Making of the Landship
Building the “Landship” for Sea Scout Ship 1942 By Dave Leggett I built my first flagpole in 1982, 30 feet tall with a yardarm and gaff, from which I could fly my extensive collection of flags, five or six at a time. During the winter of 2014-15, the main spar of this pole was destroyed by a storm. When I replaced it the following summer, I got to thinking how much Ship 1942 could use such a mast for its landship, maybe not quite as tall, but as big as possible. A landship is a symbolic version of a ship made of pieces representing a bow, a stern, masts, and a bridge, and is used during ceremonies on land. I resolved to start with a half-scale model of my original flagpole mast. At 15 feet, this would easily fit inside the parish hall at St. George’s Church in Arlington where our ship meets and has its ceremonies. For easy transport, no component would be longer than 8 feet, but once assembled, it would be large and solid enough to do justice to our landship ceremonies.