Friday, February 10, 2012

Sea Scout Ship Viking, SSS-601, ex-USCG Motor Life Boat 44372

Sea Scout Ship VIKING,  ex-USCG 44372

Awhile back, when I was doing some research into the whereabouts of the old 44 foot Motor Life Boats that I served on in the 1980's, I discovered that one of the boats, the USCG 44372, is now a Sea Scout Boat down in Portland, Oregon!


http://eastpdxnews.com/community-resource/sea-scouts-offer-on-the-water-fun-leadership-skills/

I got in contact with the command of the City of Roses, Sea Scout group (SSS-601), and sent them a batch of photos of the old 44372 from my time on her back in 1984-1986, at USCG Station Grays Harbor.  They in turn, hooked me up with two of their uniform hats for the crew of the SSS-601 Viking, and two coffee mugs with the unit legend and a great line drawing of the old 44372.

Here are a few photos of the wonderful gifts:


Here is a link to the Sea Scout web page that features the SS-601 VIKING / USCG 44372:

http://www.sss601.org/44/index.html

The Sea Scouts have some great photo albums of the old 44372 on their site as well.  Be sure to check out the great albums at this link:


http://www.sss601.org/photos.html


I won't go into my complete history with the 44372 on this blog posting, but if you'd like to read a bit more about the years this boat and I spent together at USCG Station Grays Harbor, and see some great "vintage" photos, head on back to my previous posting:

http://sharky-fourbees.blogspot.com/2011/12/uscg-station-grays-harbor-1984-1986-my.html

USCG Station Grays Harbor 1984-86, 44372 (That's me in the photo!)

Here is one closing note to hopefully clarify the naming and organizational system system for the Sea Scouts.  The Sea Scouts are part of the Boy Scouts of America.  The Sea Scouts are organized into chapters called "Ships".  In the case of the Portland, Oregon group, the city name is "City of Roses", which is the nickname for Portland, and the group designator is "SSS-601", or "Sea Scout Ship 601".  Their actual "ship" is the Viking.  The Sea Scouts are a co-ed group for young people, aged 14-20 and their adult advisers. 
To finish up this posting, I would like to leave you with a video that was produced by the City of Roses SSS-601 crew of Portland, Oregon.  Enjoy!

2 comments:

whereelse said...

hi im with the ship city of roses. we still have the old girl and she's running like a dream. i was surprized to find this blog. she is a beautiful ship. we are very very proud to have her. thank you for you service in the coast guard.

Sharky said...

Some of my best times and most memorable times were spent on that wonderful old boat. Thank you for keeping her alive and thriving! I hope to make it down there to take a look at her in person this summer.