Scouting, Volume 26, Number 2, February 1938 Page: 7
34, [2] p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Cin Emergency
Sea Scout Patrol
THIS is a story of Sea Scout ac-
tivity in the floods of the Ohio
River—a story of a fine Scout
project which grew out of the need
for more and better equipment, bet-
ter trained men, a planned program
of being prepared!
Evansville, Indiana, was one of the
cities which felt the full wrath of
the Ohio River flood in January,
1937, and Skipper Neville of the
S. S. S. Admiral Moffet tells what
By
R. Arthur Neville
Skipper
and
Paul J. Scheips
5
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bcach barue
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trip
ts
happened and what resulted after the
river withdrew to its bed.
On the 21st of January the call
went out from Evansville Red Cross
headquarters "Boats Boats! We
need as many boats as can immedi-
ately be made available." Unfortun-
ately the available boats were in
many cases unsuited to the needs of
the time. So were fhe three Sea Scout
boats. They were, however, removed
from winter storage and dispatched to
the points where they were most
needed. There was also a shortage of
immediately available equipment, out-
board motors, and the like, as a
nucleus about which efficient rescue
work could be built. Again, neither
the Red Cross nor the Sea Scout or-
ganization had a list of the boat own-
ers and their equipment, so that much
tragically important time was con-
sumed assembling operators and res-
cue craft.
As a direct outgrowth of this need
for more adequate preparation for
Sea Scouts ap-
pearing in photo-
graph are Don
Wright Robt.An-
germeier and Ed
Johnstone.
flood emergency in the future, the
Red Cross acted. The local officers
asked Mr Robert M. Leich, a mem-
ber of the S. S. S. Admiral Moffet
committee, and the young man who
so ably served as the director of all
the boating activities in connection
with the flood rescue work, to serve
as permanent director of the local
Red Cross rescue crew which it was
proposed to establish. He was charged
with the responsibility for organizing
a reserve unit which was to assemble
and keep in running order sufficient
equipment to begin rescue work at
once whenever needed. Twenty steel
hulls and one wooden hull, later
christened the '"Rescue," along with
a number of heavy-duty outboard
motors were placed in storage last
Spring. Mr Leich cast about for a
crew to man this equipment and to
care for it. About the first of June it
appeared that the Sea Scout organi-
zation was the one best suited for the
job.
It was decided to make a patrol
boat of the wooden hull, a boat which
should be used for water rescue and
general patrol work during the sum-
mer With two swimming beaches in
close proximity to the city and with
a variety of summer boating activities
on the city's waterfront, a great need
for such a patrol existed. Beyond this,
however, was the fact that with good
equipment and regular opportunity
to make use of that equipment the
Sea Scouts could be well trained for
rescue work whenever need should
arise in an emergency.
The Sea Scouts painted and re-
paired the "Rescue" putting the little
fifteen-foot boat in shipshape condi-
tion, fitted an outboard motor and
stowed life-saving gear and a first
aid kit. The gear consisted of two
pairs of oars, twg eighteen inch life
rings with fifty-foot hand lines, five
life preservers, one fire extinguisher,
one tow line, one small folding an-
chor, one electric lantern, one tool
kit, electric running lights, and a
five gallon can for a reserve supply
of gasoline.
It was decided that only those who
had been properly trained in life-
saving would be eligible to serve as
crew members. The minimum re-
quirements for eligibility were the
same as those for the Junior Red
Cross Life Saving Award. It was
(Continued on page 26)
FEBRUARY, 1938
Boy Scout Week—A High Point In The Troop Program.
Page Seven
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 26, Number 2, February 1938, periodical, February 1938; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth313035/m1/7/: accessed May 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.