Black Sea flagship hosts college Scouts

The Scout GROUP of St Aloysius College last Wednesday week were the special guests of the Russian cruiser Moskva, flagship of the Black Sea Fleet.

The Group Scout Leader, John A. Mizzi, presented the ship with a framed reproduction of a painting by the Maltese artist Edwin Galea of the warship, at that time named Slava, in Marsaxlokk Bay for the meeting between President Mikhail Gorbachev and President George H.W. Bush in December 1989.

Speaking in Russian, Mr Mizzi recalled that the college Scouts had helped with various jobs throughout that historic meeting. In 1991, when they were the guests of the Soviet authorties helping to introduce the Scout Movement in the Soviet Union, they had been invited by President Gorbachev to visit the naval base at Sevastopol, the first persons from the West to be invited to this secret base, and had been entertained to lunch aboard the Slava.

The captain had expressed a wish to revisit the island as he and the crew had been unable to go ashore while in Malta because of the heavy storm while the ship was at anchor in the bay, a request he had passed on to the prime minister. This invitation was not possible at the time but the Scouts were pleased that this had been realised now.

Mr Mizzi remarked: "We found then your ship was efficient and you were very hospitable as you have been today and our scouts and the leaders will remember this occasion with affection." Each Scout was given a postcard of the warship.

At one stage the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral V. Masorin, asked to exchange a Scout hat with a cap of the Moskva, which was willingly done.