USS Ogden (LPD-5), an Austin-class amphibious transport dock, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Ogden, Utah. Page Editor: Katja Drdla. Neptunus Rex — Ruler of the Raging Main. Atmosphere of the ceremony is very cosy and exotic. The ceremony takes place in a traditional Kota where the participants sit around the fire, enjoying juice made from Lappish berries. Throughout history, line-crossing ceremonies have sometimes become dangerous hazing rituals. No one is really sure when or how the US Navy Line Crossing Ceremony, originated. Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Ceremonial Certificates - Neptune Subpoena", "Ceremonial Certificates - Golden Shellback Certificate - Personalized", "List of Unofficial U.S. Navy Certificates", "The Short Snorter Project - Harry F. Revers Short Snorter". [ citation needed ]. SHELLBACKS – A PROUD NAVAL HISTORY. The submarine was named after the town of Onslow, Western Australia, and Sir Alexander Onslow, with the boat's motto and badge derived from Onslow's family heritage. Sailors in observance of this time honored tradition of crossing the equator woul… [citation needed] Depending on the Ocean or Fleet AOR, there can be variations in the rite. Pollywogs participated voluntarily, though women midshipmen observed that they were under social pressure to do the ceremony but were targets of harder abuse. USS Shasta (AE-33) was a Kilauea-class replenishment ammunition ship of the United States Navy. (Signed) He thought it was beneficial to morale. Sort: Prev Next: You are not authorized to post a reply. Equator-crossing ceremonies, typically featuring King Neptune, are also sometimes carried out for passengers' entertainment on civilian ocean liners and cruise ships. Crewmen aboard the destroyer USS ARTHUR W. RADFORD (DD-968) participate in the traditional shellback initiation ceremony during exercise Unitas XXI. Credits: Karen Rosenlof. One sailor was then sexually assaulted with a long stick before all sailors undergoing the ceremony were forced to jump overboard until permitted to climb back aboard the submarine. Buy a line-crossing ceremony wood print today, and it ships within 48 hours and comes with a 30-day money back guarantee. Examples of initiation ceremonies might include Christian baptism or confirmation, Jewish bar or bat mitzvah, acceptance into a fraternal organization, secret society or religious order, or graduation from school or recruit training. The line-crossing ceremony is an initiation rite that commemorates a person's first crossing of the Equator. Hello Select your address Best Sellers Today's Deals New Releases Electronics Books Customer Service Gift Ideas Home Computers Gift Cards Sell With the extensive Navy operations in the Far East since (and before) World War II, this passage has become so common that few initiation ceremonies are actually held. Sailors and Marines participate in a line-crossin... World Heritage Encyclopedia, the aggregation of the largest online encyclopedias available, and the most definitive collection ever assembled. From the controversy section - "As late as World War II, the line-crossing ceremony was still rather rough and involved activities such as the "Devil's Tongue", which was an electrified piece of metal poked into the sides of those deemed pollywogs. 0. The tradition may have originated with ceremonies when passing headlands, and become a “folly” sanctioned as a boost to morale, or have been created as a test for seasoned sailors […] "John S----, your honour," at the instant of his opening his mouth the brush went across it, when the face the poor creature made it is impossible to describe, "phoo what do you call that?" The ceremony observes a mariner’s transformation from slimy Pollywog, a seaman who hasn’t crossed the equator, to trusty Shellback, also called a Son or Daughter of Neptune. The US Navy and Shellbacksmay have participated more recently but no one knows for sure the date that the first sailor crossed the line. In the evening, the sailors represented, amidst general applause, a comedy of their own composition. [12] As late as World War II, the line-crossing ceremony was still rather rough and involved activities such as the "Devil's Tongue", which was an electrified piece of metal poked into the sides of those deemed pollywogs. [1] The tradition may have originated with ceremonies when passing headlands, and become a "folly" sanctioned as a boost to morale, [2] or have been created as a test for seasoned sailors to ensure their new shipmates were capable of handling long rough times at sea. Wogs—all of the uninitiated—are allowed to capture and interrogate any shellbacks they can find (e.g., tying them up, cracking eggs or pouring aftershave lotion on their heads). n. 1. The transition flows from established order to the controlled "chaos" of the Pollywog Revolt, the beginnings of re-order in the initiation rite as the fewer but experienced enlisted crew converts the Wogs through physical tests, then back to, and thereby affirming, the pre-established order of officers and enlisted. Having saluted the Southern hemisphere by the firing of guns, our crew proceeded to enact the usual ceremonies. During the ceremony, the Pollywogs undergo a number of increasingly embarrassing ordeals (wearing clothing inside out and backwards; crawling on hands and knees on nonskid-coated decks; being swatted with short lengths of firehose; being locked in stocks and pillories and pelted with mushy fruit; being locked in a water coffin of salt-water and