Sunday, September 6, 2015

Yesterday was a fun day. The senior couples in the mission booked a ride on the Pride of Baltimore II.  Tickets were only $45/person for a two hour trip.  The ship is an authentic reproduction of a 19th century schooner.  This one was built in 1988 and requires a crew of 12 to keep it running.  We left the inner harbor of Baltimore and under the schooner's power, headed toward the Key Bridge.

The Key bridge is named after Francis Scott Key, who wrote the words for what is now called The Star Spangled Banner.  He was in the harbor about where the Key bridge is today, negotiating the release of a friend of his who had been taken prisoner by the British marines.

Key had to stay on board one of the British ships all night while the Brits shot their mortars at Fort McHenry all night.  He was no doubt inspired when in the dawn's early light he was able to see that our flag was still flying at Fort McHenry.

Once we were about a half mile off the shore of Fort McHenry the crew set the sails and we started a slow, very slow sail back to the inner harbor.  Slow, because the breeze had died to almost nothing.