What is Sea Scouting?
Sea Scouting is an older Scout program, much like Venturing. The idea is to give older Scouts a more intense and rigorous program with new opportunities to keep them engaged in the Scouting program. Sea Scout, as it sounds, is aquatic based. These units, called Ships, can be focused on a variety of aquatic adventures and incorporate maritime skills and traditions along with traditional Scout skills and values.
NO SEA? NO PROBLEM!
Understandably many people think that Sea Scouting can only be done in coastal areas. However, this IS NOT true. Sea Scouts can happen in most parts of the country. In addition to large motorized boats, or massive sail boats, some Ships are based around smaller one or two person sailboats, others focus a lot of time in snorkeling and SCUBA activities, and the largest growing are is Ships that focus on paddle craft like canoes, kayaks, and rowboats. These activities can certainly be fun in the ocean, but can also be used in lakes and rivers.
History of Sea Scouting
In 1910, as Lord Robert Baden Powell, was starting the Scouting movement his other brother Warington wrote his own manual for boys about Sea Scouting. Sea Scout ,fittingly, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and came to America under the direction of Arthur Carey. By 1913 the United States Secretary of the Navy encouraged the expansion and promotion of Sea Scouting. This lead to a long standing partnership between Sea Scouting and the United States Armed Forces, particularly the Navy. The program steadily increased in popularity and then in 1949 became officially known as Sea Exploring. This was merely a name change and the program itself stayed the same. In 1971 Sea Exploring, and other Exploring groups, became co-ed and welcomed young ladies into the program. In 1974 the United States Navy assigned an official liaison officer from the Navy to the BSA. This position was served by several officers through that time until 1983 when it was discontinued. 1998 the Boy Scouts of America split the Exploring program into two groups. One group was known as Learning for Life, and these were units that worked with some future career options almost like an apprenticeship. The rest of the Exploring program, formerly the High Adventure portion became known as Venturing. The nautical program was tied to the Venturing umbrella and named Sea Scouts. In 2012 the Sea Scout support committee made a change in uniforming to the current navy blue uniforms. This was the first significant change in the program since the 1920s. A new manual, with a major overhaul to the advancement program, came in 2016. Another programmatic change that occurred in 2016 was the addition of paddle craft programs. In 2018 the Coast Guard Auxiliary named Sea Scouting as their official youth program. This relationship with the Coast Guard continues to be strong to this day.