CHAPTER I
OFF FOR THE BIG ADVENTURE

THE whistle blew a long blast that nearly deafened us. The deck under our feet trembled. Suddenly the dock, alongside which our ocean liner was moored, began to move away from us! We knew then that our ship was backing out into the North River. 

We were off for the Third Boy Scout Jamboree!

The other two Jamborees in 1920 and 1924 were mere shindigs compared to this grand 1929 one in England toward which we were headed. There were going to be nearly 1500 of us American boys there and a total of 50,000 boys from nations all over the world!

Of course we all didn't go on the same ship. (It would have been pretty hard on the ship if we had!) We went on 18 ships which sailed on different days from June 18 to July 20. There were Scouts and Scoutmasters from several towns on each ship. But each one of us bad the same experience of hanging excitedly over the rail when the last whistle blew and watching the dock seem to move away when we backed into the stream.

"Goodbye, Miss Liberty!" yelled one of the gang as we passed the Statue of Liberty.

Her hand that was stretched up to the sky seemed to move a little as if she were waving at us; and her cheerful smile seemed to say: "Goodbye, fellows, I wish I were going with you."

In half an hour we were through the Narrows and headed down Ambrose Channel where we first felt the gentle heave of the open sea.

At supper we got acquainted with Boy Scouts from other towns who were aboard. There was a good deal of excited talk about what was going to happen when we got to Liverpool which lies just across the Mersey River from Birkenhead, the place where the jamboree was to be held. But the most interesting thing was to hear the boys tell how they happened to be going:

"My father paid for my trip as a birthday present."

"I worked in a garage on Saturday mornings all last spring and made enough to buy a ticket."

"A rich man in our town said he'd send two of our troop. So we had a competitive examination in the Scout's Manual, and Bill and I won out."

"I saved my allowance for a year and thought I'd buy a bicycle and when I saw the article in 'Boy's Life' about the jamboree I decided I'd rather have this trip than a bike."

And so on. Every one seemed to have a different story.

Almost the first thing we did on the ship was to have lifeboat drill. The Captain blew the emergency siren and the word was passed for us to get our life-preservers out of our staterooms and appear on deck. As we were not sure the ship wasn't sinking we certainly stepped out. Up at the lifeboats a white-uniformed officer made us a little speech about going quickly and quietly to our boats in case of trouble.

We awoke next morning and found that a gale had sprung up in the night. The old ship was standing on her ear and seas were crashing against her sides. There were some faces missing when we got down to breakfast. One fellow who wasn't thinking of getting seasick made up this song:

Sailing, sailing, over the bounding main,
Oh, what's the use to eat your food
When it's gotta come up again!

The joke was that about two minutes after the poet had sung his verse he made a dive for the door and we didn't see him again for two days!

We had another "seasick song" as we called it. You sang it to the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean":

"My breakfast went into the ocean,
My dinner went into the sea,
My supper is all in commotion
Oh, bring back my dinner to me!"

When we ran out of the blow the sea was smooth 'as a pond except for a nice easy ground-swell; the sky was clear and we were far out of sight of land. Except for a ship now and then out on the horizon we seemed absolutely alone on a flat ocean that was round as a butter dish.

Our voyage across was a big and beautiful holiday and yet we kept pretty busy. We had a regular daily schedule so that we'd be in good shape for the Jamboree. We knew that boys from other countries would have their eyes on us and we wanted them to see that American Boy Scouts are the finest in the world.

Every morning after breakfast we had inspection. After this came knotting, Indian dancing and other Scout activities. Then we practiced the jamboree songs. These always brought a big audience from the passengers.

On the upper deck we did pyramid building.

When the ship took a roll we'd all fall flat. In the afternoons we played deck games such as shuffle board, deck tennis and deck hockey.

One day while we were practicing our songs we heard lots of splashing. Some one yelled "Porpoise." Talk about a rush! We all ran to the side of the boat and sure enough there were about a hundred porpoises playing in the water. They were swimming just as fast as the ship was going. Every once in a while they would leap out of the water and then plunge down in again in a graceful dive. They stayed close to the ship for a while and then the whole band suddenly steered off to the southward and that was the last we saw of them.

The passengers were always asking us questions. One of the things people wanted to know most of all was why we were going to England and what the Jamboree was for. Many of us copied the official answer to this question from the bulletin we got from New York because then we could just yank a good written reply out of our pockets instead of trying to explain every time. The official reasons for the Jamboree were:

(a) To observe the methods and programs of Scouts of other nations;(b) To display as nearly as possible the normal Troop and Patrol activities of the Boy Scouts of America;

(c) To stimulate, both through preparation for and reports of the Jamboree, a wider interest in Scouting according to best approved methods, and with the highest type of leadership;

(d) To foster the spirit of brotherhood and friendliness among the boys of the world.

The unofficial reasons for the Jamboree were to have a swell trip and to see what all the other Scouts in the world were doing. We couldn't help making friends with them and we had enough pride to try to show them that our Scout work was as good as theirs.

The days passed rapidly and finally one morning we were told by one of the ship's officers that we should be able to see Ireland almost any minute. At once a lot of us went on deck and stayed there, anxious to be the first ones to sight land.

We all felt a good deal like Columbus' sailors when they were seeing who could win the prize which Columbus promised the man who sighted land first. It was quite misty and we could not see more than half a mile. We were getting discouraged when suddenly we could make out the outline of some dark body on the horizon. At first it was hard to tell whether it was a hill or the hull of a large ocean steamer. In a few minutes, however, it all became more distinct and we knew that we were having our first look at the shores of Ireland.

Out of the fog came a small steamer. At first we didn't pay any attention to it; but when we saw the Scout uniform on so many of its passengers we knew that a group of Irish Scouts had come out to offer us their Scout friendship. When they came within hail they began yelling. So did we. This act of good will made us all feel fine and we grew more eager than ever to have the ocean voyage over so that we might meet our foreign friends.

When the boat load of Irish Scouts disappeared we got orders to pack. There was a good deal of noise and bustle, but everybody seemed happy, if one could judge from the amount of whistling and singing that went on.

We had been on the Atlantic for over a week when we steamed slowly into the Mersey River. An hour later we bundled into a tender at Liverpool, crossed the river to Birkenhead and were loaded into swift motor buses. At top speed we drove (on the left-hand side of the road, as they do in England) all the way to the big jamboree Camp.

We had arrived at last!

Contents		Chapter II

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