The Mayflower Council has received inquiries about establishing a Sea Scout unit (called a “Ship”) for youth interested in that BSA program. Sea Scouts, founded by the BSA in 1912, provides a maritime-oriented program for youth ages 14 through 20. A Ship functions very much like a Venturing Crew, with activities focused exclusively on maritime activities – seamanship, navigation etc. Like a Venturing Crew, a Ship is youth-lead with adult supervision. The adult volunteers needed to operate a Ship are similar to any other scouting unit – a Ship Committee, a unit leader (referred to as the “Skipper”) and assistants. Sea Scouts also involves adults as “consultants” – adults with technical skills who can advise the members on specific maritime skills. These consultants can also be members of the committee or adult leadership, or not.
The Council has identified a potential chartered organization for a Ship. The next step is to see if there is interest among adults to provide the core leadership for a Ship. We are confident that, once established, there will be sufficient interest among youth members to support a unit. The likely meeting place for our first ship will be in the Hingham/Cohasset/Scituate area. If there is interest in establishing another Ship in other areas of the Council, we will discuss and support that idea as well.
We will discuss the program in more detail and discuss the various adult and youth roles in the Ship. Since unit leadership generally comes from parents of youths involved in the program, if you suspect your scout may be interested in Sea Scouts, you should have him or her look at the new Sea Scouts website at www.seascout.org, which has lots of information for prospective youth and adult participants.