CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THREE: CHARMED BY BALTIMORE

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THREE: CHARMED BY BALTIMORE

It’s called Charm City – Baltimore. We’re tied up at the Baltimore Marine Center, Inner Harbor. And today, Saturday, September 6, the dragon boat races are going on right under our noses. They’re for a good cause, Catholic Charities. There are about 35 different teams vying for the title of fastest dragon boat in the Inner Harbor. Dragon boats are sculls with dragon heads affixed to the front and about 12 pairs rowing as hard as they can to the beat of their drummer/coxswain at the front of the boat. At the other end is the person who has to try to steer the rowers to victory. The entire Inner Harbor is closed down from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. to allow the races to proceed. People have come from as far away as Rock Hall, Maryland to watch the competition. Seriously. The Bank of America team came to the contest with an exaggerated swagger, insults slung at other teams and very loud B-O-A cheering – they came in 4^th, that’s last place, in their heat. Their taunting went down considerably after that. But, inexplicably, the B-O-A chant did not abate. Who knew BOA had anything to cheer about? Countrywide? I think not. Still in all, it’s been fun to watch the sculls glide gracefully and effortlessly across the harbor, in stark contrast with the straining muscles of the rowers.

Since our arrival Thursday afternoon, I’ve been exploring Charm City, while the Admiral has been doing “boat things”, like moving diesel fuel from the reserve tanks to the main tanks – four trips to the engine room and his troublesome knee finally had had it. But we have the fuel we need in the main tanks to get us back to Delaware City next week – and then some. Meanwhile, I went on foot patrol through the Federal Hill neighborhood and all around the Harbor yesterday. Today I trekked to Orioles Park at Camden Yards and toured the Sports Legend Museum. This museum is great! Of course, any museum with the voice of Jon Miller, formerly with the Orioles, now with the SF Giants, is going to be great. But there’s a lot more. There’s the history of the Negro League teams in Maryland – the Black Sox and the Elite Giants (what a name!) – which starred the likes of Roy Campanella and Junior Gilliam, among others who were finally allowed to join the white players in their inferior leagues. There is also a huge display on Babe Ruth, who was born in Baltimore and drafted by the Orioles, who saw fit to trade him to the Bosox. But he still belongs to Baltimore – the house where he was born is nearby and has become a museum itself. Okay, here’s where it gets sticky – the display touts Ruth as the best player in baseball – ever. Oh really? Did he ever have to face the great African-American pitchers of the Negro League? No. Was he better than Jackie Robinson or Satchel Paige or Roy Campanella? Debatable. Where would he have fit on an integrated team? He may or may not have “called his shot” in the World Series with the Cubs (George Will says he did.), but his showmanship was prodigious. So was his drinking, apparently. What makes him better than Hank Aaron? Or Barry Bonds? Did he steal bases? How good was he in the field? Gold Gloves were not awarded until 1957, so we don’t have that as a measure. Still, Brooks Robinson won 16 GGs and so did Greg Maddux. Are they the best players in baseball?

Please don’t come at me with the “Barry Bonds used steroids” mantra. Every ball player used whatever was available in his time to get an edge. That did not make them evil, and it should not detract from their abilities and their records. Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle admitted to playing drunk – it apparently relaxed them and they played better. Johnny Damon says the World Series winning Red Sox team, on which he played, drank whiskey before every game to “get relaxed.” Most of them were probably using steroids and human growth hormones too – everyone was using some kind of performance enhancer when the Red Sox won the World Series after nearly a century of futility. So with the playing field “levelled”, namely, with everyone using whatever drugs of choice to get an edge, Barry Bonds still excelled. And talk about a thrill to watch. I saw him hit homer number 747, a towering shot to center field, and it was a moment to remember. Give Babe Ruth his due – he was the dominant ball player for years in the all-white major leagues. But the best baseball player ever? Don’t agree.

