PELTIER CREEK - Sylvia looked a little lonely one recent night as she floated in the moonlight. Not just because high fuel prices have cut cruising hours to a minimum but also because her longtime dockside companion, a chubby whaleboat, has departed to tackle the job of training sea scouts.

It was a motley crew that came hurrying down the dock last week, all eager to take command of the double-ender that's been here long enough to have acquired a nice growth of barnacles.

Whaleboats are almost direct descendants of the Viking warships, double-ended boats with such a successful basic design that their lines remain valid today.

MK-10 was one of 108 boats built by Uniflite for the Navy and designed as multifunctional: lifeboat, officers' gig and shore party tender. They had cargo and surf handling capabilities and a capacity of 20, including a crew of two.

MK-10 entered active service in 1969 and served aboard the USS Edison destroyer (DD-946), for the next 18 years, participating in naval gunfire support with the Seventh Fleet.

After traversing the Panama Canal in 1977, she joined the Atlantic Fleet and deployed to reserve training. In 1989, she received her discharge and found herself astern of a tugboat heading south. That tugboat just happened to be skippered by Tom Kellum, longtime friend and master boatman. The whaler eventually was moored in Peltier Creek astern of Sylvia II.

Kellum decided that his boat's best use would be in training seamanship. Nothing seemed to fit that category better than Sea Scouts. The Beaufort chapter, S.S.S. Lookout (98), sponsored by the Friends of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, was eager to take over.

The scouts would furnish a crew, Sylvia would take the whaler in tow and deliver it to the Harbor Masters lift, where a trailer waited.

Skipper Guy Senter and scoutmaster John Bedford and their crew were to be on the dock before low tide but got delayed. The tide was about to leave the whaler stranded in the mud, so Kellum's son, Tom Jr., and I had it secured alongside Sylvia's forward quarter by the time the scout crew scurried down the dock. All hands accounted for, we tied loose.

Eventually, with the assistance of skippers Senter, Bedford and the sea scouts -- Dillon Jones, Anthony Axeen and David Willard -- Tom and I nosed the whaleboat into the empty lift, pausing just long enough for our deckhand trainees to tie their newly acquired S.S.S. 98 securely before scrambling back aboard for their leisurely return.

I suspect that MK-10 will bring a lot of pleasure to a lot of sea scouts as they learn of the sea and her ways.

Tom deserves accolades.

Can there be any greater gift to mankind than aiding in the guidance of youth toward greater leadership and understanding?