Tug of War

On Saturday Bill and I went to the 12th annual Tug of War between Eastport and Annapolis. Since we are staying on the Eastport side, we watched the first few rounds from the "MRE" (Maritime Republic of Eastport" before crossing the bridge into Annapolis proper. There were a lot more people on the Eastport side and Eastport won each of the rounds. What follows is an explanation of the Tug of War from the MRE website.

BACKGROUND: The always revolting Maritime Republic of Eastport makes an annual call to its adversaries across the water, the residents and businesses of Annapolis, to take arms and meet at Susan B. Campbell Park -- City Dock -- on the first Saturday in November (more or less) for the Annual Slaughter Across the Water.

It all started 12 years ago when the MRE founding father Sam Shropshire and a few others decided that if the MRE had seceded from Annapolis there ought to be a "friendly" rivalry to mark the occasion and to do good in the community at the same time. How they came up with the idea of teams pulling across the harbor against adversaries they can't see might have had something to do with the the fact that that they were in a local watering hole at the time. But we digress. Fun with a purpose was born -- at least in this incarnation. To make a very long story very short, luckily, the founding fathers included a physicist who figured out how many people had to be on either side to be able to pull a rope 1700 feet long out of the water and in their direction and therefore how strong the rope needed to be. Also luckily, the founding fathers included a really good salesman who convinced Yale Cordage to build the rope at cost. And even more luckily, the founding fathers convinced everyone that this was a great idea. Eastport rallied around the battle and a great tradition was born.

So, once a year, local and national attention focuses on the Annapolis Harbor, or, as we like to call it, the Gulf of Eastport, for a competition unlike any in the world – the Slaughter Across the Water, the longest tug of war over a body of water in the world. The Tug is staged between the Maritime Republic of Eastport (MRE) and Downtown Annapolis, featuring a 1700’ rope, over 450 tuggers, and more than a thousand spectators.

Composed of a maximum of 33 tuggers, each team strives to bring home the trophy and the title, each tugger doing his or her own part to bring the fame and fortune to the appropriate side.

Eastport has been the dominant force most years, but there have been shut-outs on both sides. The winners earn a year's worth of bragging rights and the ensuing riches. Okay, there may not be any riches, but the bragging rights tend to be pretty strong and have led, in the past, to the renaming of Annapolis Harbor, the bridge and, in fact, the entire town of Annapolis (the Gulf of Eastport, the Bridge of our Glorious Victory, and Westport, respectively). So there.

It was a beautiful day and we really enjoyed ourselves.