Preview looks at the Tall Ships

Maritime Festival News

Complete coverage from the festival with multimedia and more.

A short description of the eight tall ships that will be here for this weekend's Maritime Festival.

Barque Picton Castle

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada

Come see her now because soon she'll be famous.

The three-masted barque, with two square-rigged masts, has circumnavigated the globe four times in the last 10 years. The ship will be making national headlines later this month when "Survivor" creator Mark Burnett airs his new reality adventure show, "Pirate Master," which was filmed under the Picton's sails.

The ship began as a North Seas fishing trawler and was converted to a minesweeper during WWII, before becoming a tall ship in the mid-1990s. At 284 tons and 179 feet long, she carries 12,450 square feet of cotton canvas sail from her masts. In 1998, she served as flagship of the United Nations Year of the Ocean.

Having spent the winter in the Caribbean, the Picton is on her way up the East Coast and in August will sail around Atlantic Canada. The newest trainees on board joined the crew in Martinique.

"Pirate Master" will air May 31, on CBS, so Charleston has a chance to meet the celebrity vessel before her fame grows. During the 33 days of filming, 16 modern-day pirates sailed in search of a hidden treasure and were narrowed down to one gold winner. The hull was painted black to create a pirate feel and the darker image remains today.

INS Tarangini

Vasco-da-Gama (Goa), India

Tarangini, a three-masted barque with two square rigged masts, is India's sole Navy sail training ship. Launched in 1995, she was named for the Hindi word, 'tarang,' which means 'the waves.' She is 54 meters long, and her steel hull carries 20 sails with a total sail area of nearly 1,000 square meters. Seven officers and 43 sailors act as permanent crew and 30 cadets train at one time. The cadets come from the National Defence Academy, the Naval Academy and INS Shivaji. Trainees from foreign countries will train occasionally on the Tarangini. Indian Navy officials have praised tall ship training for its ability to teach the age-old values of endurance, comraderie and courage to trainees.

Spirit of South Carolina

Charleston, S.C.

After 7 years of planning and construction, the Spirit will make her second grand appearance in Charleston's harbor, this time with full rigging. Launched in March, the 150-ton schooner will be ready to sail in weeks. The $4 million vessel is the brainchild of local maritime enthusiast Charlie Sneed and was built by the S.C. Maritime Foundation, a local nonprofit. Brad and Meaghan Van Liew are now leading the nonprofit that will take South Carolina students on day sail trips and overnight voyages to learn marine sciences, maritime history, navigation and sailing, along with developing leadership skills essential to life at sea. The ship is modeled after the Frances Elizabeth, a schooner built in Charleston in 1879, and the two masts stand about 90 feet tall.

Spirit of Bermuda

Hamilton, Bermuda

The schooner is modeled after the Royal Navy's 'sloops of war' built between 1810 to 1840 that patrolled the waters from Halifax to Jamaica. The Spirit was launched just seven months before Charleston's Spirit and was also built as a sail training vessel. The ship is 112 feet long and can hold up to 24 students, in addition to its professional crew.

Pride of Baltimore II

Baltimore, Md.

The Pride of Baltimore II was commissioned in 1988, taking the place of her predecessor that was hit by a squall and sank off the coast of Puerto Rico in 1986. She sails around the world as the Goodwill Ambassador of Maryland and of the Port of Baltimore.

The ship is modeled after the Baltimore Clippers, the American ship 'privateers' that fought in War of 1812. The privateers ran the British blockade, bringing much needed supplies and ammunition to the American troops, and attacked enemy ships to disrupt trade. The name originally came the, Chasseur, who was nicknamed 'Pride of Baltimore' for its heroic voyage to Great Britain during which it captured or sank 17 British ships. Pride II is 157 feet long and weighs 185 long tons. The four eight-ton cannons that stand on her deck are often used to salute ports of call and nearly 1,000 square feet of sail hangs from her masts. She has sailed nearly 200,000 miles and visited over 200 ports in 40 countries in the last two decades.

Schooner Virginia

Norfolk, Va.

Schooner Virginia is two masted, gaff-topsail knockabout schooner that is 122 feet long and weighs 154 tons. She was launched in 2004, as a educational vessel and goodwill ambassador for the Commonwealth of Virginia. On each voyage, 12 students join a 12-man crew and learn to sail and other aspects of maritime life.

The Schooner Virginia is named for and designed after the Virginia, which sailed from the Chesapeake Bay from 1917 to 1926 and was used by the Virginia Pilot Association.

Gloria

Cartagena, Colombia

The Colombian Naval Ship is a three-masted barque with two square-rigged masts and a steel hull. At 249 feet long, she is the largest ship that will be docked in Charleston water. Gloria was built in 1966 in Bilboa, Spain, to be used as school ship for training cadets at the Colombian Naval Academy. She has since visited 143 ports around the world and has traveled 500,000 nautical miles.

Prince William

Portsmouth, England

The Tall Ship Youth Trust, a charity dedicated to youth development, owns this British brig and the Duke of York, Prince Andrew, serves as her patron. At 198 tons, she is 60 meters long and her masts stand 45 meters tall. She just sailed across the Atlantic from the Azores, and is visiting Charleston for the first time this week. The Prince William was built in 2001 and is based on an 18th-century model.