You should know how to throw a coil of rope so as to fling it on to another boat or wharf, or how to catch and make fast a rope thrown to you. Also how to throw a lifebuoy to a drowning man.
You should be able to make a raft out of any materials that you can get hold of, such as planks, logs, barrels, sacks of straw, and so on. Often on a hike you may want to cross a river with your food and baggage where no boats are available.
Boat Cruising
Instead of tramping or cycling, it is an excellent practice for a Patrol to take a boat and explore a river or make a trip through the country, camping out in the same way as in a tramping camp. But no one should be allowed in the boat who is not a good swimmer, able to swim at least fifty yards with clothes on (shirt, shorts, and socks as a minimum), because accidents may happen, and if all are swimmers it does not matter.
One of my most enjoyable Sea Scouts experiences was a river cruise I made with two of my brothers. We took a canvas folding boat up the Thames as far as we could get her to float. We got right up in the Chiltern Hills where no boat had ever been seen before. We carried our cooking kit, tent and bedding with us and camped out nights.
When we reached the source of the river we carried the boat over the watershed and launched her again on the stream which ran down to the westward and which in a few miles became the Avon.
Through Bath and through Bristol we journeyed, rowing, sailing, poling, or towing, as circumstances required, until we reached the mighty waters of the Severn.
Across this we sailed with centre board down, till we successfully reached Chepstow on the other side. Here we made our way up the rapids of the Wye through its beautiful scenery, to our home near Llandogo.
From London to Wales, almost all the way by water, with loads of adventure and lots of fun!
Learn to row a boat properly, and to “scull” with one oar
But it was no more than any of you could do if you liked to try. So, come along, Scouts—make yourselves efficient, and if you enjoy your Sea Scouting as much as I enjoyed mine you will have a wonderful time.
Air Scouts
When the first Scout camp was held at Brownsea Island in the English Channel in 1907, very few people thought that the aeroplane would conquer the air. They had heard of some queer experiments carried out in America by Wilbur and Orville Wright with gliders and of their attempts with some kind of air-machine. But no one dreamt of what the aeroplane would mean within such a short span of time.
With good reason we are apt to think of the aeroplane as a weapon of destruction. But it has many valuable uses for civilisation:
For instance, in Canada vast tracts of unexplored territory in the north have been photographed and mapped. Mining machinery has been transported to out-of-the-way places. Traders and settlers, who are cut off by great distances from supplies and friends, can receive food, letters
and newspapers by plane.
In Australia, doctors travel enormous distances by plane to help sick people, and flying ambulances bring them to hospitals.
Fires in great forest areas can be spotted quickly by the airman and the best means devised for fighting the fires. Even fishermen can be helped because from a height it is possible for the airman to see where the shoals of fish are to be found.
Insect pests which attack and ruin crops can be killed by dusting from the air. Rice and grass seeds have been sown over vast areas in a short time.
All kinds of interesting discoveries have been made not only about unexplored parts of the earth, but about the past, for some things—markings of ancient dwellings and settlements, for instance—show up more clearly when seen and photographed from the air.
So you see there is plenty of pioneering and romance in the new element man has conquered!
Air Scouts are now part of our Scout organization in many countries. But just like Sea Scouts, they have to be as well trained as all other Scouts in ordinary Scouting on land, for all Scouts need to be observant and resourceful.
SEA GAMES
Smuggler.
(For night or day)
One party of smugglers from the sea endeavour to land and conceal their goods ( a brick or stone per man) in a base called the “Smugglers’ Cave”, and get away in their boat again. Another party of revenue men is distributed to watch the coast a long distance with single Scouts.
As soon as one revenue man sees the smugglers land he gives the alarm, and collects the rest to attack, but the attack cannot be successful unless there are at least as many revenue men on the spot as smugglers. The revenue men must remain bivouacked at their station until the alarm is given by the look-out men.
The whale is made of a big log or wood with a roughly-shaped head and tail. Two boats will usually carry out the whale hunt, each boat manned by one Patrol—the Patrol Leader acting as captain, the Second as bowman or harpooner, the remainder of the Patrol as oarsmen. Each boat belongs to a different harbour, the two harbours being about a mile apart. The umpire takes the whale and lets it loose about half-Way between
the two harbours, and on a given signal, the two boats race out to see who can get to the whale
first.
Whale Hunt
The harpooner who first arrives within range of the whale drives his harpoon into it, and the boat promptly turns round and tows the whale to its harbour.
The second boat pursues, and when it overtakes the other, also harpoons the whale, turns around, and endeavours to tow the whale back to its harbour.
