Pretty cool mosaicy thing. Here’s a blurb about the Baltimore from the original Flickr post
"The Pride of Baltimore II was commissioned in 1988 as a sailing memorial to her immediate predecessor, the original Pride of Baltimore, which was tragically sunk by a white squall off Puerto Rico in 1986, taking her captain and three crew members down with her. Both ships were built in the Inner Harbor as replicas of 1812-era topsail schooners, the type of vessels, called Baltimore Clippers, that helped America win the War of 1812 and finally secure its freedom"
I’m a bit confused about how the war of 1812 was about “America finally securing its freedom”. The only folks in that war who “finally secured their freedom” were the tens of thousands of black slaves who escaped America and crossed behind British lines. Many eventually settled in Nova Scotia. And the millions of slaves who didn’t escape didn’t secure any kind of freedom until many decades later.
Dear History Buff
You will have to take that up with the owners of the Pride of Baltimore. Although my understanding and it’s murky at best was that things were pretty touch and go after the War of Independence and the War of 1812 finally sorted things out and those damn Brits (OK us damn Brits) were finally convinced to leave America alone by protracted and disparate war. I am probably completely wrong about this and I look forward to being corrected.
The war of 1812 was mainly about trade (you Brits didn’t like the idea of the Yanks trading with the Frogs with whom they were having a spot of bother at the time).
But haven’t you noticed that every American war is always about “freedom”.
Even when it’s really about catching Osama bin Laden “dead or alive”. Not doing so well on that objective but we did keep our freedom.
Or even when it’s really about oil and WMD. Didn’t do so well on those two objectives either but we still have our freedom.
I think American presidents since at least as early as 1812 have been telling the American people that the wars they fight are all about “freedom”. That way they don’t have to admit failure if the real objectives aren’t achieved.