bright green sea dye (fluorescent sodium salt); crawling through chutes or large tubs of rotting garbage; kissing the Royal Baby's belly coated with axle grease, hair chopping, etc. The Domain of the Golden Dragon is an unofficial but highly coveted award of the United States Navy and the United States Coast Guard. Its practices invoke good luck on the new sailor. Amid a roar of laughter two men tripped the handspike on which he sat and sent him backward into the sail where the bear was waiting to receive him; it was soon over, he escaped and stood by to see his shipmates share his fate. The ceremony of Crossing the Line is an initiation rite in the British Merchant Navy, Dutch merchant navy, Royal Navy, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Marine Corps, Russian Navy, and other navies that commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the Equator. Began with the Navy over 400 years ago, the tradition is aimed to let Equator-crossing virgins to prove they are worthy to make the transition. Log in to Airborne Science | › Create New Account. The term is now fully adopted into anthropology as well as into the literature and popular cultures of many modern languages. Blossom was just starting a three-year voyage of exploration around the Horn to the Arctic. There is a detailed account of the ceremony on board HMS Blossom in 1825 by Petty Officer John Bechervaise in his private publication Thirty-Six Years of a Sea Faring Life (1839), available from Kessinger in facsimile. The Navy Times mentioned that the Crossing the Line ceremony is a traditional initiation ceremony where sailors who have not crossed the equator before and then do for the first time transition “from a slimy pollywog to a trusty shellback during an equator line-crossing.” Page Last Updated: May 9, 2020. USS Cavalla (SSN-684), a Sturgeon-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the cavalla, a salt water fish. My first question was "what is your name my man?" It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. California Maritime Academy observed the line-crossing ceremony until 1989, after which the ceremony was deemed to be hazing and was forbidden. Line-crossing Ceremony: Homophobic or Homoerotic? Baptism on the line, also called equatorial baptism, is an alternative initiation ritual sometimes performed as a ship crosses the Equator, involving water baptism of passengers or crew who have never crossed the Equator before. Visit https://espo.nasa.gov for information about our current projects. USS Willamette (AO-180) was the fourth ship in the Cimarron class of fleet replenishment oilers for the United States Navy in service from 1981 to 1999. Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. .............. on the Equator in Longitude .....° on this ..... day of ..... in the year ..... Author: Messages: Browns24 Basic Member Posts:355: 14 Jan 2011 02:17 PM: Does anyone have any good Shellback or Golden Dragon stories? The tradition may have originated with ceremonies when passing headlands, and become a "folly" sanctioned as a … As they approached the equator on the evening of 16 February 1832, a pseudo-Neptune hailed the ship. Welcome! A gun had been dismounted on the forecastle, the carriage made into a car, on which were to sit Neptune and Amphitrite, and between them the Triton; in order to keep all secret, a sail was run across the forecastle to screen Neptune and his gang from observation. As late as World War II, the line-crossing ceremony was still rather rough … [9] The ceremony is sometimes explained as being an initiation into the court of King Neptune. A Time-Honored Tradition. [ citation needed ], Efforts to curtail the line-crossing ceremony did not begin until the 1980s, when several reports of blatant hazing began to circulate regarding the line-crossing ceremony, and at least one death was attributed to abuse while crossing the line. Les cuirassés américains peuvent être divisés en cinq groupes : les cuirassés de défense côtière, les pré-Dreadnoughts, les Dreadnoughts, ceux de la Première Guerre mondiale et ceux de la Seconde Guerre mondiale The ceremony is carefully orchestrated by the ship's officers, with some enthusiastic sailors chafing at the degree to which harassment was disallowed. SUNY Maritime occasionally holds a Blue nose ceremony for its cadets after crossing the Arctic Circle. As late as World War II, the line-crossing ceremony was still rather rough and involved activities such as the "Devil… Another rare status is the Golden Shellback, a person who has crossed the Equator at the 180th meridian (International Date Line). Video of 1957 Coast Guard crossing ritual, House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Line-crossing_ceremony?oldid=4414916. [citation needed] Physical hardship, in keeping with the spirit of the initiation, are tolerated, and each Pollywog is expected to endure a standard initiation rite in order to become a Shellback. "Old school" tattoos were common among sailors, depicting images like swallows on either side of the chest, girls in sailor hats, and pairs of dice. After crossing the line, Pollywogs receive subpoenas [4] to appear before King Neptune and his court (usually including his first assistant Davy Jones and her Highness Amphitrite and often various dignitaries, who are all represented by the highest ranking seamen), who officiate at the ceremony, which is often preceded by a beauty contest of men dressing up as women, each department of the ship being required to introduce one contestant in