Patrol Practices In Camping

The best practice in camping is camping whenever possible- single nights, weekends, and longer camps.

In going to camp with the Troop it is essential to have a few "Standing Orders", which can be added to from time to time, if necessary. The Patrol Leaders are held fully responsible that their Scouts carry them out exactly.

Such orders will contain the camp routine and might point out that each Patrol will camp separately from the others, and that there will be a comparison between the respective cleanliness and good order of tents and surrounding ground.

Each Patrol usually has its tents grouped together, well away from the other Patrols, but within call of the Scoutmaster's tent which generally is in the centre.

Bathing in camp is under strict supervision to prevent non-swimmers getting into dangerous water. The following rules would be strictly followed:

• No Scout shall be allowed to bathe except under the personal supervision of the Scouter in charge of the party or some responsible adult appointed by him for the purpose. The safety of the place must have been previously ascertained and all reasonable precautions must be taken, including the provision of a life line.
• A picket of two good swimmers, preferably trained swimmers and life savers, must be on duty, undressed, in a boat or on shore as the circumstances may demand, ready to help any boy in distress. The picket itself may not bathe until the others have left the water.

In the Boy Scouts of America, a so-called "buddy-system" is used. In this system, the Scouts are divided into pairs, or buddies. The two boys of the buddy team are of about equal swimming ability. When in the water, each buddy is responsible for the safety of the other, under the general supervision of the Scouter in charge of the whole party.

Making a Camp Loom-Plant a row (No. 1 row) of five stakes firmly in the ground, 7 or 8 inches apart. Opposite to them, at a distance of 6 to 7 ft., drive in a row (No. 2 row) of two stakes and a crossbar (or of five stakes). Fasten a cord or twine to the head of each stake in No. 1 row and stretch it to the corresponding stake in No. 2 row and make it fast there. Then carry the continuation of the cord back over No. 1 row for some 5 ft. extra, and fasten it to a loose crossbar or "beam". Fasten other cords from the other stakes in No. 1 row to the stakes of No. 2 row, and then to the beam, tying them here the same distance apart that the stakes are apart.

The beam is now moved up and down at slow intervals by one Scout, while another Scout lays bundles of fern or straw in layers alternately under and over the stretched strings. The bundles are thus bound in by the rising or lowering of the cords attached to the beam.

If you move the beam first slightly to the right and then to the left so that the strings fall first on one side and then on the other side of the stretched strings it will twist the cords and make the binding much more secure.

Author

Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell (Chief Scout, London, UK)

Date of Creation

1908

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