The Fiftees: 1953-1959

P.L.R. Ache receiving the Kelshall Trophy from Mr. R. Kelshall, Assistant Colony Commissioner, 1957

The 1st Presentation Sea Scout Troop began in 1955 with Bro. Jerome as Scout Leader. In May of that year six boys were chosen with the hope that they would form the nucleus of the new troop. These boys were Louis Ross, John & Ken Borneo, Roje Ache, Herman Lee King and David Pena. The recruiting process was very active and soon the troop was up to two patrols - Kingfishers and Pelicans. Activities at this time were confined to a few camping trips to Paxvale Santa Cruz, Maracas Valley, Mayo and Palmiste Pasture. Later, the younger seniors came into the troop to form the third - the famous, the champions and history making senior patrol -Seagulls. At about this time a group of juniors were recruited and formed three junior patrols. The troop made its first public appearance in uniform on May 6th, 1956.

In 1955 the Old Chapel building was demolished and 150 year old corrugated iron, ballast bricks and old wood were salvaged, stored and renewed by the boys in preparation for the building of the headquarters on the San Fernando Wharf. In October of 956 the foundation was started and by April of 957 the Headquarters was completed, designed and built mainly by the founding members during regular school, vacations and weekends. Because of the manner in which a famous Irish Castle at Dunboy in West Cork was defended by its Irish garrison against overwhelming odds, it was decided to call the new structure "Dunboy", in deference to the dedicated manner in which those young men acted out of their beliefs and gave so much of their time and talent willingly. In 1957 the troop purchased 5 new 1 7ft pirogues Don Brasco, Francis X, Dominic Xavier, Bernadette and the Maria Goretti.

Top Trinidad Scout. Herman Lee King stands in front of the new Scout Headquarters, 1957 Queen's Scouts with the Assistant Director, Br. Dominic. L-R: C.P. Foon, M. Prudent, M. Samuel, C. Yip, F. Aerstein

Within the first three years we were beginning to make our presence felt among the
premier troops in the island and we became the envy of many in the arena. Herman Lee King was chosen to represent T & T at the World Jamboree in England in 1957. The troop placed at both the Chancellor Flag competition and the Morrison Regatta even though we were first time entrants. The rivalry between Presentation and St. Mary's traditionally in football, now had an added dimension - Scouting. With determination and a winning spirit we reversed the tables the following year by bringing both trophies to San Fernando.

In 1958 the Seagulls represented the Troop at the Chancellor Flag competition and emerged winners with a record breaking 92%, a standard acclaimed by the visiting Gilwell Camp Chief Judge as, "The highest he had seen in his travel experience. It was the first time in 12 years that a southern troop had won this competition. The winning Patrol consisted of CheepangFoon (Patrol Leader), Michael Samuel (Assistant Patrol Leader), Franklin Aerstein, Clement Yip, Don Petia, "Cheddie' Jagan, Joseph Lee Son and Clarence Davis. This Patrol was to continue its winning ways and to do great things in the years that followed winning the Flag 4 years consecutively. In this year the Troop also recorded its first Queen Scouts in the persons of Michael Samuel and Cheepang Foon.

During the late 50's Brothers Dominic and Theodore assisted with the troop. The troop also boasted of 9 Queen Scouts, when 8 was the standard for an excellent troop in England.

According to Cheepang Foon (July 1995), There is also the famous story of 40 Scouts on their way to a camping trip in Scotland bay, last reported battling a storm for 8 hours adrift in the Gulf of Paria heading towards Venezuela, led by a bald-headed Scoutmaster, who like Columbus didn1t know where he was going! You only need one of those experiences in a lifetime."

Bro. Jerome with the boys under a lean-in in 1956

The Sixties: 1960-1969

In 1960 the troop won the Kelshall trophy for the 4th consecutive year, the Chief Fire Officers Trophy for fire fighting / rescue skills, the Chancellor Flag for the third consecutive year and started a 16 member bugle band and had its fist parade. In 1961 Bro. Jerome was presented with the Medal of Merit at the Caribbean Jamboree. Eight Scouts completed a Mayaro - Toco Blanchisseuse - POS hike - a distance of almost 100 miles, and much of it over rough terrain, three of these even continued back to San Fernando, the entire hike taking 8 days.. The first camp on Monos Island and the first camp outside of Trinidad, to Grenada, took place in this year. The troop boasted of 68 members in 8 patrols and a world record 26 Queen Scouts. In 1962 we withdrew from all competitive scouting.

