A topsail schooner design by Thomas Gillmer was chosen, and master shipwright Melbourne Smith oversaw the construction of the vessel next to the Maryland Science Center on the western shoreline of the Inner Harbor (the historic former "Basin" of the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River / Baltimore Harbor and Port). During construction, residents and visitors/tourists could watch the craftsmen working with tools and techniques of two centuries earlier. U.S. Representative (Congresswoman) Barbara Mikulski of Baltimore, (who grew up in Fells Point, the nearby waterfront neighborhood where many Baltimore clippers were built 180 years earlier), performed the launching ceremonies on February 27, 1977, only 10 months after the start of construction. Mayor William Donald Schaefer (1922–2011, served 1971–1987), commissioned the "Pride of Baltimore" on behalf of the citizens of the City of Baltimore and the State of Maryland, two months later on May 1, 1977.