The Pride of Baltimore II — the replica of a 19th-century clipper ship often found moored in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor — is setting sail this weekend to make a special delivery.
Its cargo: An 8-inch-tall wooden cross destined for a small, rural church in Historic St. Mary’s City, Maryland.
The sailing execise is one of a series of events this year to mark Maryland Day — March 25, 1634, when settlers from Britain first landed at what is now St. Mary’s County.
“We’re excited for Pride II to be launching her sailing season by commemorating Maryland’s past,” Rick Scott, executive director of Pride of Baltimore Inc., said in a statement. “This will be a great start to a year that also looks toward Maryland’s future, both in the state and beyond.”
In a ceremony Friday morning at Fort McHenry, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore will bless the cross, which then will be placed on the Pride II. The schooner will sail for about 17 hours to deliver the cross Saturday to St. Mary’s Chapel in southern Maryland.
Unlike the Pride II, the cross is not one of a kind. It is one of three “Liberty Tree” crosses hewn from the roots of a 600-year-old tulip poplar that once graced the campus of St. John’s College in Annapolis.
“The cross was made from the roots of a tree from which under its branches witnessed Lord Baltimore’s peace treaty with the Susquehannock Indians in 1652,” said Scott Watkins of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Maryland. “Washington and Lafayette met under it before marching to Yorktown. It is a symbol of Maryland the colony and Maryland the state.”
Long after the American Revolution, authorities in the original 13 colonies dedicated grand old trees as commemorations of the original Liberty Tree, the elm near Boston Common where patriots first rallied against British rule.
Maryland’s first Liberty Tree cross was given to Pope Francis last year, and the second to Britain’s Prince Charles. The third will rest atop a reconstituted tabernacle in St. Mary’s Chapel that historians date to the 17th century.
The weekend’s events are free and open to the public. Friday’s ceremony at Fort McHenry will begin at 9:30 a.m. On Saturday, a procession from Pride II will begin at 12:45 p.m. in Historic St. Mary’s City and end in a 1 p.m. ceremony at St. Mary’s Chapel, which will feature an exhibit of lead coffins of Maryland founders. Tours of Pride II also will be available.
• Carleton Bryant can be reached at cbryant@washingtontimes.com.
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