The Republican., 1941-05-22
GROWING
PAINS
NATIONAL MARITIME DAY
By MARIE O'DEA

US because Maryland has always been
a great maritime Province and State.
Even before the colonists arrived
here in 1884, the King and the Proprie-
tary, Lord Baltimore, anticipated that
sea-faring trade would occupy most of
the attention of her people. Ten of the
twenty three articles Of the Maryland
charter made reference to her ports,
harbors, inland waters and rights on
the high seas. One article, in par
ticular, the fifteenth, gave the Mary
landers certain foreign trade priv
ileges enjoyed by no other English
colony.
That was the license .. freely
to import and unlade, by themselves,
their Servants, Factors or Assigns,
all Wares and Merchandise whatso-
ever, which shall be collected out of
the Fruits and Commodities of the
said Province, whether the Product of
the Land or the Sea, into any of the
Ports whatsoever of Us, our Heirs and
Successors, of England or Ireland, or
otherwise to dispose of the same there;
and, if Need be, within One Year, to
be computed Immediately from the
Time of unlading thereof, to lade the
same Merchandise again in the same
or other Ships, and to export the same
to any other Countries they shall think
proper, whether belonging to Us, or
any foreign Power, which shall be in
Amity with Us, our Heirs OF Success
sors.
The same charter gave Lord Balti-
more the right to restrict all trading
activity to certain ports of entry where
facilities could be arranged for the col
lection of fees and customs. Accord
ingly, these ports of entry were estab-
lished at Saint Mary's, Annapolis, Elk
Ridge Landing and, later, Baltimore,
and few other points.
From these ports, Maryland skip
pers spread out over the seven seas
and soon made our local docks the
source Of supply of Asiatic, African,
South American and European mer-
chandise that was not of English
origin. The other colonies were forced
to trade with England alone. Maryland
captains became the most skilled skip
pers in the world and the ships built
in Maryland yards for this trade were
the fastest and most efficient on the
high seas.
That was why, when the Revolu-
tion broke out, nearly three hundred
Maryland vessels could be mounted
with guns, form the Maryland Navy,
and go to sea to annoy the British
That was the reason that they were
so readily converted back into mer-
chantmen to capture the rich foreign
trade available Immediately after the
close Of the conflict. Their success Gre
ated a rancorous jealously among the
French and the British.
The French harrassed our trade so
badly that we had to build Navy to
convoy our ships even up and down
our own coast. Our great Maryland
built frigate, the Constellation, the
oldest ship in the American Navy
wrote glorious pages in history when
she defeated the French frigates,
L'Insurgente and La Vengeance, in
1899 and 1900. While the French and
Americans were scrapping over this
sea-borne commerce, Britain found a
way to turn the Barbary pirates loose
on both contestants
When the surprising Americans
turned the tables, soundly thrashed
the pirates and bottled them up in
their own Mediterranean ports, the
British hit upon new plan to destroy
this trade on the high seas.
During the first decade of the
nineteenth century she began system
of stopping American vessels, ,captur-
ing all the able-bodied seamen and
either confiscating the cargoes and
ships or leaving them, thus I'M
manned, to founder helplessly at sea
or limp into the nearest port. About
5000 seamen were thus impressed be-
fore the eXasperated little Republic of
the United States declared the War
of 1872.
Britain's first reaction to the decla-
ration was to send hundreds of war
vessels to blockade American harbors
Even then, many of our Yankee, and
especially our Maryland boats, slipped
out.
Baltimore was viewed as the nest of
all the trouble and the British de
termined to capture the town. Admiral
Cockburn ravaged the entire Chesa-
peake Bay region before he met defeat
at Fort McHenry and North Point.
AS soon as the War was over, Mary
land sea-farers made more glorious
commercial history than ever. Not a
port in the whole known world, and a
few unknown ones, escaped their at
tention. The Baltimore Clippers won
the great ocean races humiliating the
best talent that all the other maritime
powers had to offer.