I’ve posted previously about Sea Scouting in Kansas (see links below), primarily focusing on the S.S.S. Kansan from Topeka, Kansas. Recently, a local collector sent me an image of a Sea Explorers shirt he picked up with a Kansas connection. The shirt, shown below, has a red and white “Independence” community strip and a “Kans.” state strip [these are a little difficult to see in the picture] on one shoulder, but the more exciting piece is the S.S.S. Ka Hawk ship patch on the other shoulder.
Sea Explorer Jumper with Ka Hawk Ship Patch
I promptly did a search on “Ka Hawk” and found the S.S.S. Kansan wasn’t the only ship from Kansas to have success in flagship competitions. Apparently, the S.S.S. Ka Hawk was a part of the National Flagship Fleet in 1945 and 1946. As a result, the crew would have received patches similar to those shown below. Additionally, the ship earned the National Standard award in 1947 for which the crew would have received the “National Standard Senior Scout Unit” award also shown below. Keep your eyes peeled for these Sea Scouting items with a Kansas connection.
1945 & 1946 National Flagship Fleet Awards
1947 National Standard Senior Scout Unit
Note: A special thank you to Bruce Johnson for permission to use the images above.
For more information about the flagship competitions see the history section at www.seascout.org.
Here comes the Kansas City tie-in – In looking through the results, I found one other interesting item: in 1940 the S.S.S. Kansas Citian from Kansas City, Missouri was part of the National Flagship fleet. Now I am on a quest to find out more information (and maybe a ship patch?) for the S.S.S. Kansas Citian…
For more reading:
- Sailing the high seas of Kansas
- Kansas Sea Scouting
- Also, check out this impressive Sea Scout uniform jacket that was on eBay a while back – Unbelievable Rare Sea Scout Uniform
Thanks to Jody T. for sharing the Sea Scout shirt images.
