"Sea Scouts" help with Xmas post

It’s a dark, cold December night down at the Newport docks, so why is 71-year-old Roger Swabey, a retired warehouse manager, visiting a drab pre-fab opposite a sleeping timber yard?

The answer lies inside: the headquarters of the 29th Newport Sea Scout Group, which has been turned into the sorting office for the town’s annual Scout and Guide Christmas Post. Run by Swabey, a Scout leader for 30 years, the annual operation is the principal source of fundraising for Scouts and Guides. Since starting in 1990, the initiative has raised more than half a million pounds through the sales of its own stamps.

As the lights flicker on, you can see banks of grubby but neatly labelled cardboard boxes filling up with Christmas cards bearing one of the specially designed and printed stamps, priced at 16p and depicting 10 local landmarks, including some of the bridges across the River Usk, which bisects this town of 140,000 inhabitants.

Swabey scoops up a heavy shopping basket overflowing with fat bundles of letters, and heads for his car. It’s a project that visibly energises this former merchant seaman.

“I’ve been bitten by dogs and I have sleepless nights, but it’s work that gives me a zing. For a month I go like Harry Clappers and have to think on my feet, just like I did when I was a warehouse manager,” he says.

Halfway into town we stop at Nathwani’s newsagent and general store. Along with Gibbo’s Fish and Chip shop, the Vogue hair salon, and a few other local businesses, the newsagent sells the Scouts’ Christmas stamps and collects the resultant mail in a posting box by the counter.

Ten minutes later, we arrive at a Scout hut in the centre of Newport known as Skip Jennings Hall, after a long-departed Scoutmaster who built it in the middle of the last century. Today it serves as the central sorting office for the 200,000 Scout Post letters handled every year. By mid-evening, it’s a hive of activity, as sacks, boxes and bags of letters arrive from 34 different collection offices around town, to be re-sorted into sacks bound for delivery to the same areas. There’s a Dad’s Army feel to the scene as Swabey barks instructions to the assembled volunteers, mainly of advancing years, but with a few teenagers helping out as well – including girls, of course. Admitted into the Scouts in the mid 1970s, they now comprise one in eight of the 400,000 young members.

Continued...

[The Daily Telegraph]

Obviously they're not really "Sea Scouts". (Just look at the picture, for crying out loud!) But then one wouldn't expect a mong from The Daily Telegraph to appreciate that. The list of actual Sea Scouts groups registered with the MoD is on the Royal Navy's website here. The website for the Newport Scouts and Guides "Scout Post" is here.

It's one of those things that really puzzles me (or at least it has in the past) - not just why the media lie about big important things (i.e. where they actually have an interest) but why they can't actually be bothered to get things right even when it'll make no difference at all to 99.99% of the population but it will cause considerable embarrassment or even offence to the tiny number who will actually care about these things.

Hunting

I was looking for a picture of Hunter Parish on Google, because I didn't know what he looked like. (Genuinely!) But I found this instead - which to be honest is probably nicer.

More Russian Sailor Boys

Sad News from the Sea Cadets

On the subject of British sea cadets, the following is from The Times.

Sir, Martin Samuel’s article (“Heroin is hard work. You don’t drift into it”, Sept 26) is skilfully written but seeks ultimately to equate the dangers of taking heroin with that of joining the Sea Cadets.

Christopher Preece was no longer a cadet at the time of this death. While he was a cadet his behaviour was exemplary and we offer our sincerest condolences to his family.

The Sea Cadets provide opportunities to more than 14,000 young people across the country to participate positively with other young people engaging in a multitude of activities such as drill, sailing, canoeing and catering. They get to meet other young people nationally and internationally at a huge number of courses, events and competitions. These activities provide life skills, citizenship and leadership development. The activities also seek to relieve the boredom of the teenage years that Mr Samuel’s article highlights correctly as being one of the principal causes of drug use.

Only a small fraction of the 14,000 join the Royal Navy, although those who do join ultimately turn out to be the ones the Navy retains the longest. The Royal Navy needs this to carry on the fight against the many dangers we face, one of which, of course, is preventing the traffic of drugs into this country.

More than 9,500 volunteers give up a huge amount of their spare time changing the lives of young people and their communities for the better. Average uniformed volunteers will give 16.6 hours a week supporting their local unit, a substantial amount of which is involved in fundraising to keep the self-financing units running.

An indication of the challenge and the rewards that face our volunteers is that 40 per cent of cadets come from single-parent backgrounds and from areas that the Government describes as being of multiple deprivation.

It is for these reasons Mr Samuel’s conclusion causes immense offence.

Mike Cornish
Chief Executive
Marine Society and Sea Cadets

Russian Sailors

As it happens I can't be sure whether they're actual young sailors or just sea cadets.

Sea Scouts

For me the saddest thing about the tragic degradation of changes made to the Scout uniforms over the years has been the way in which the Scouts themselves have been almost systematically robbed of their dignity. Arguably when Scouting went "mixed" in the 1980s was the ultimate humiliation end of this process.

In a way it's quite pleasing that just as the Navy over the years has to a certain extent, er, weathered the storms of modernisation, so the Sea Scouts have seemingly changed less than their land-based brothers. There's a list of the Sea Scout groups officially recognised by the Navy here. The pic above is from the website of the Southbourne Sea Scouts. (There's a pic of a trad Sea Scout group here.)

The Navy has a nice story about the Southbourne Scouts' visit onboard HMS Endurance (the Navy's Antarctic patrol ship, named after Shackleton's ship) in late September last year on its website.

For some it had was the first time they had ever been on board a Royal Navy ship, and there were definite nervous excitement as the 50 strong 1st Southbourne Sea Scouts arrived at the gangway. HMS Endurance is currently in dry dock undergoing essential maintenance prior to her extended deployment later this year, and this immediately caused confusion to some of the younger scouts. “ Has your ship got a puncture?” was one of the first questions asked. After the compulsory health and safety brief, the scouts were split into small groups and given a tour by members of the Ship’s Company, who were very impressed with the Scout’s knowledge of both Endurance and the RN. Being asked about the ship’s displacement by a 6 year old is very encouraging for potential sailors of tomorrow. The highlight of the tour was obviously the bridge and Captain’s chair, and standing on the bridge roof to see where Her Majesty had stood for the Fleet review, but they were also impressed by the selection of Playstation games available in the Wardroom.

Their visit ended with all the scouts taking part in the ceremony of Sunset, coming to attention in divisions and saluting as the ensign was lowered from the main mast. It was a fitting and unforgettable end to a visit that will be remembered by both the Ship’s Company and the Scouts.

Dulce et decorum

At Mont Saint-Michel! (Picture from Taps40's blog)