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Description

This is an indoor active game designed to teach the parts of the boat.

Resources

A hall with some means of getting off the hall floor around the sides - benches, chairs, breakout rooms etc.

Instructions

Designate one end of the room the BOW of the boat, the other the STERN, the lefthand side (looking at the bow from the middle of the room) PORT and the righthand side STARBOARD. A leader basically yells out one of those places and the last scout to get there is out. There are also additional commands working the same way:-
ON DECK - everyone stands to attention in a bow-stern line down the centre of the room facing the bow.
OFF THE DECK - everyone has to get off the floor or out the room as appropriate
TORPEDOES - everyone dives to the floor and pretends to be a torpedo
MAN THE LIFEBOATS - everyone gets into pairs facing each other, sitting on the floor, holding hands and rocking back and forth as if they're rowing a boat. Odd one is out, or last pair to form up.
FREEZE - everyone freezes wherever they are. No-one can move until you say MELT. It's normal to use this command to interject in the game (Johnny, tie your shoelaces etc.) It's normal to say another command before MELT, anyone who moves to obey that command is out :-).

Those are the basic command set. Once you've played it a few times you can introduce additional commands such as....
CLIMB THE RIGGING - scouts pretend to climb the rigging of a tall ship on the spot (stepping up with hands and feet). Shout 'bigger/smaller gaps, faster/slower' to change the motions they're doing.
UP PERISCOPE - from torpedoes position they lie on their backs, stick one leg straight up in the air and turn their foot from side to side like a periscope searching.
BICYCLES - from torpedo position they lie on their backs and make pedalling motions with their legs.
FEET 6" OFF THE FLOOR - from torpedo position they lie on their backs with their legs straight and hold their feet a short distance off the floor. An absolute killer, especially if you shout FREEZE :-)
SITUPS / PRESS-UPS / BURPEES - they do those things. I normally let them do a few reps, FREEZE them and make the person with the worst style out. Doing those exercises is all about good form, so it's better to penalise bad form than slow speeds.

Tips - shout new commands just as they arrive at a place (or before) to keep them on the move and tire them out (BOW STERN BOW STERN ON DECK TORPEDOES ON DECK TORPEDOES etc..
Often it's very difficult to separate them by arrival time, so judicious use of MAN THE LIFEBOATS when there's an odd number or FEET 6" OFF THE FLOOR will get someone out :-).
Shout the same place name when they're already there (BOW when they're at the BOW)- anyone who moves away is out. STERN and STARBOARD are good places to do that as some will go as soon as they hear ST-.
Check shoes for dog's mess before you start or going OFF DECK or TORPEDOES will invariably result in things getting poopy - I had 3 chairs and one scout to clean up the other week :-(. The chairs lining our walls have cushions so OFF THE DECK for us means kneeling on them, not standing.
Make sure they can't put hands through windows, we've found simply telling them to be careful is OK in 40 years of playing it, but your attitude to risk may vary.
A scout will no doubt want to invent the CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTER command requiring hip thrusting so be prepared for that!
We use it as a warmup game at the start of the troop night and normally play 2 rounds.

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