Like many Baltimore-area mariners and motorists, the Pride of Baltimore II’s senior captain always felt a sense of accomplishment after clearing the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
The passage was routine — similar to driving across that same stretch of Interstate 695 — rather than an adventure on its own, said the ship’s longtime captain, Jan Miles. There was always a sense of focus while getting the Baltimore Clipper and its 107-foot mast under the bridge. Then would come the release, that feeling of the beginning of an outing, or the end of a successful one.
It was all different “to an astonishing degree” when the ship went through the same area last week, maneuvering through a temporary channel next to tons of fallen steel, Miles said.
The topsail schooner had been slated to return home to the Baltimore Harbor on March 26 after spending some time in Annapolis for Maryland Day festivities. Those plans were put on hold after the 1.6-mile span collapsed early that morning, killing six construction workers and cutting the harbor off from marine traffic.
Lately, Miles has been describing the ship’s April 8 passage through the wreckage as “a very subduing experience.” What was once a structure that towered over every large ship that had to pass through underneath “is now being towered over by the ship itself.”
“Totally displaced. The tragedy totally displaces everything,” said Miles, who has captained the Pride II since its maiden voyage in 1988.
The first alternate channel opened by Key Bridge Response Unified Command after the collapse, located underneath the shorter of the still-standing bridge sections on either side of the Patapsco River, was both too shallow and too short to allow the Pride II through. A second channel opened to vessel traffic days later, with a vertical clearance high enough to let the Pride II to squeeze through.
Unified Command gave the ship’s crew the OK to return April 8 under a partial solar eclipse. It wasn’t a particularly tough route for the Pride II, a replica of a replica of a 19th century sailing vessel. Miles has captained the Pride II on journeys around the globe and was a captain on the original Pride of Baltimore — though he was not on duty when that ship sank in 1986, killing the working captain and three crew members.
Going through the bridge wreckage, everyone onboard the Pride II knew what to expect, Miles said. They had seen the video of the bridge falling as well as plenty of photos of the wreckage.
“It’s just understanding … the significance of the effort to get it all sorted out,” he said. “The photographs can’t deliver that easily, that sense of the largeness of the situation.”
The Pride II and its crew of less than a dozen were stationed at Fort McHenry on Sunday, giving deck tours as part of their regular programming, which is expected to continue as usual for the rest of the season. Later this spring, the schooner is slated to stop at a few local destinations — Annapolis, Solomons and Havre de Grace — before heading out to Bermuda and New York in the summer.
Meanwhile, Unified Command has announced a schedule for recreational vessels to be allowed through one of the temporary channels Tuesday — out of the harbor from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m., and into the harbor from 6 to 7 p.m. The Army Corps of Engineers said it expects to open a 35-foot deep channel by the end of April and normal access through a 50-foot channel by the end of May.