In 1968 the Presentation Troop had the honour of constructing a competition camp site for television viewers of TTT. A patrol was chosen and for the first time, scouting in its most important aspect - camp craft - was viewed by thousands all over the country. The Troop also maintained its reputation in being represented on all National Scout contingents to International Camps. Patrol Leader, Allan Herrera was among the boys representing Trinidad at an international camp in Barbados, while David Sancho was selected as Troop Leader for the national contingent to the 12th World Jamboree in Idaho.

By 1969 we once again started to enter and dominate competitions, but continued to emphasise the non-competitive aspects of Scouting - development of Spirituality, brotherhood, character building etc.

The Seventies: 1970-1979

Between 1971 and 1977 we dominated the Morrison Regatta competition and won the District Chancellor Prelims each year, while placing in the first four at all National Finals. In 1978 the Troop Leader was awarded the first President Scout Award in the District as well as the Top Scout in the District. The troop also walked away with all the honours in the Scout swim meet - winning both the Lenny Suniadh Trophy for swimming and the Vincent trophy for life line rescue.

In 1979 the band won the first ever Scout Bugle Band Competition, a competition we
continued to dominate until we felt that it had become an orchestra competition and we withdrew. We also received 4 bronze medallion awards. It was in 1977 that training camps were shifted to Christmas and young ladies and parents were invited to the campfire activities.

Anthony Syms recalls the decade, "Picture, The Kingos' aka. Michael King explaining to 'Lukie - now rev. Brother Michael Samuel', Principal and Group Scout Leader, how he planned to balance his Scout Hat on an eight (8") inch high afro. See 'Gabby now Dr. Gabriel Brown floating away on a Lilo asleep, following heavy rainfall at an International camp in Barbados... Those were the days when a dong d islands camp meant rowing from Fatima island Home to inner Scotland Bay, to and from each day and building a campsite in between.... There was the boat sinking incident at Colony Club, one 'Tweets' Carvalho cried for days assured by Hayden Brown of 'Banks Beer' fame, that the Bajan Police were soon to come a calling.

We introduced Aquarama for the first time and it was a hit. Parents became very involved. Venezuela 1976, a new direction was taken Guiria, Caracas, Magarita and Valencia. Michael Bachan and Nicholas Camps were the resident linguists for Venezuela. By 1976Kurt Lange had involved the Troop in sailing, the good ship' Bugs' had opened the doors to water skiing and Courtney Lange had reintroduced the Mace after a long absence. Michael Bachan was the last of the 70's Troop Leaders, he took the Troop back to Venezuela in 1978 and to St. Lucia in 1979."

The Eighties: 1980-1989

Bernard Geofroy was chosen as Patrol Leader of the national contingent to the Caribbean Jamboree in Lange Park Chaguanas in 1980. All of the original boats except the Santa Maria were sold and 4 new 19ft pirogues were obtained; 2 clinkers and 2 carvels. Two scouts also attended the World Jamboree in Canada of 1984, the same year that Bro. Michael was awarded the Medal of Merit.

1985 saw Bernard Geofroy being warranted as the First venture Scout Leader and the Venture unit placed 2nd in their first entry at the Hochoy Flag competition. Richard Jamadar was chosen to attend the International Camp Staff Program in the US.A. in 1985 and Colin Andrew in 1987. In 1986 the Santa Maria was sold and Our Lady was purchased. Three venture Scouts qualified as lifesavers with the Royal Life Saving Society of Trinidad and Tobago. The recipients were Donald Yee Yick, Andre des Etages and Mark Lee Son. In 1988 Faris Al Rawi and Ricardo Vieira were chosen by the Regional Association to represent the Inter-American region at the Columbus Quincentenial Project - once per year (for three years) all expenses paid trip to plan celebrations for the 500th anniversary of Columbus' arriving in the New World. We were also the only troop to acquire 100% passes in the St. John's Ambulance Certificate Programme. In November 1988 a four hour hike over the Northern Range took over seven hours to complete since a group of 13 scouts felt like testing their skills by" deliberately" getting lost in the snake infested forest.

