Originally christened as Virginia, our 130-foot beauty was built at Muller Boat Works Inc. in Brooklyn, New York, and then launched in 1941 as a two-masted trawler. She entered the service in 1942 as YP-448, a minesweeper based in Key West, Florida. From December 1944 to September 1945, she worked as IX-200 or Maratanza on classified operations.

After being decommissioned from the Navy, she became Araho out of Rockland, Maine, as part of the O’Hara fishing fleet, followed by St. Catherine out of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Lady in Blue (1968-1986) out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. She spent her career in the waters of the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and the Grand Banks while the crew fished for cod, haddock, flounder and ocean perch.

Captain Steve Pagels took ownership in 1986 and converted the trawler to a three-masted schooner at the Wallace Yard in Maine. She was fitted with 17 passenger cabins, each with two bunks, a dining room and a lounge in the main cabin, three heads, and forecastle accommodations for a crew of five. In 1987, she was re-christened Natalie Todd and sailed to her new home port of Bar Harbor to sail as part of the Maine Windjammer Fleet. 

American Pride was then purchased by the American Heritage Marine Institute (AHMI) and began her historic 7,500 mile sail through the Panama Canal to her new home in Long Beach, California, where she was operated by the Children’s Maritime Foundation (CMF). She served the youth of Long Beach through CMF for more than 20 years, and during that time, she was also named the “Official Tall Ship” of the City of Long Beach.”

When we took ownership of American Pride in 2018, we performed a modern stem-to-stern restoration. She received her U.S. Coast Guard certifications in March 2019, and that is when she once again became an educational tall ship serving Long Beach with a crew living on board.