had once been a magnet for shipping and trade. But something was still missing—a symbol, a trademark, an icon to link Baltimore to its harbor. City officials cast about for possibilities and an idea eventually emerged that captured the theme. Former Mayor, Governor and Comptroller William Donald Schaefer credits then city Housing Commissioner Robert "Bob" Embrey with the idea "Let's build a ship in the Inner Harbor to draw folks downtown." With that seminal thought, a great sailing adventure and tradition was launched that would soon catapult Baltimore back into the imagination of the nation and the world as the home of adventurous seamen and romantic ships. A name was soon selected, a choice so natural as to be almost automatic: Pride of Baltimore. The name captured the spirit of the phoenix-like town. It also tapped into its maritime heritage since "Pride of Baltimore" was the nickname of the "Chasseur", the largest and boldest of the legendary, Baltimore-built topsail schooners known as "Baltimore clippers" that participated in the War of 1812, the second conflict with the British, that first launched the city as a commercial and maritime center. Construction and service In 1975, the City of Baltimore adopted a proposal from Charles Center-Inner Harbor Management for the construction of a replica sailing vessel as a centerpiece of the redevelopment of its Inner Harbor. The city requested proposals for "an authentic example of an historic Baltimore Clipper" to be designed and built using "construction materials, methods, tools, and procedures... typical of the period." A topsail schooner design by Thomas Gillmer was chosen, and master shipwright Melbourne Smith oversaw the construction of the vessel next to the Maryland Science Center on the western shoreline of the Inner Harbor (the historic former "Basin" of the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River / Baltimore Harbor and Port). During construction, residents and visitors/tourists could watch the craftsmen working with tools and techniques of two centuries earlier. Congresswoman Barbara Mikulski of Baltimore, (who grew up in Fells Point, the nearby waterfront neighborhood where many Baltimore clippers were built 180 years earlier), performed the launching ceremonies on 27 February 1977, only 10 months after the start of construction. Mayor William Donald Schaefer commissioned the Pride of Baltimore on behalf of the citizens of the city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland, two months later on 1 May 1977. The Pride sailed over during its nine years