As the ship left, cannon salutes were fired from other vessels; bagpipers in red kilts, light blue sweaters and white gaiters played on the red brick pier; and schoolchildren waved U.S. flags in farewell. Fireboats shot sprays of water into the air in salute.
Approaching Baltimore's Key Bridge, Demske halted the entourage and brought a second Vane tug, the Elizabeth Ann, to the front, where a thick white towline was attached via steel cables to the Constellation, and the tug began to pull the sloop.
Official boats accompany the USS Constellation as it leaves Baltimore's Inner Harbor for its 29 1/2-mile trip to Annapolis.
(Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post)
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Now borne by the ebb tide and the straining Elizabeth Ann, the Constellation glided past the maroon stacks of the Sparrows Point steel mill and a gigantic inbound Panamanian freighter, the Prestige Ace, as if in review.
Helicopters circled, and a foursome of gray Air Force A-10 Warthogs thundered overhead. As the ship approached the Key Bridge, there was some discussion as to whether the vessel's "pig stick," or flagpole, above the mainmast ought to be lowered. The bridge was 183 feet up; the mast and pig stick were 175 feet. The pole was lowered anyhow, just in case.
And shortly after the pig stick came down, the Constellation's shipwright, Bruce MacKenzie, went up. MacKenzie, of Towson, built the Constellation's new helm in his Fells Point wood shop. He had built the ship's mighty bowsprit. Indeed, he had been so intimately involved in the overhaul that he felt that the ship was partly his.
"It can't help but hit your soul," he said as he prepared to climb the ship's shrouds and ratlines to the thick mainmast yards. "You're affected. This ship affects you. It definitely has me. It has a soul. It's alive."
After he spoke, he scrambled up the lines and stood on a spar and watched the bridge go by like a low-flying airplane.
Into the Brewerton channel the Constellation went, past Rock Point Shoal and the spit of North Point -- roughly a third of the way to Annapolis, approaching open water. The overcast was broken by patches of blue sky. Smaller sailing boats ran alongside at a distance, like children chasing a parade.
The tugs pulled the sloop to starboard just before Bodkin Point Shoal, then into the Craighill Channel for the final run to the Severn River and the Naval Academy berth at Annapolis.
Ashore, in the distance at Cape St. Clair, the trees were turning autumn colors. But the Chesapeake Bay water was a green around the Baltimore Light, with the Sandy Point Light in the distant haze.
The flotilla cruised under the Bay Bridge at 1:15 p.m. and turned for the domes and spires of Annapolis 10 minutes later. From there, it slowed to a crawl.
There were more cannon salutes and jet flyovers as the Constellation approached, and a Navy band struck up the music of John Philip Sousa as the tugs nosed the wooden warship against the academy seawall at 3:15 p.m.
Demske looked relieved as the ship was secured and the gangway run out. "An uneventful trip," he said. "The kind I like."
