Tall Ships

The Eagle never slips into port unnoticed. With video camera-toting parents, teary-eyed spouses and squealing children filling the Inner Harbor's brick walkway to greet the nearly 300-foot-long Coast Guard tall ship, Friday was no exception. "Oh my goodness, there it is," cried Sandy Palmer who flew from New Hampshire earlier in the day with her husband to surprise their daughter, an officer candidate aboard the ship. "This is a dream come true. When she said they were going to have liberty in Baltimore, you couldn't keep us away.

Jim Rouse's "festival market place" concept for the Inner Harbor, with retail pavilions and entertainment venues, brought with it the retail industry's pattern of re-branding and call for entertaining with ever new "attractions. " This put the harbor into competition not only with malls but also with amusement parks and beach venues — essentially defining it as a place of entertainment and amusement. Maybe it is time to challenge this paradigm. Should really great locations have to reinvent themselves constantly?

September 1964: Inner Harbor master plan unveiled. April 1973: Dedication of the public wharf on the west shore, where visiting ships dock. April 1974: Construction begins on the Inner Harbor promenade. September 1974: Baltimore City Fair held on the West Shore at what is now Rash Field. June 1976: Maryland Science Center opens. July 1976: Seven tall ships and six military vessels from around the world sail into Baltimore's Inner Harbor to celebrate the nation's bicentennial, revealing the potential of the Inner Harbor as a tourist destination.

Robert Lampe bakes a wicked chocolate bread. He also helps load cannons. He is the cook on the Pride of Baltimore II, a reproduction of the privateers that were built in the Chesapeake Bay and used during the War of 1812. The tall ship sails to ports around the world, representing the Port of Baltimore and the state of Maryland. This week it is scheduled to be in Jacksonville, Fla., en route to Bermuda. I met Lampe, a strapping 29-year-old, a few weeks ago, when the Pride was escorting the Carnival Pride cruise ship in its maiden voyage out of Baltimore's harbor.

There are cruises. And then there are cruises for people who hate cruises - at least of the big-ship variety. Some of the newer ships are so monstrous that you might as well be in Vegas instead of on the water. There's as much temptation to stay aboard as to explore the ports. And for those of us who book cruises to sample several foreign cultures at once, big ships defeat the purpose. But on little ships, there's little to do. As a result, passengers are more likely to venture off to excursions and, on rare occasions, wander beyond the ports.

A training tall ship of the Spanish navy is set to arrive today in the Inner Harbor and be open for tours until Saturday. The Juan Sebastian de Elcano is scheduled to arrive at 10:30 a.m. and dock at the Inner Harbor West Wall, adjacent to the Phillips Harborplace restaurant, said Sail Baltimore, the nonprofit that has organized the visit. The ship has four masts and 20 sails and carries a crew of 230 officers, midshipmen and sailors. The Juan Sebastian de Elcano will be making its seventh visit to Baltimore.

As the Mexican flag flapped in the wind high above the Patapsco River, the crew on the decks of the Cuauhtemoc prepared for the final leg of their trip up the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore awaited them. One sailor dabbed at a white wall with a paintbrush, giving it a final gleam. Others climbed up the masts to partially unfurl the sails. Using an electric pump, another pair of sailors pulled in the anchor, caked with black mud from the bottom of the Chesapeake. With a few short blows from his boatswain's whistle yesterday, a lieutenant directed scores of sailors up the ship's three tall masts.

Phillips Foods World Headquarters was bustling with activity long after work hours on a Friday evening. The activity was also of the after-work sort - drinking, eating and listening to good music - all in the name of raising money for Sail Baltimore. This was the organization's fourth annual "Beer, Boats & Ballads" celebration, already a tradition for some of the guests. And everyone had his or her favorite part. "Raw oysters. Cold and salty," said Jim Stevens, a University of Maryland accountant.

The owner of Baltimore's tallest tall ship, Clipper City, has filed for bankruptcy protection in U.S. District Court to forestall a federal seizure of the schooner and allow him to continuing operating its public sails and charter trips. Lawyers for Clipper City Tall Ship LLC owner John Kircher and its main creditor, Regal Bancorp Inc. of Owings Mills, confirmed yesterday that there is an outstanding debt of $750,000, and that the monthly mortgage payments are in arrears. Kircher, 59, bought the schooner -- which stands 13 stories above the water line -- and its business operation three years ago for $800,000, he said yesterday.