But I digress. This Blog is about Baltimore, the city of neighborhoods. I walked up Light Street through many of the Federal Hill businesses until I got to the Cross Street Market. That is a very cool place to visit. For my breakfast I had a delicious piece of lemon meringue pie with a tall cup of milk. At the fresh produce stand I bought two plump avocados and two juicy plums to share with the Admiral. There are several butchers on the premises; one has the chipped beef used to make steak sandwiches. There are two florists, a bakery or two, and several delis. There are some bars toward the back of the long aisle, but at least at 8 a.m., they don’t detract from the market atmosphere. However, this place does not carry staples. The Admiral called to ask me to get a bottle of ketchup – I looked all over for conventional grocery shelves – none. The bakery guy told me there was a 7-11 across the street, so I left the nifty market for the mundane 7-11 and found me a bottle of Heinz ketchup. Federal Hill is more than the market. There are all kinds of ethnic restaurants – Lebanese, Japanese, Thai, Italian. There is one nail salon per block. There is a used book store worth exploring. There is a hardware store. It’s got everything you really need if you’re a resident and don’t want to go to the burbs. You pay a little more, but you make it up on the gas savings. After tramping through the commercial district for blocks, I turned on to West Street and then Williams Street to walk past residences. This is Row House City. It was garbage day, maybe the biggest garbage day of the year what with whole bed mattresses out on the sidewalk, but you still knew you were in an upscale neighborhood where everyone tended their property with loving care. I walked to the Federal Hill park, then scaled a lot of steps to get to the top, where I was joined by a cavalcade of moms with baby carriages – all jogging. By this time it was at least 80 degrees in the sun, and humid. They were in great shape. Federal Hill is right above the marina where Slow Motion is docked. I got some great photos and let the history of the place sink in. From this hilltop, Baltimore soldiers fought in the War of 1812 and the Civil War to defend the City.

I returned to Slow Motion with the avos and plums, took a break of an hour, then headed out to explore the Inner Harbor neighborhood. The Admiral suggested I tour one or more of the four historic ships in the Harbor. The first one I came to was the “sloop of war” – that’s what it’s called – the Constellation. Five years after it was built in 1854, it was named the flagship of the US African Squadron and it sailed for the Congo in July 1859, two years before the Civil War started. Its purpose, along with the other members of the squadron, was to end the slave trade in Africa – so much easier than trying to end it in the United States – Not! The squadron, under the leadership of Flag Officer William Inman actually captured 14 ships carrying persons forced into slavery and liberated more than 3,900 before it was recalled to the United States in 1861. The Constellation, commanded by Captain John S. Nicholas, was responsible for capturing 3 of the 14 “slave” ships. The second such ship captured by the Constellation crew was the Cora, which had a full cargo of  705 persons held in slavery, and all were rescued. The third “slave” ship captured by the Constellation crew was the Triton, a Charleston, South Carolina based “slave” boat, and this occurred just weeks after Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C. This was the US Navy’s first capture during the Civil War. After the attack on Fort Sumter, the entire squadron was ordered back home to defend the Union. But the Constellation did not stay at home. It was refitted and sent to the Mediterranean in March, 1862, where it patrolled to protect the Union’s interests from Confederate raiders. It stayed in Europe until it was dispatched to the Gulf of Mexico in 1864. Then it was ordered to return to Norfolk. On the way to its destination, the Constellation chased a Confederate blockade runner, but that ship was a steamer and it had no difficulty outrunning the sails of the Constellation.

Not to worry – there was a life after the Civil War for sailing vessels, at least for the Constellation. In 1871 it was assigned to the US Naval Academy, where it was used for more than twenty years (until 1893) to train midshipmen practical seamanship and navigation. Midshipmen spend every summer on a “cruise”, where they learn these skills, and the Constellation was one of several training vessels for these yearly cruises. It became known as the “Cradle of Admirals”, as most of the future leaders of the Navy had learned their seamanship and navigation skills on their summer cruises on the Constellation. While training seamen to become admirals, the Constellation served double duty in 1880 by carrying more than 2500 barrels of potatoes and flour to Ireland, which was experiencing its worst famine ever. So was the Constellation finally “put out to pasture” after its mercy mission and training years at Annapolis? Not even. FDR saw a use for the Constellation in 1940, and it was recommissioned in that year and given the role of (relief) flagship for the Atlantic fleet. This title sounds ceremonial, but in fact in 1942 Vice Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll transferred his flag and staff to the Constellation and actually ran all the operations against the German U boats from the Constellation. The ship was moored at Newport, R.I., but the decisions on how to destroy the German naval threat were made on its decks. Pretty cool.

