The Mill Master's Dozen

Shelburne, Vermont, nestled in a bay on the Vermont side of Lake Champlain has never been a large town. But in 1950, something rather miraculous happened there. A dozen boys were born in the town between April and September. Rumors ran rampant with their births. The United States had just put World War II behind it and was heavily involved in fighting another war in Korea. As such, the births of so many sons at the same time was viewed by some to be an evil omen - a harbinger of even more war to come when those boys came of age. The tiny town's cemetery was already punctuated with more than its share of graves marked with white crosses honoring the sons, husbands and fathers who had died serving their country.

The summer that The Dozen, as the townies called the boys, turned twelve, a single 29-year-old man, (the owner of an antique saw mill), was asked by the Methodist minister to be the Scoutmaster of the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 602 in Shelburne.

Not one to do anything half way, Grant Hollock conscientiously led The Dozen all the way through their Eagle Scout process and in doing so pulled the boys and their tiny community together.

After achieving the highest honor they could get in Scouting, none of the boys were willing to just quit. So with the community's help they started a new project - the building of a replica Viking ship that they hoped to sail and oar up and down the length and breadth of Lake Champlain.

That project would pull The Dozen together as a band of brothers and prepare them for the fate that awaited them.