Scout "Peace" Cruises

The Cruises

The Sea Cruises were organised jointly for Guides and Scouts and used Ocean going liners to travel abroad to enable UK Guides and Scouts to visit countries where they could socialise with their counterparts from different nations.

There were three Cruises, sometimes referred to as the “Peace Cruises” as B.P. thought it would bring different nations together and deflect people away from all the talk of war. The last Cruise was held the year before World War 2 broke out.

Calgaric - 1933 - visited the Baltic Area, taking in Holland, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland,Sweden and Norway.
Adriatic - 1934 - visited the Mediterranean area, taking in Gibraltar, Malta, Valletta, Algiers, VilleFranche, Nice and Lisbon.
Orduna - 1938 - visited Holland and Scandinavia, taking in Holland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland.

Below is a description of each of the cruises and a few photos. A very comprehensive report of the cruises by Barry Groves (from which this post is taken) can be downloaded here: The 3 Scout Cruises .

Cruise 1 - the Calgaric

The Calgaric

In 1927, White Star Line chartered the Calgaric for service, but it was too small. In 1932, she was retired and was sold scrap for in 1934. Presumably this was the reason White Star Line allowed a huge number of boys and girls to travel on her.

Scout and Guide Cruise {from Wikipedia}

Perhaps the ship's main claim to fame was that she was chartered for a Baltic Cruise of Scouters and Guiders, a cruise that lasted from Saturday, 12 August to Tuesday, 29 August 1933..On board were the Baden-Powell family, and about 100 Scouters, 475 Guides and 80 non-Scouts and Guides - presumably spouses of the participants. There were 85 men and 570 women - some of the Wolf Cub Akelas were women.

The itinerary was:-

Southampton
Rotterdam (Netherlands)
Kiel Canal
Gdynia (Poland)
Klaipėda (Lithuania)
Riga (Latvia)
Tallinn (Estonia)
Helsinki (Finland)
Stockholm (Sweden)
Oslo (Norway)
Pentland Firth, Oban (Scotland)
Liverpool (England)

Why?

From Johnny Walker’s Milestones

I learned from my first copy of the book that the Chief Guide, Olave, Lady Baden-Powell, had been on a visit to Poland in August 1932. She was very impressed with what she found a nd remarked to a colleague, a Miss Mander, that all British Guiders would also benefit from a visit. “If only I could take a whole shipload of them and bring them over....” The quick response was “Why not?”

From those chance remarks, the concept of a voyage to the Baltic and North Sea Countries by Scouters and Guiders was quickly brought to fruition. It took B.P. himself to persuade the White Star Line to find the good ship Calgaric – specifically brought back from Canada – when presumably there was no other ship available. Shown here is the company’s publicity drawing of her.

Right from the start Scouts were involved – though the start date of the Cruise was only a few days after the World Jamboree in Godolla, Hungary, so the numbers were not as high as they should have been. There was room for only 655 passengers and very quickly over 1,000 subscribers were found. They came from every rank of Scouting and Guiding representing nearly every Scout and Guide County.

Anybody over the age of 16 could go and though there were Senior Scouts and Rangers, it has to be said that the most common 'rank' was that of Guide Captain. This in part may have been due to Guides being more available (Guides did not attend the Godollo Jamboree), and partly because the concept of the voyage was that of The Chief Guide. Also, perhaps, senior ranks were more common because the cost of the voyage would have been prohibitive for younger Guides. In addition, there were representatives from the Commonwealth countries as well as three Swiss Guiders, one American and one French Girl Scout Leader.

The picture above, taken on board the Calgaric, shows The Chief, Lady Baden-Powell
and behind them their children (l to r) Heather, Peter and Betty

The voyage had to be planned giving careful consideration to the political situation of the day. Though the ship passed through the German Kiel Canal, it was decided before the voyage began that no one would disembark in Hitler's Third Reich. Later on the ship cruised between the Danish mainland and islands, but again no port of call was made because the then-current regime did not allow any adult to wear a uniform! This must have been a very bitter pill to any of those on the voyage who had attended the 2nd World Jamboree at Ermelunden in Denmark only nine years previously.

One difference between the sexes soon showed up in the planning. The Scouters, it was said, would not come if they had to wear anything but Scout Uniform: The Guiders were adamant that they would not come if they could not wear their own clothes on board. In the event both sexes were appropriately dressed at all times!

The ship left Southampton on the 12th of August 1933 under flags of the Scout and Guide movements that had been specially made for the purpose.

Whilst the voyage did attract some publicity in Britain, it was not headline news. This was in marked contrast to some of the countries visited, where its effect was truly astounding. In Lithuania, for example, a public holiday was declared in honour of B-P's visit

Cruise 2 - the Adriatic

RMS Adriatic was an ocean liner belonging to the White Star Line. She was the fourth of a quartet of ships measuring over 20,000 tons, dubbed The Big Four. She was the first ocean liner to have an indoor swimming pool and Turkish bath. She was launched on 20 September 1906 (the same day as the Cunard Line's Mauretania). She set off on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York on 8 May 1907 under the command of Captain Edward Smith. Adriatic remained in passenger service during the First World War.

Adriatic left Liverpool for the last time on 19 December 1934, and was scrapped in Onomichi, Japan in 1935.

The Cruise called at Gibraltar, Villefranche, Malta and Algiers.

Here are some photos of the trip.

Cruise 3 - the Orduna

The Orduña left Liverpool on August 8th, 1938 to visit Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Belgium, calling at Dover before returning to Liverpool on August 25th. It is interesting to note that whereas the Calgaric was not able to visit Denmark in 1933, the Orduña was. (The regulation concerning the ban on uniforms in Denmark must have been lifted by this time.)

As before, Baden-Powell was with his wife Olave, the Chief Guide whose inspiration the cruises had been. This time they were accompanied only by their daughter Heather, who had had a key role in the venture as secretary to the organising committee.

Here are some photos from the cruise.

Some follow-ups

There were some unexpected results of the cruises. Checkout our post at https://isleofwightscoutingheritage.blogspot.com/2023/09/hitler.html .