Month: July 2022

 

St. Helena – Shackleton’s Scouts Own

100 years ago the Quest just departed the island of St. Helena…

“Without any event of outstanding importance, following a placid round of commonplace duties, living on the fat of the land, since there was now no pronounced need to conserve our stores, cleaning ship diligently, fishing for albatross, taking occasional soundings and dredgings, we reached St. Helena and anchored off Jamestown. It is a pretty little town, which straggles picturesquely for a long way up the bottom of an acute-sided valley. The island itself is a mountainous mass, intersected in every direction by deep valleys, those opening to the sea in our direction being of a very regular V-shape. An exceedingly fertile land, its chief industry is the growing of flax.”

(Scout Marr, Into The Frozen South)

The Scouts on the island of St. Helena who held our Shackleton Scouts‘ Own to mark the Quest leaving 100 years ago.

RSPB’s Wingbeat Magazine

A fantastic write up by Lucy Morgan and Sam Payne in the RSPB’s Wingbeat Magazine!

They were asked to be guest reporters for the magazine written by young people for young people.

It featured in the July 2022 edition from Page 7 to Page 9.

Wingbeat is one of the magazines that goes out to Youth Members of the RSPB,

https://www.rspb.org.uk/join-and-donate/buy-youth-membership

EXPLORERS TO MAKE FINAL REQUEST2021 VOYAGE

PRESS RELEASE – EXPLORERS TO MAKE FINAL REQUEST2021 VOYAGE

The following Explorer Scouts have now been selected to sail on the REQUEST2021 Final Voyage on a tall ship from Plymouth to Portsmouth on 16th – 18th September 2022.

Exactly 100 years after Scout Marr returned upon Shackleton’s Quest on its year long voyage to Antarctica and back.

The Explorers will be holding the Shackleton Scouts’ Own ceremony next to the recently installed plaque to the 1921 Shackleton-Rowett expedition on the Friday at 6pm at Millbay Docks. They will then set sail from Plymouth.

On the voyage, the they will learn how to sail or improve their existing sailing skills and seamanship, including navigation and the use of all the equipment on board the boat.

They plan to arrive at Portsmouth’s Gunwharf Quays around 4pm on Sunday 18th September to hold the very last Shackleton Scouts’ Own and officially mark end the REQUEST2021 project.

Silas Maxwell [Medway Towns]
Edward Wisbey [Dover]
Jacob Websdale [Thanet]
Jack Smith [Dartford]
Amy Schipper [Royal Tunbridge Wells]
Alex Tremain [Dartford]
Rose Darnley [Devon Scouts, representing Plymouth]
Oli Cowell [Hampshire Scouts, representing Portsmouth]

Wish them all luck! It promises to be a memorable experience.

They will be joined by four Kent Scouts Leaders plus the permanent Island Trust crew of the Johanna Lucretia.

FOR MORE INFO CONTACT REQUEST2021 PROJECT LEADER ALAN NOAKE ON 07525 633435 OR ALAN.NOAKE@KENTSCOUTS.ORG.UK

Cape Town – Shackleton Scouts’ Own

Thrilled that to commemorate the Quest leaving Cape Town on 13th July 1922 the South Cape Scouts have held our REQUEST2021 Shackleton Scout’s Own service 100 later. The Quest had been in Cape Town since Sunday 18th June 1922. A huge thanks to all the Scouts taking part and a Shackleton The Penguin badge is on the way to them!

TRANSCRIPT FROM CAPE TIMES 20th June 1922 – PATROL LEADER MARR: “A Welcome From Local Scouts. Some 52 Green and Sea Point Scouts tramped down to the Docks on Sunday morning to welcome Patrol Leader Marr to South Africa, and their disappointment may be imagined when they saw the Quest putting out to sea again. However a generous friend (who it is believed was Mr Kenneth Pritchard) came forward and told them all to jump into the motor pleasure boats and he would “stand the racket.” A fine seven miles stern chase after the Quest was the result, and when alongside shouts were given for Marr, who came to the side of the boat and acknowledged the cheers given on his behalf. The little jaunt was thoroughly enjoyed by all, and it was a thrilling sight to see the famous boat rolling in the swell. Needless to say, the Scouts thoroughly appreciated Mr. Pritchard’s kind action, and thanked him in characteristic Scout style on reaching shore.”

AN EXTRACT FROM SCOUT MARR’S ‘INTO THE FROZEN SOUTH’ (CHAPTER XIX – ASAIL FOR HOME): “Wherever I personally went the Scouts were kindness itself to me, and my great regret was that I had not sufficient time wherein to see as much of them as I could have wished. For I owed my great adventure to the fact that I was a Scout, and gratitude to the organization that gave me my chance must always be uppermost in my heart. It would be utterly impossible for me to write of the many distinguished, generous people we had the honour to meet, of the countless functions we attended or of the impressive, interesting sights we saw. What with lunches, dinners, dances, motor drives and the like, Jack was ashore with a vengeance and thoroughly enjoying himself; whilst, considering the people—thousands of them, literally—whom we had to conduct over the ship, it is a marvel to me how we managed to get a full day into every twenty-four hours. Every day was a red-letter day on its own account; and I must always remember our stay as a truly wonderful month.”

AN EXTRACT FROM FRANK WILD’S ‘SHACKLETON’S FINAL VOYAGE’ (CHAPTER XIV – CAPE TOWN): “Much repair work and general overhauling was necessary on the Quest. I had it put in hand at once. The engines, which under the careful nursing of Kerr, Smith and their staff had withstood the hard conditions remarkably well, now required an overhaul before we could again put to sea. The rigging was reset up and all necessary repairs completed. The ship received a new coating of paint, which completely transformed her battered appearance and made her once more a smart-looking little vessel. Fresh stores were taken aboard, and, the work completed, we left next day for the naval dockyard at Simonstown. Several of our friends made the trip with us, including a number of Boy Scouts who had been assisting aboard the ship, but the Quest, reverting quickly to her old antics, made them wish they had stayed ashore.”

ONLINE POLAR AUCTION

The REQUEST FUND Auction (jumblebee.co.uk)

The auction will run from 9am on Friday 1st July to 9pm on Sunday 10th July 2022.

All profits will go to the legacy REQUEST FUND. This is the fund set up by the Kent Scouts REQUEST2021 Antarctica Project in 2021 to extend our educational outreach activities about Antarctica as well as to support more young people in Scouting and Guiding to do polar research and expeditions.



Kent County Scout Council Charity Registration No. 303471