In this way the two boats have a tug-of-war, and eventually the better boat tows the whale, and possibly, the opposing boat into its harbour. (The game is similar to one described in Ernest Thompson Seton’s Birchbark of the Woodcraft Indians.)
CAMP FIRE YARN NO. 7
SIGNALS AND COMMANDS
Hidden Dispatches - Signal
Fires - Sound Signals
Words of Command- Whistle and Flag Signals
Scouts have to be clever at passing news secretly from one place to another, or in signalling to each other. Before the siege of Mafeking, which I told you about in my first yarn, I received a secret message from some unknown friend in the Transvaal, giving me news of the enemy’s plans, the number of his men, horses, and guns. This news came in a very small letter rolled up in a little ball the size of a pill, then put inside a tiny hole in a rough walking stick, and plugged in there with wax. The stick was given to a native, who merely had orders to come into Mafeking and give me the stick as a present. Naturally, when the black native brought me the stick and said it was from a white man, I guessed there must be something special about it, and soon found the hidden letter.
I received a secret letter from another friend once. He had written it in the Hindustani language, but in English lettering. Anybody else studying it would have been quite puzzled about the language in which it was written, but to me it was clear as daylight.
When we sent letters out from Mafeking during the siege, we gave them to natives, who were able to creep out between the Boer outposts. Once through the line of sentries, the Boers mistook the natives for their own, and took no further notice of them. They carried the messages in this way: The letters were written on thin paper, and half a dozen or more were crumpled up tightly into a little ball, then rolled up into a piece of lead paper, such as tea is packed in. The native scout would carry a number of these little balls in his hand, or hanging round his neck loosely on strings. If he saw he was in danger of being captured by an enemy, he would notice landmarks round about him and drop all the balls on the ground, where they looked like small stones. Then he would walk boldly on until accosted by the enemy, who, if he searched him, would find
nothing.
The messenger would wait around for perhaps a day or two, until the coast was clear, then come back to the spot where the landmarks told him the letters were lying. “Landmarks”, you may remember, mean any objects—trees, mounds, rocks, or other details—which act as sign-posts for
a Scou
t who notices and remembers them.
The natives of Australia often used signal fires to send messages.
SIGNALLING
Signalling is well worth knowing. It is good fun to be able to signal to your pal across the street without other people un- derstanding what you are talking about. But I found it really valuable for communicating with a friend out in the wild— once when we were on separate mountains, and another time when we were on opposite sides of a big river, and one of us had important news to communicate.
Signal Fires
Scouts of all countries use fires for signalling purposes—smoke fires by day and flame fires by night.
Smoke Signals—Three big puffs in slow succession mean “Danger”. A succession of small puffs means “Rally, come here”. A continued column of smoke means “Halt”.
To make a smoke fire, light your fire in the ordinary way with plenty of thin dry sticks and twigs, and as soon as it is burning well, put on green leaves and grass, or damped hay, to make it smoke.
Special drums are used in Africa to signal from village to village.
Cover the fire with a damp blanket. Take off the blanket to let up a puff of smoke, then put it over the fire again. The size of the puff depends on how long you lift the blanket. For a short puff, hold it up while you count two, then replace the blanket while you count eight. For a long puff hold up the blanket for about six seconds.
Flare Signals—Long or short flares at night mean the same as the above smoke signals by day.
You light a flare fire with dry sticks and brushwood, so as to make as bright a flame as possible.
Two Scouts hold up a blanket in front of the fire, that is, between it and those to whom you are signalling, so that your friends do not see the flame till you want them to. Then you drop the blanket while you count two for a short flash, or six for a long one, hiding the fire while you count four between each flash.
Sound Signals
In the American Civil War, Captain Clowry, a scout officer, wanted to give warning to a large force of his own army that the enemy was going to attack unexpectedly during the night. But he could not get to his friends because there was a flooded river between them which he could not cross, and a rain storm was raging.
What would you have done if you had been Captain Clowry?
A good idea struck him. He got hold of an old railway engine that was standing near him. He lit the fire and got up steam in her, and then started to blow the whistle with short and long blasts in the Morse alphabet. Soon his friends heard and understood, and answered back with a bugle. He then spelt out a message of warning to them, which they read and acted upon. And so their force of twenty thousand men was saved from surprise.
Certain tribes of natives in Africa signal news to each other by means of beats on a drum. Others use wooden war gongs.
Here is another kind of signal
“drum” used by natives of Africa.
Morse and Semaphore Signalling
Every Scout ought to learn the Morse code for signalling. It can be used to send messages by “dots” and “dashes” for some distance by flags; or by sounds, such as bugle; or by flashes (heliograph or electric light).
