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.

NOAA Issues Special Navigation ‘Booklet Charts’ to Commemorate the War of 1812

     Baltimore, Md. -- As the nation kicks off maritime celebrations to commemorate the War of 1812, NOAA is releasing special navigation products that will help recreational boaters enjoy the festivities safely.

     Beginning this month, the public will have free online access to special Booklet Charts that include nautical charts, OPSail® tall ship parade routes, and historical background for activities planned in five ports holding official bicentennial events. 

     NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey is working closely with the U.S. Navy and port officials to make the commemorative events come alive with historical information for War of 1812 activities in New Orleans (April 17-23), New York (May 23-30), Norfolk (June 2-12), Baltimore (June 13-19) and Boston (June 29-July 6). 

     Coast Survey has also produced commemorative chart posters for the five ports. The PDF posters, available free from the web, depict naval stories from the War of 1812, illustrated with historical charts and artwork. 

     The commemorative editions of the Booklet Charts and posters can be downloaded from NOAA’s War of 1812 website and are developed from the current experimental Booklet Charts, which can be downloaded and printed at home. As people use the site to help make their plans for War of 1812 activities, they will also find links to timely navigation information, ocean observations, and up-to-date marine weather. 

     In 1807, it was common to lose ships to accidents in U.S. coastal waters. The nation needed nautical charts, so President Thomas Jefferson signed a law authorizing the Survey of the Coast. The survey would measure water depths, establish a spatial reference system to determine location, and produce the nation’s navigational charts. 

     As relations among the United States, England, and France grew contentious, Jefferson instituted an economic embargo against both nations. With the U.S. recalling American seamen and effectively terminating the American merchant marine and international trade, the result was a stalled Survey of the Coast for the rest of the Jefferson Administration. 

     Jefferson's successor, James Madison, reinstituted the survey and during a thaw in relations between the two countries sent Ferdinand Hassler, the first head of the Survey of the Coast, to England in late 1811 to buy survey instruments. President Madison declared war on England eight months after Hassler's arrival in London, and he was unable to return to the U.S. until 1817. 

     Years of debate and struggles over control of the new agency ensued, however, and the actual Survey of the Coast didn’t begin until 1832. When U.S. Coast Survey Superintendent Alexander Bache took over in 1843, the U.S. Coast Survey picked up steam and, by 1860, had deployed survey teams to all parts of the growing nation’s coastline. 

     Today, America’s coastal waters remain as central to the nation’s prosperity as they were 200 years ago. Mariners and others still rely on NOAA’s Coast Survey charts, constantly updated with the accuracy and precision needed to protect life and property. 

     NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels. 

On the Web:
Office of Coast Survey: http://www.nauticalcharts.gov/
NOAA War of 1812 web site: http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/WarOf1812
NOAA Booklet Charts: http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staff/BookletChart.html
NOAA on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/usnoaagov
NOAA on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/usnoaagov
NOAA on Social Media: http://www.noaa.gov/socialmedia