We traveled 6,000 miles last week to celebrate the departure of Privateer Lynx for the East Coast. We took a plane. They’re taking the ocean by sail. We joined the Lynx crew for their last mock battle in San Diego Bay, and it turned out to be more exciting than anyone had bargained for. (Read all about it below)

The Californian got off the first shot of the battle in San Diego Bay. It was the sudden gunfire from the silently approaching tall ship that caught me off guard more than the concussion blast from her six-pounder cannon. I turned, tripped over a coil of rope on the deck of Privateer Lynx and stumbled back against the housing of the officer’s stateroom. To the cheering tourists aboard the enemy vessel, I was the first casualty of the day.

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SEE ALSO: Lynx Launch in 2001
SEE ALSO: Lynx arrives in Portsmouth, NH

Battle Sail in San Diego Bay

I was in California last weekend to see off the Lynx, a topsail schooner built at Rockport, Maine and officially registered in Portsmouth, NH. The $3 million tall ship is a modern interpretation of an earlier Lynx, built at Fells Point in Baltimore, MD at the onset of the War of 1812. The original Lynx was a "letter of marque", an armed private vessel designed to carry and defend cargo in time of war – and if the opportunity arose, to capture an enemy prize. The new Lynx has been on the West Coast since 2001, educating students and adults to the life of the privateer at sail and the "forgotten war" of 1812. Now she is headed home.

On November 16 Lynx and her crew started a return voyage back East. She will arrive in Florida by January and is hoping to stop briefly at Portsmouth in May on her way to a tour of the Great Lakes in 2010. Lynx plans to travel up and down the Atlantic seaboard during the next five years to celebrate the bicentennial of the war that culminates in a flotilla of tall ships at Baltimore in 2014. Lynx is interested in making frequent stops at Portsmouth and possibly representing the Granite State during the bicentennial years.

CONTINUE LYNX Battle Sail