Pride of Baltimore II To Visit Straits Area

The Pride of Baltimore II, a reproduction of an 1812-era clipper ship, will offer tours at St. Ignace Labor Day weekend. (Photograph courtesy of Pride, Inc.)

The Pride of Baltimore II, a reproduction topsail schooner, will be at St. Ignace Labor Day weekend to offer deck tours, a reception, and a Labor Day sail under the Mackinac Bridge, said David Swope of St. Ignace Hospitality Growth. The ship will be at the Arnold Line dock, as it is too large to use the city marina.

A reproduction of an 1812era clipper ship, the Pride II calls the Chesepeake Bay region home and is owned by the citizens of Maryland. The ship sails the globe to provide an educational platform about

the maritime sciences and promote Maryland trade and tourism. Commissioned in 1988, she is a sailing memorial to her predecessor, the original Pride of Baltimore, which was the first Baltimore clipper built in 150 years when she was crafted in 1977. The original Pride of Baltimore sailed more than 150,000 nautical miles before she was struck by a freak squall and sunk off the coast of Puerto Rico in 1986.

Pride of Baltimore II has made visits this summer to Bay City's Tall Ship Celebration and tall ship festivals at Green Bay and Chicago.

Pride of Baltimore II will arrive at St. Ignace Friday evening, and offer $5 deck tours September 1 through 3.

A cocktail and hors d'oeuvres reception with deck tour will be offered Sunday from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., featuring entertainment by Mike Ridley. Tickets cost $50 per person. Proceeds from the reception will go toward bringing future tall ships to the city through St. Ignace Hospitality Growth.

The ship will also take passengers under the Mackinac Bridge during the annual Bridge Walk, Mr. Swope said. The five-hour cruise departs at 9 a.m. and will include lunch for $100. The cruise is limited to 34. Tickets are available by calling Mr. Swope at 643-9666.

St. Ignace Hospitality Growth has developed a fiveyear plan to bring tall ships to St. Ignace, Mr. Swope said. The group hosted the schooner Roseway at St. Ignace last summer. Roseway, built in 1925, is a National Historic Landmark and the main educational platform for the World Ocean School of Camden, Maine.

"People are very interested in these ships, and we are working on bringing more tall ships here, starting with another ship, maybe two, for next summer," Mr. Swope said. "We're going to take baby steps to make this happen. It's very expensive to bring them here, but we want to build a program so that these crews know they have a port to come into."

The Sunday reception is the only tall ship event of the weekend that raise funds for the local group, Mr. Swope pointed out. All other activities will be used to pay Pride, Inc., the nonprofit organization that owns

the Pride of Baltimore II, for the ship's visit. Special arrangements were made with the ship's owners for this visit, with a goal of building exposure for the idea at St. Ignace, Mr. Swope said. He noted that Pride Inc. usually charges between $5,000 and $8,000 per day for its attendance at events.

Sponsors of the Pride of Baltimore II's visit are St. Ignace Hospitality Growth, the Chamber of Commerce, Visitors Bureau, and Arnold Transit.

Tickets to the Labor Day events are available from the St. Ignace Chamber of Commerce.