Pride of the Sea: Courage, Disaster, and a Fight for Survival

by Tom Waldron

Book Overview

On a warm spring morning in May 1986, twelve crew members were crossing the Atlantic on perhaps the most historically accurate sailboat of its day, the Pride of Baltimore. The wind was brisk, the mood was relaxed: they were on the journey home. Within hours, a sudden, fierce storm would overwhelm the ship, leaving four sailors dead and eight locked in a terrifying battle against the sea.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806524928
• ISBN13: 9780806524924
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Citadel Press
• Length: 293 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Victims of Nostalgia

The Baltimore clipper schooners, famous for their speed, pestered the British in the War of 1812. They were slender and fast, low in the water but with two extremely tall, swept-back masts. The city fathers of Baltimore in the 1970s figured the city needed something to be proud of. It had lost its football team, crime was up, and the docks were in decay. To boost civic pride, a replica Baltimore clipper was proposed, and eagerly funded, built, staffed and sailed. _The Pride of Baltimore_ was a gorgeous ship, looking smart in any display of the beloved Tall Ships. In fact, it was first proposed to be a dockside museum, but it eventually became a seagoing craft, spreading the good name of Baltimore (and business interest in it) to Europe. The plan to resurrect the Baltimore clipper was a resounding success. Unfortunately, lots of the clippers had sunk two centuries ago, largely due to their top-heaviness, and _The Pride_ did so, too, in 1986, in an unexpected storm as she was returning to Baltimore from the Virgin Islands. Four of the crew of twelve perished. In _Pride of the Sea: Courage, Disaster, and a Fight for Survival_ (Citadel Press) Tom Waldron has given the story of the ship and the disaster, a story which ought to please true-life adventure fans. He also comes to some sensible conclusions about how the accident happened, beyond the simple explanation "freak storm." When the proposal for a new Baltimore clipper was made, one of the first naval architects to consider the job wrote, "... an exact replica of an old sailing vessel is unlikely to meet Coast Guard requirements." Indeed, the civic boosters and the architect who got the job made a conscious decision not to have _The Pride_ certified by the Coast Guard. It was risky to sail on her, but it was authentic, and it appealed to those who loved ships with sails. There was a crew of both old salts and rookies, none of whom were over thirty. Six of them were newcomers to the boat. A violent, unexpected squall of sixty knots simply pushed over _The Pride_; there had been a risky maneuver to bring the ship under better control, but the risk had not paid off. The ship rapidly took on water, and with no compartmentalization, sank quickly. The rafts failed to work properly; only one could be inflated, so that the eight survivors had to make do on a raft that would have been crowded with its recommended crew of six. Waldron expertly describes the chaos of the sinking and the hellish five days on the raft afterwards. Time after time, ships passing near enough to see them did not see them, until a Norwegian supertanker picked them up. The only lightness in the raft comes from a couple who had fallen in love on the boat. The young woman said matter-of-factly, "I don't want to go through life without being proposed to." Her boyfriend, taken aback, issued one of the strangest proposals ever: "Sure, Leslie, if we survive, we'll get married." And so they did, after funerals and

Sad Memory, Wonderful Tribute

Having lived in Maryland until just a couple of years ago, I clearly remember the Pride and when she sank. I was at Martin's Airport with a friend the day the survivors returned, and it was a moving experience. I cried seeing these people, whom I had never met, yet knowing what they'd been through and seeing the sadness on their faces. It's one of those moments in time that you know you'll always remember, but life goes on and it fades into the background. But seeing this book at our local book store brought it all back to me in vivid color. I shared the experience with my husband, told him about this beautiful beloved ship that we were all so proud of and the pain every Marylander felt when we heard the news that she was lost, and that some of its crew were lost with her. This book is a moving, loving tribute to our beloved Pride and her crew and I would recommend it to anyone who appreciates the sea.

A true life adventure rivaling fictional sea stories

This book is a page turner. Very well written, with both historical information regarding this type of ship, and this ship in particular. Those parts of the book discussing the sailing characteristics of the Pride were highly interesting from a technical standpoint, and when applied to the storm situations described, made pretty exciting reading.I found the backround information on the ship's crew, the story of how the ship was built, and the aftermath of the sinking, added greatly to the books interest. The story of the crews stuggle to survive after the Pride sank rates with any survival-at-sea saga that I have ever read. The details provided are just amazing, and make you feel like you were right in the raft.This book is as good a read as you will find in current literature.

Moving Account of the Pride

This is an amazing book. I absolutely loved it. I loved it because it really made me feel like I was there. It made me cry when the ship went down, made me elated when they were saved.Getting the background of the Pride was another good element of this book. Knowing the background allows the reader to make her own decisions about who is at fault for the sinking of the Pride, if anyone. I strongly recommend this book. It's just, well, great. (And not just because Joe McGeady is my uncle.)

One of the better sailing stories ever told

Pride of the Sea is one of better entries in the crowded "fight for survival" market that kicked off five years ago with "Into Thin Air" and the "Perfect Storm."Waldron takes a complex subject -- the sinking of a historical replica of the Baltimore clipper, Pride of the Sea -- and artfully plots and presents a great story of man versus the sea.The book is told objectively -- with no hair pulling or chest beating, finger pointing or assignment of blame -- and what emerges is a sad, yet gripping tale of death on the high seas. From naval architecture to naval history, the story of the Pride of the Sea is more than one of survival, and comes together to present a great debut by a great journalist.