Tall Ships Bring the Spirit of ‘76 to Virginia

Richmond SailFest kicked off last weekend as three sailing ships—Oosterschelde, Pride of Baltimore II, and Virginia—docked in the state capital.

Richmond’s portion of the event was cohosted by the Virginia Museum of History & Culture and featured reenactors, history and art exhibits, cultural performances, and live music, plus a fireworks and drone show. “This summer is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and our museum has been spending the past almost 10 years now building up to commemorate this once‑in‑a‑generation event,” the museum’s director of public programs Sam Florer said.

The Oosterschelde, a Dutch three-masted topsail schooner that was used in the Netherlands in the early 1900s, was one of the three ships making the voyage up the James. Another was the Virginia, a recreation of a pilot vessel that would have been used throughout the region in that same period.

The third was Pride of Baltimore II, also a recreation of a topsail schooner, this one from the early 19^th century. It arrived in Richmond flying an American flag from the period 1795 to 1818, a design that featured 15 stars and 15 stripes. That’s the same design that was used on the Star-Spangled Banner as it flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812.

This is all a part of Sail250 Virginia, which is bringing 10,000 officers, cadets and crews on more than 60 ships to the Commonwealth to forge closer ties between 20 nations and residents throughout the Chesapeake Bay region.

The ships are also helping to explain why today’s American cities are located where they are.

Richmond was founded at the fall line of the James River, which geologists define as “the edge of the Piedmont/Coastal Plain, where various rivers cross from hard bedrock to soft sediments.” During Colonial times, that meant the point where rocky rapids made it impossible for sea faring ships to go any further.

“We were intercepted with great craggy stones that [stand] in midst of the river, where the water falleth so rudely and with such a violence as not any boat could possibly pass,” Capt. John Smith wrote after his first trip up the James. Other explorers were blocked on trips up the Potomac, the Appomattox, and the Rappahannock, leading to the founding of Washington, D.C., Petersburg, and Fredericksburg.

The Sail250 Virginia celebration moves down the James River next weekend to Norfolk, with a larger display that will include a Parade of Sail and the 50th annual Norfolk Harborfest Celebration. The tall ships will depart on Tuesday, June 23, to sail for Baltimore.

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