And now the Constellation has found a home at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, where gawkers like me can board it and become part of a makeshift crew to simulate some of the work routinely done by a real crew on board. I helped lift a 45 pound keg from the deck, using a capstan near the stern of the ship. I was just holding the line for the keg, to keep it from hitting an unsuspecting tourist, while others did the grunt work of pushing the capstan around, as the line to the keg became tauter and shorter and hauled it off the deck. It must have been about 110% humidity, but we hoisted the keg and returned it to its position on deck. This was not an historical event for the Constellation, but a memorable one for me. That we even have a Constellation to visit is somewhat of a miracle, because it was mis-identified as a frigate (also with the name Constellation) for a decade or so, and efforts were made to restore it to “frigate-dom”. Fortunately, its true nature as a sloop of war was proven in 1991 by a US navy group which used computer modeling and new evidence. Now it floats proudly in the Inner Harbor, thanks to the leadership of former Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, who appointed a Blue Ribbon Commission to save the ship. And save it they did.

Did I mention that it was humid in Baltimore the day I served momentarily as crew on the Constellation? It was. And so, after completing my tour of this sailing giant, I headed for a somewhat cooler, dryer clime – the World Trade Center of Baltimore, which is nearby. The air conditioning greeted me coolly as I entered the pentagonal tower, and I flew up to the 27^th floor for a stunning 360 degree view of Baltimore. Before I took in the view, I was moved by the memorial to those killed in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pa on 9/11. The Baltimore World Trade Center planners did a great job on this tribute. Seeing photos of all the Maryland residents who were killed that day brought the tragedy back in human terms. And it was eerie looking out the huge plate glass windows at bright blue skies wondering what it would feel like to see a plane heading straight toward me. I didn’t dwell on that, as I started to identify Baltimore landmarks on each side of the 5-sided skyscraper. Then I saw Slow Motion across the way – what a sight! There she was in all her glory, tied up at the Inner Harbor Marina with some pretty fancy pants boats. The Admiral has really made her look good in the past months. Oh sure, the canvas over the front windows is dirty – needs to be replaced, but the tea-colored “moustache” is gone and Slo Mo is gleaming white, even without a wax job. Back to the view of Baltimore -- if you’re planning to visit Charm City, start your tour on the 27^th floor of the WTC so you can get yourself oriented to the location of all the neighborhoods and landmarks. That way you can decide what you want to walk to and where you might want to ride the Charm City Circulator (for free!).

When I returned to the ground and left the air-conditioned pentagon for the outside Inner Harbor, I headed straight to a frozen yogurt place and fought with the sun to get the cold stuff on my tongue before it melted into lukewarm sauce. But it was the next day, yesterday, where I learned the true meaning of “air conditioning”, when I visited the  Sports Legends Museum. Can you spell I C E B O X? Don’t worry, I’m not going on another Babe Ruth rant. Despite the frigid temps, the museum is worth a visit. And it’s right next to Camden Yards, which is cool even when the only thing to do there is watch the grass grow, as the sprinklers water it. Yes, I’m a baseball field groupie. An empty ball park carries so many memories, even when the home team is on the road. I can still picture Cal Ripken at shortstop – the first 6 foot, 5 inch short stop I ever saw. They should have renamed the position for the Iron Man, but “tall stop” doesn’t have the same cachet as shortstop. This coming Saturday I get to see Derek Jeter, provided the Yanks don’t put him on the shelf prematurely. Correction, I get to see the Orioles beat the Yankees, if all goes well. The Orioles – black and orange – are the East Coast version of my beloved San Francisco Giants. And they are in first place. It’s true they have lost consecutive games to the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend, but they’ll right the ship when they return home. Please.

Today the Admiral and I are making the boat neat and orderly for the arrival of Brenda and Royal from California. There’s a lot to do – we have clutter that has to be uncluttered. I made the bed in our guests’ cabin, but I still have to do a wash and then clean the isinglass, or vice versa. So it’s no time to blog. Tune in next week for the exciting adventures of Royal and Brenda and Ann and Art on Slo Mo.