Never fear, the scouts are near

Alex Coolman

NEWPORT BEACH -- It was late in the afternoon last Sunday when the

Argus, an 84-ton, topsail ketch maintained by the Boy Scout Sea Base, was

cruising back into Newport Harbor after a weekend voyage to Catalina.

In the middle of what should have been an idyllic scene, the scouts

saw trouble.

Stuck near the mouth of the harbor was a boat; its outboard engine had

stopped working. The occupants, a man and a woman, were trying

frantically to bring the boat back to life as massive yachts drew nearer.

“They were dead set in the middle of the channel,” said Guy Adams, a

crew member of the Argus. “Both of these people were terrified. Their

hair was standing on its ends.”

The scouts swooped into the fray. Adams and fellow crew member Ray

Bell climbed into a Zodiac and motored over to the stalled boat, towing

it to safety.

The identity of the boat occupants is unknown. Their boat, it turned

out, was a rental.

Adams and Bell towed the boat back to the rental company.

“We have no idea why the engine failed,” Adams said. “We do know that

they didn’t have a radio and they didn’t have a paddle. ... They were

sitting there quite awhile. Nobody seemed to come to their rescue.”

It’s not the first time the Argus has helped out boaters in distress.

But the antique vessel, which was built in Denmark in 1905, is hardly

intended to be a rescue craft. The only real advantage it had over most

of the other yachts in the water that day was that it was staffed by a

group of curious Boy Scouts.