timber and plank at a time.

The Martha Lewis, one of Maryland's few remaining skipjacks, will return to its home port in Havre de Grace today with a cargo of watermelons from the Eastern Shore. The crew promises to give away dozens of hefty melons in exchange for a donation to the Chesapeake Heritage Conservancy, the ship's owner. "Be here about 6 p.m., and the crew will sign the watermelon, too," said Mac Taylor, a volunteer sailor who was making the three-day trip to St. Michaels and back. The ship, flying its Maryland and Havre de Grace flags, sailed from its berth in Tydings Park Thursday, loaded with about 400 pounds of grapes, harvested that same morning at the nearby Mount Felix Vineyard.

Peter Ianniello gathered the first harvest of grapes from his Harford County vineyard and trucked them to a dock in Havre de Grace. To get the two-ton load of fruit to a winemaker in St. Michaels, workers spent an hour putting them on a skipjack for the nine-hour trip to the Eastern Shore. "It took a lot more time to pick than it did to load," Ianniello said, as the captain and crew of the Martha Lewis handled more than 130 crates. Though intended as a historic re-creation of sorts, yesterday's operation presented a contrast to the classic imagery of the skipjack as an oyster dredging vessel.