|
The pub is actually named after Captain David Porter, who in 1797, created an ingenious way for all of Federal Hill and most of Baltimore to get an early heads up on which ships were
arriving in the harbor. Shipping was vitally important to Baltimore so everyone from merchants expecting cargo to women expecting their sweethearts were interested in knowing when their ship had come in.
Captain Porter devised a special observatory atop Federal Hill that could spot the ships coming in. When a certain merchant or business had a ship coming in, their private signal, a flag
-- was flown on the flagstaff of Federal Hill. If another ship arrived at the same time, a cannon was set off to alert people, and a second flag would be flown. Businesses paid $2.50 annually for this service.
This flag system was used for almost a century.
Today, you can still find these flags on Federal Hill. Only, now they're on the walls and tables of Porters and on this website.
|