In 1989 "Copperhole" was acquired, then a dilapidated building on Monos Island. Scouts and leaders assisted in refurbishing the facility which is now used for camps, retreats and holidays and continues to be a source of income for the College and Scouts. We came back with a bang in the Chancellor Flag competition placing second in the South Zone preliminaries and fourth in the National finals held in Mayaro. Avery, Rqj, Rolly, Lee, Ronald, Sam, Totes and Golliwog have done us proud considering that they were a young inexperienced group.

According to Jeffrey Chung, "This decade marked a period of change within the Troop... Traditional activities such as ducking, pasting and the pirating of boats had been abolished... and participation in National Competitions was not regular. Work camps always provided memorable experiences. Who can forget the search for the perfect bamboo and boasting, "my bamboo bigger than your bamboo"? Visits to the Kybo were always an interesting talking point, not so much for those who went, but for those who NEVER went for the entire camp.

The Nineties

In 1992 Michael "Prim" Bachan was awarded the Medal of Merit and Virgil Quintal was selected as the Caribbean Representative at the Environmental Global Youth Forum, held in Boulder Colorado, U.S.A., a United nations all expenses paid conference. The year 1995 was special to our Troop as it was our 40th anniversary A special celebration was held on the 20th of August which was well attended by past and present scouts. Competitions between past and present scouts from the various decades were held and prizes and awards given out. In 1995 Assistant Troop Leader, Steven Khan represented the country at the International Mathematics Olympiad in Canada while in the field of International Scouting, the Troop was well represented at the 18th World Jamboree in the Netherlands by Yogishwar Maharaj. Both of these Scouts went on to win National Scholarships setting good examples of the all round development which Scouting seeks to provide.

Recently, the Troop has been to Tobago (1995), Venezuela (1996) and Grenada (1997) for its summer camp, Copperhole has been renovated and the band continues to improve with new instruments. Several Scouts have been awarded the President's Award Bronze and Silver in what is hoped to be a renewed interest in this activity.

On a lighter note, some of the memorable events during this time are recalled by Steven Khan. "Ask any Scout what he remembers most about camps and if he does not reply the bonding, friendship and camraderie, then it has got to be the FOOD. I mean, who can forget the GREEN SOUP that you had to eat with a knife and fork, or the salt water juice at Copperhole, Cold Oats, Blame's artistic dumplings and diabetic Kool Aid or Mikey's Pelau surprise. New and exciting culinary delights are often discovered (by accident) on camp, such as Bamboo stew and what about those would be Backwoodsmen who only know one style of cooking, burnt.

Conclusion

In the words of Brother Michael, "Forty years have slipped by and the flame continues to burn as brightly as ever. I am convinced that all members of the 1st Pres Troop have all been the better for the exposure obtained in their years spent in the Troop. They have a special stamp on their character and they have been better prepared for life than many of their peers. They also enjoy as esprit de corp and a family spirit that is always wonderful to see.

These sentiments are echoed by Brother Jerome, Our Founder, "That is what Scouting does, it develops friendships and deepens relationships and it forms memories that we can all drink from as we go through life. Above all, as a Catholic Troop, it is about coming to terms with the challenge of the Gospel. When the right Christian milieu is created, there are few movements that have greater potential than the Scouting one, to help a group understand what is entailed in living those Gospel values. The Gospel value is of course that of Love. The love that Jesus spoke of is the love that He himself lived, and one of the most daunting interpretations of that challenge for us is that there is no love of god that is not already a love of neighbour. "
Finally as Michael Bachan notes, "The Troop continues to attain exceptionally high standards in ALL aspects of Scouting. Yes, there are imperfections and difficulties, but without these there wouldn't be much of a challenge, would there? Scouting at Pres - its alive and well."