Tom Waldron

Once hailed as “the most beautiful topsail schooner in the world,” the Pride of Baltimore sailed for nine years before being lost in an intense storm in the Atlantic Ocean in May 1986. The disaster claimed the lives of four sailors and shook the world of tall ship sailing.

In “Pride of the Sea: Courage, Disaster and a Fight for Survival,” Baltimore author Tom Waldron tells the gripping story of the Pride’s life and loss for the first time.

“Pride of the Sea” provides a quickly paced account of the ship’s last voyage, from Spain to the United States. With a crew of 12, the Pride was captained by Armin Elsaesser III, a veteran sailor who understood the vulnerability of a historically authentic ship but nonetheless looked forward to his first ocean crossing. The story includes a narrative of the sinking and the five hellish days the survivors spent in a small life raft before their rescue.

The book also recounts the ship’s beginnings as a sign of hope for a struggling city and its successes as a goodwill symbol sailing in North America and Europe, as well as the Pride’s role reviving interest in historic vessels in the 1970s and 1980s.

“Pride of the Sea” was published in April 2004 by Citadel Press in New York. The paperback edition was published in 2005.

April 11, 2004:
Life-and-death adventure is built into sea disaster books. Struggles for survival in cataclysmic circumstances yield unforgettable yarns for lay readers and become textbooks for seafarers hoping to learn from others' experiences.

Pride of the Sea is a book that will satisfy both audiences. It is an excellent account by a former newspaper reporter who presents a damning analysis of the disaster - the sinking of the Pride of Baltimore in May 1986. At the same time, Tom Waldron makes a supreme effort to accord a certain dignity to all of those involved, especially the 12-person crew, four of whom perished, including the captain....

May 9, 2004
In "Pride of the Sea: Courage, Disaster, and a Fight for Survival," Tom Waldron, a journalist from Baltimore, skillfully pieces together the story of the Pride of Baltimore and its crew. Through extensive interviews with survivors and family members of the deceased, he illustrates the lives of the crew, many who were career sailors who worked long hours for little compensation to do something they loved.

These portraits are Waldron's strength. Among the memorable characters are Armin Elsaesser III, the ship's captain who seemed more at ease at sea than on land, and John "Sugar" Flanagan, the bearded first mate who was instrumental in the survival of the eight crewmembers.

The first thing to understand about Baltimore clippers is that they were the 19th-century hot rods of the sea.
The pioneering shallow-draft topsail schooners were designed to sail out there on the ragged edge of safety where highly skilled seamen purchased speed at the price of great daring.

Evasive capability was their principal weapon. They carried just enough cannon to capture merchant ships during the War of 1812, then sped away from pursuing British warships with far heavier armament, flaunting on their jauntily raked masts a terrifying press of canvas that forever threatened to carry away a spar or capsize the vessel.

Tom Waldron is not a sailor and didn't fully understand all this at first. When he started researching "Pride of the Sea," his new book on the 1986 sinking of the 90-foot replica Pride of Baltimore, "my reporter's instincts had me looking for someone to blame," he said the other day as a May wind whipped flags and banners beside Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

"But as I finished up the reporting, I realized it's a good bit more complicated than that. No one's really to blame" for the sinking that claimed four lives 18 years ago today, "but there are explanations, some somewhat subtle and others historic."

What he has produced is one of the year's great adventure reads -- part survival story, part suspense thriller, part history lesson -- that manages to capture both the squalor and the poetry of blue-water voyaging aboard a ship from another time.

Now and then, here and there, Waldron’s tale of disaster at sea is absolutely wonderful. In between, it subsides to merely engrossing. The story revolves around The Pride of Baltimore, a ship built in 1976 as part of Baltimore’s waterfront redevelopment program. Originally intended to serve as a floating museum, The Pride was modeled after the city’s legendary clippers—the favorite ships of 19th-century smugglers, slave traders and privateers, for whom a ship’s speed was more important than its safety. Baltimore clippers frequently disappeared without a trace, but, according to crewmembers, their sailing was "unforgettable," "like riding bareback at night on a wild black mare." Naturally then, when The Pride was completed, its supporters longed to take it on the open sea, and they eventually convinced the city to send it on a two-year, 2,800-mile goodwill voyage to Europe, with a group of 12 bright young sailors as its crew. It was on its way home when, on May 14, 1986, it was struck by an unexpected squall; it turned on its side, filled with water and sank in a matter of minutes. Waldron artfully splices the history of The Pride’s construction, and of clipper ships in general, with the more suspenseful narrative of the ship’s capsizing and its crew’s efforts to survive. The book is juiciest at the moments when the sailors—men and women—are fighting the sea for their lives. But the interleaved history adds depth to Waldron’s account and makes his analysis of the subsequent liability issues all the more credible. A vivid tale of courage and endurance, this book is an excellent choice for readers who’d like to experience the dangers of the sea from the safety of their armchairs.