Sea Scout Flags -Reply
Bruce C Johnson (bjoh@loc.gov)
Thu Jun 04 06:08:11 1998
Christopher:
Your questions point up a whole in our national web site coverage. We
have done a good job with order information of Sea Scouting insignia and
literature, but we don't have anything on the flags. I'll see that I can
do about that over the next week or so.
Answers below:
>>> Christopher K. Sokolov <csokolov@seascout.org> 4 June 1998 1:08 am >>>
I have a couple of questions about Sea Scout flags these days. Not very
important, but I'm curious:
1 - Where do people get their flags made these days? Are the ones from
National any good? Will they allow "Sea Scout" wording instead of "Sea
Exploring" now?
BJ> BSA has set requirements for what lettering it allows on flags. For
Ship flags, the first line reads "Ship xxx"; the second line (which is
optional) can either have your chartered organization's name or your Ship's
name (ours reads "S.S.S. Columbia Ranger"); the third line (below the
emblem) has your Ships city and state; the fourth line (which is optional
and almost never found on Sea Scout flags) has your council name. No
variation from this lettering pattern is permitted. In my experience, the
Sea Scout flags (and all other BSA flags) are well made. I've never tried
using our 3' x 5' Ship flag as a cruising flag, but we've used the 16" x
24" officers flags for years and see very little evidence of UV fading or
hem unraveling.
2 - Normally, I see ships flying their Ship flag. If you have more than
one vessel (like a fleet of sail boats), would you fly copies of the Ship
flag or flags with the name of the vessel (ie: not the unit). Or would you
fly an officer flag?
BJ> The "Sea Exploring Manual" specifies when each flag is to be flown.
More detail will be found in the upcoming new "Handbooks for Skippers." As
a practical matter, the officer's flag is a much more economical flag to
have multiples of. It only costs about $13.50, as opposed to the Ship
flag, which runs about $30 plus required lettering that can push the cost
up to between $60 and $120. Most Ships will find having multiple officers
flags a more viable option.
Bruce Johnson
Skipper, S.S.S. Columbia Ranger
Columbia, Maryland USA
commodore@seascout.org
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