A friendly visitor

Deepa Bharath

For the first time ever, the tall ship American Pride will dock at

Newport Harbor.

The 130-foot schooner will make her way into the harbor today and

will remain docked at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum until

Monday.

The American Pride, which sailed 7,500 miles through the Panama

Canal from Bar Harbor, Maine, to the West Coast, will be welcomed

into the bay by a flotilla of local yachts led by the Harbor Patrol’s

fire boat.

The tall ship will then stick around for display over the weekend

and will give the community the opportunity to learn history while

having fun, said Glenn Zagoren, chief executive of the museum.

“It’s good to be able to show our children what the world was like

before PlayStation and Nintendo,” he said. “Tall ships evoke a lot of

mystery and interest with its history, heritage and tales of pirates

and the days of yore.”

American Pride, the only three-masted schooner now on the West

Coast, was built in 1941, originally as a two-masted

“schooner-dragger” and launched as the Virginia. She served many

years as a fishing boat in the ports of New England and Maine.

She also spent weeks at sea in search of cod, haddock, flounder

and ocean perch. In 1986, she was completely rebuilt in Thomaston,

Maine, and certified by the U.S. Coast Guard. The American Pride was

bought in 1996 by the American Heritage Marine Institute that brought

it to the West Coast.

Tall ships are quite uncommon these days, Zagoren said

“We hope it will inspire kids to learn about history and round

them out as a person,” he said. “But the bottom line is, it’s fun.”

The tall ship will be open for tours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $2 for children; $3 for adults; and

$7 for families. Admission to the museum is free. Barbecue and

beverages will also be available.

Anyone interested in participating in the welcoming flotilla can

do so at 4:30 p.m. today. Call Marshall Steele at (949) 675-8915. For

general information, visit the museum’s Web site at www.nhnm.org.