SINGAPORE SEA SCOUTS
Home of our Sea Scouting Community
SINGAPORE SEA SCOUT
Sea Scouting kicked off 2 years after Lord Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell founded the Scout Movement. With the first ever Sea Scout camp helmed by Henry Warington Smyth Baden-Powell (Robert's older brother) in 1909, the specialized branch of the Scout Movement had begun. Warington Baden-Powell went on to write "Sea Scouting and Seamanship for Boys" in 1910, and Sea Scouting was formally organized by The Scout Movement in England by 1912.
Sea Scouting saw her first appearance on the island of Singapore in February 1927. It started with a boat acquired by the local association which is seaworthy at that time but it was not fully utilised to grow Sea Scouting in Singapore.
In 1934, Mr. Frank Edward Anson Blackwood Sewell started Sea Scouting in Singapore with the formation of the First Singapore Sea Scout Troop, an ‘open’ troop that welcomed boys from all schools. As Scoutmaster, Mr. Sewell brought to Singapore Scouting a youth programme emphasizing boating and water-based activities. Naturally, naval and nautical traditions incorporated by Sea Scouting in the United Kingdom, which started in 1909, were also adopted in Singapore (then part of the Straits Settlements, a Crown colony of the British Empire). Sea Scouts of the First Singapore Sea Scout Troop enjoyed a myriad of activities with a strong maritime bias, and even had their own training ship, the SS Lumut.
Members of the 1st Trafalgar Sea Scout Troop in their distinctive white and blue uniforms and bluejacket’s cap with Sea Scout ribbons, 1930s.
Mr. Frank Edward Anson Blackwood Sewell & SS Lumut
As Singapore was established as an important trading port and major city since our colonial era, Sea Scouting has remained relevant and vibrant through the years, supporting the physical, mental and spiritual development of our youth. In tandem with the general Scout programme, Sea Scouting in Singapore is now a branch of the Singapore Scout Association offering a co-ed youth programme with a system of Progress Badges and Proficiency Badges with considerable emphasis on water activities. So many years on, Sea Scout training in Singapore continues to develop youths as confident adventurers on the water as they are on land, by teaching them nautical skills and seamanship on a variety of craft.