swimsuit drag. A crewmember aboard Coast Guard Cutter Healy untangles the wind pennant while transiting the Arctic on Sept. 19, 2016. This returning trend is also seen in the increasing popularity of traditional Sailor Jerry designs, nautical tattoos and even clothing printed with stylized sailor tattoo images. air-travel factoids. [ citation needed ]. [1] The tradition may have originated with ceremonies when passing headlands, and become a "folly" sanctioned as a boost to morale, [2] or have been created as a test for seasoned sailors to ensure their new shipmates were capable of handling long rough times at sea. Originally, the tradition was created as a test for seasoned sailors to ensure their new shipmates were capable of … The ceremony of Crossing the Line is an initiation rite that commemorates a sailor’s first crossing of the Equator. Shasta's mission was to support forward deployed aircraft carrier battle groups, which she accomplished through underway replenishment and vertical replenishment. No one is really sure when or how the Line Crossing Ceremony, "Order of Neptune", came about. In the 19th century and earlier, the line-crossing ceremony was quite a brutal event, often involving beating pollywogs with boards and wet ropes and sometimes throwing the victims over the side of the ship, dragging the pollywog in the surf from the stern. Sailors undergoing the ceremony were physically and verbally abused before being subjected to an act called "sump on the rump", where a dark liquid was daubed over each sailor's anus and genitalia. Log in to Airborne Science Does the Sapphire Princess have a line-crossing ceremony to commemorate crossing the equator? House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces, Naval Forces Europe – Naval Forces Africa, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center, United States Armed Forces School of Music, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, United States battleship retirement debate. Line-crossing ceremony aboard Méduse on the first of July 1816. The shellbacks had prepared 3-foot, or 1-meter, lengths of canvas/rubber firehose, which they swung hard at the posterior of each wog. Some of these beliefs are popular superstitions, while others are actually better described as traditions, stories, folklore, tropes, myths, or legend. [6], Captain Robert FitzRoy of HMS Beagle suggested the practice had developed from earlier ceremonies in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian vessels passing notable headlands. Sailors and Marines participate in a line-crossing ceremony aboard USS Blue Ridge as the ship passes the Equator May 16, 2008. Now reader fancy to yourself the writer of these lines with his legs and arms well blacked, his cheeks, vermillion, short and very loose trowsers, a double frilled shirt, from whose ample folds the salt water dripped plentifully, two swabs for epaulets, a long grey horse hair wig, a venerable beard of the same colour, a tin crown, a trident, and to complete the whole, a hoarse church yard cough; fancy all this I say, and Neptune, or your humble servant in his shape stands before you. Davey Jones — His Royal Scribe Line-crossing ceremony: | | ||| | U.S. The ceremony of Crossing the Line is an initiation rite in the Royal Navy, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Marine Corps, and other navies that commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the Equator. The tradition may have originated with ceremonies when passing headlands, and become a "folly" sanctioned as a boost to morale, or have been created as a test for seasoned sailors to ensure their new shipmates were capable of handling long rough times at sea. As a last effort to make him open his mouth, I said if you mean to put him overboard, mind have a good rope round him for perhaps he cannot swim. Terrified at the idea of being thrown overboard the poor fellow said "I cannot swim, oh, I cannot swim;" but as the brush again crossed his mouth, he uttered with his teeth closed, "I will spake no more, by J---s I will spake no more if you drown me." Ordered in 1963, Onslow was laid down at the end of 1967 by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Scotland, launched almost a year later, and commissioned into the RAN at the end of 1969. — most of the others were treated much worse, dirty mixtures being put in their mouths & rubbed on their faces. Wogs then returned to the forecastle, where they were hosed off by firehose and then allowed to kiss, in turn, the belly of the sea-baby, the foot of the sea-hag, and the ring of King Neptune, each personified by shellbacks. "Crossing the Line" group in their … —a signal being given I was tilted head over heels into the water, where two men received me & ducked me. Here we see Dr. Hackem with his tongue-in-cheek sandwich board adding a touch of the macabre to the proceedings in January 1952. Accordingly early in the morning the ship was made snug, the top-sails were close reefed, courses hauled up, top gallant sails furled, a new sail was secured to the gunwale of the barge on the booms, the other edge to the hammock netting, leaving a hollow of eight feet, capable of containing an immense quantity of water; into this sail the very men who were to be dipped in it, were employed in pumping and bailing water, little thinking, poor creatures, they were making a rod for themselves. Sailors and Marines participate in a line-crossin... World Heritage Encyclopedia, the aggregation of the largest online encyclopedias available, and