Semaphore signalling, which is done by waving your arms at different angles to each other, is even easier to learn. Here you form the different letters by putting your arms at different angles. Be sure to make these angles correctly. The diagram shows the signs as they appear to a
“reader”. It may look complicated in the picture, but when you come to work it out you will find it is very simple.
The sender must always face the station he is sending to. He gets the attention of the receiving station by the calling up signal VE-VE-VE or AAAA. When the receiving station is ready, it gives the carry on signal K. If it is not ready, it sends Q, meaning “Wait”.
The MORSE code letters and numerals are made up of dots and dashes.
When the receiving station has read a word correctly, it sends E or T (for Morse), or C or A (for
Semaphore). If any word is not answered, the sending station knows that the receiving station
has not read it and so repeats it until it is answered.
If you make a mistake, send the erase signal of 8 E’s, and then repeat the word.
If you are going to send numbers, use the regular Morse numerals, but in Semaphore spell the numbers out in letters. They will be checked by being repeated back by the receiving station.
End of word is indicated by a short pause in light and sound signalling, or, with flags, by bringing them down to the front.
You finish a message by sending the end of message signal AR. The receiving station answers with the message received signal R if the message has been received correctly.
Once you know the Morse or Semaphore alphabet, all you need is practice. A Scout is not asked
to send long sentences, or to send over long distances, or at a high speed. All that is expected of
you is that you should know your alphabet and read and send simple sentences or words really well. Do your best, so that when it comes to sending across a big field, or from hill to hill, your message will be easy to read.
Semaphore letters are made by holding two flags at different angles.
The letters appear this way as you face the sender
If you want to write a dispatch that will puzzle most people to read, use the Morse or Semaphore letters in place of the ordinary alphabet. It will be quite readable to any of your friends who understand signalling.
COMMANDS AND SIGNALS
A Patrol Leader often has a whistle, and a lanyard or cord for keeping it. The following commands and signals should be at your fingers’ ends, so that you can use them in your Patrol:
Words of Command
“Fall in” (in line).
“Alert” or “Attention” (stand up smartly). “Easy” or “At ease” (stand at ease).
“Sit easy” or “Sit at ease” (sit or lie down without leaving the ranks).
“Dismiss” (break off).
“Right turn” (or left turn); (each Scout turns accordingly).
“Patrol right turn” (or left turn); (each Patrol with its Scouts in line wheels to that hand).
“Quick march” (walk smartly, stepping off on the left foot).
“Double” or “On the double” (run at smart pace, arms hanging loose).
“Scout Pace” (walk so many paces and jog so many paces alternately—about 50 of each).
Whistle Signals
When a Scoutmaster wants to call the Troop together he whistles “The Scout’s Call”, or uses a special Troop call.
Patrol Leaders thereupon call together their Patrols by giving their Patrol call. Then they take their Patrol “on the double” to the Scoutmaster.
Here are some whistle signals for Scout field games:
1. One long blast means “Silence”, “Alert”, “Look out for my next signal”.
2. A succession of long, slow blasts means “Go out”, “Get farther away”, or “Advance”, “Extend”, “Scatter”.
3. A succession of short, sharp blasts means “Rally”, “Close in , “Come together”, “Fall in”.
4. A succession of short and long blasts alternately means “Alarm”, “Look out”, “Be ready”, “Man your alarm posts”.
5. Three short blasts followed by one long one from Scoutmaster calls up the Patrol Leaders—i.e., “Leaders come here!”
Any signal must be instantly obeyed at the double as fast as you can run—no matter what other job you may be doing at the time.
Hand Signals
Hand Signals—which can also be made by Patrol Leaders with their Patrol flags when necessary: Hand waved several times across the face from side to side, or flag waved horizontally from side to side opposite the face means “No”, “Never mind”, “As you were".
Hand or flag held high, and waved very slowly from side to side, at full extent of arm means “Extend”, “Go farther o
ut”, “Scatter”.
Hand or flag held high, and waved quickly from side to side at full extent of arm means “Close in”, “Rally”, “Come here”.
Hand or flag pointing in any direction, means “Go in that direction".
Clenched hand or flag jumped rapidly up and down several times, means “Run”. Hand or flag held straight up over head, means “Stop”, “Halt”.
When a leader is shouting an order or message to a Scout who is some way off, the Scout, if he hears what is being said, should hold up his hand level with his head all the time. If he cannot hear, he should stand still, making no sign. The leader will then repeat louder, or beckon to the Scout to come in nearer.
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