A seven-foot-long replica of the Pride of Baltimore II will go on permanent display Thursday at the Baltimore Visitor Center on Light Street. The scale model was commissioned by the nonprofit Pride of Baltimore Inc. and was built by volunteers from the Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fells Point. It is designed to teach residents and visitors about the sailing vessel, which itself is a reproduction of a circa-1812 Baltimore Clipper topsail schooner, or "privateer," called the Chasseur.
Launched in 1988, the Pride of Baltimore II was built to replace the Pride of Baltimore, which was launched in 1977 and sank in 1986 in a squall north of Puerto Rico. Because the replacement vessel is frequently out of town, officials wanted to create a scale model to serve as an educational tool and a "constant presence" of the vessel in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, said Linda Christenson, executive director of the Pride of Baltimore Inc. The model and its glass case together cost more than $18,000, which was raised by the nonprofit.