Tall Ships, Visiting Vessels Coming to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

     St. Michaels, Md. -- The St. Michaels harbor will transform to an image of days gone by with several tall ships and visiting vessels docking at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (CBMM) beginning this May and continuing throughout the month of June.

      From May 5-12, the schooner Sultana will be dockside at the museum, and open for boarding to all CBMM visitors from 2:30 to 4:30 pm on Tuesday, May 8. The schooner Sultana is a replica of a Boston-built merchant vessel that served for four years as the smallest schooner ever in the British Royal Navy. Using the British Admiralty’s documentation of the original Sultana, she has been recreated to offer a glimpse of 18th-century seafaring life. Launched in 2001 at her base port of Chestertown, MD, Sultana provides educational programs for more than 5,000 students each year.

     From June 4-7, the schooner Wolf comes to the CBMM, with free dockside tours offered from 1 to 3pm each day. The Wolf is a classic 74' topsail schooner built in the early 1980s in Panama City, FL and now home ported in Key West, FL. The Wolf sails the seven seas representing Key West and the Conch Republic, and is available for charters in Florida, Bahamas, Jamaica and other ports in the Caribbean and US.

     From June 15-17, the replica tall ship HMS Bounty will be harbor side at CBMM, offering tours to CBMM and Antique & Classic Boat Festival visitors at $10 for adults, $5 for children, and free for children five and under. A replica of the tall ship known for the infamous 1789 mutiny in Tahiti, the current HMS Bounty was built in 1960 for the movie, “Mutiny on the Bounty,” and was later featured in “Treasure Island” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.” Now touring the U.S. East Coast after a European tour, the tall ship offers dockside tours, sail training and youth educational programs.

     On June 22 and 23, the Pride of Baltimore II will be dockside at CBMM, with tours available to museum visitors. An 1812-era topsail schooner privateer reproduction, Pride of Baltimore II is Maryland’s working symbol of the great natural resources and spectacular beauty of the Chesapeake Bay region. Pride of Baltimore II was commissioned in 1988 as a sailing memorial to her immediate predecessor, the original Pride of Baltimore, which was sunk by a white squall off Puerto Rico in 1986. Both ships were built in the Inner Harbor as reproductions of 1812-era topsail schooners, the type of vessels, called Baltimore Clippers, which helped America win the War of 1812 and finally secure its freedom.

     From June 22-24, the Viking ship Norseman will be at the museum offering a real-life look at a Viking ship and the type of people who sailed them more than 1,000 years ago. Norseman is a 40-foot half-scale replica of the famous Gokstad ship that represents one of the many types of sailing vessels built and designed by Vikings. The Norseman's crew will wear authentic Viking attire at a small encampment, which will be complete with iron and woodworking tools, and period music. The ship is based in Wilmington, DE at the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard.

      For more information about other upcoming events at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, visit www.cbmm.org, or call 410-745-2916.