the most definitive collection ever assembled. She was named after USS Osage, an "old monitor of the navy". Sailor Jerry's work typified this style of tattooing during the early-mid twentieth century. A polliwog is a tadpole, the offspring of an amphibian. Share this post. I command my subjects to Honor and Respect him as one of our Trusty Shellbacks. Another rare status is the Golden Shellback, a person who has crossed the Equator at the 180th meridian (International Date Line). Line-crossing ceremony documents‎ (14 F) L Line-crossing ceremonies by the Israeli Navy‎ (21 F) Media in category "Line-crossing ceremonies" The following 69 files are in this category, out of 69 total. Those credulous enough to run forward to see Neptune "were received with the watery honours which it is customary to bestow". [citation needed], Neptune Day celebration on the Fall 2013 voyage of Semester at Sea. He is now a Trusty Shellback. Ogden was laid down on 4 February 1963 by the New York Naval Shipyard. When a ship must cross the Equator reasonably close to one of these meridians, the ship's captain will typically plot a course across the Golden X so that the ship's crew can be initiated as Golden or Emerald/Royal Diamond Shellbacks. Once the ceremony is complete, a Pollywog receives a certificate [5] declaring his new status. About 9am the next day, the novices or griffins were assembled in the darkness and heat of the lower deck, then one at a time were blindfolded and led up on deck by "four of Neptunes constables", as "buckets of water were thundered all around". Line-crossing Ceremony in Southern Victory Among Ancient Greek mariners, there was a custom of tying a rope around sailors and dragging them along the bottom of their ship the first time they passed over the equator. The “Crossing the Line Ceremony” always allowed for some quirky characters to display their unique talents. The ship's artist, Augustus Earle, made a sketch of the scene. That the line crossing ceremony is still carried out on ordinary merchant ships is recorded by the CEO of Tullecho (2008) --found using a Google Book search [equator ceremony SS]. (Signed) Equator crossing or the line crossing ceremony is a centuries-old ritual to inaugurate seafarers who have never crossed the Equator, the imaginary line on the Earth’s surface. The colloquial form of address for a boatswain's mate is "Boats". Afterwards, some may be "interrogated" by King Neptune and his entourage, and the use of "truth serum" (hot sauce + after shave) and whole uncooked eggs put in the mouth. Share. Wogs—all of the uninitiated—are allowed to capture and interrogate any shellbacks they can find (e.g., tying them up, cracking eggs or pouring aftershave lotion on their heads). It involves a significant change of status in society. She was named for Fort Snelling at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, for many years the northernmost military post in the land of the Sioux and Chippewa. The eve of the equatorial crossing is called Wog Day and, as with many other night-before rituals, is a mild type of reversal of the day to come. The eve of the equatorial crossing is called Wog Day and, as with many other night-before rituals, is a mild type of reversal of the day to come. Sailors and Marines participate in a line-crossing ceremony aboard USS Blue Ridge as the ship passes the Equator May 16, 2008. Given under Our Hand at Our Court on board H.M.S. "Deep was the bath, to wash away all ill;Notched was the razor—of bitter taste the pill.Most ruffianly the barber looked—his comb was trebly nailed—And water, dashed from every side, the neophyte assailed. On the day we crossed the equator, there was a big ceremony by the pool. USS Paul Revere (APA/LPA-248) was the lead ship of the Paul Revere class of attack transport in the United States Navy. The History Behind the ‘Crossing the Line Ceremony’ Way back in the enlightened days of the world’s history when the Greek civilization was in it’s prime... when Romulus and Remus were nothing more than twinkles in their father’s eyes, and Britons were even less civilized than they are today... there was a god, a deity called Poseidon. [11] Later, during World War II, the frequency of the ceremony increased dramatically, especially in the United States Navy in the Pacific, where the service's fleet operations grew enormously to counter widely dispersed Japanese forces. The ceremony of crossing the line is an initiation rite in the Royal Navy, U.S. Navy, and other navies which commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the equator. [2] The officer on watch reported a boat ahead, and Captain FitzRoy ordered "hands up, shorten sail". Line-crossing ceremony synonyms, Line-crossing ceremony pronunciation, Line-crossing ceremony translation, English dictionary definition of Line-crossing ceremony. Their most recent ceremony was during the summer of 2019, on the TSES VI, held shortly after departing Reykjavik. Her log recorded, “The ship teemed with low marine life. His great-great-grandson, an Antarctic explorer, was also named John Béchervaise. Beatings were often still common, usually with wet firehoses, and several World War II Navy deck logs speak of sailors visiting sick bay after crossing the line. The line-crossing ceremony is an initiation rite that commemorates a person's first … The some scholars believe that ritual dates back at least 400 years or more in Western seafaring. Line-crossing ceremony: passage from Panama to Ecuador. The area around the equator is generally considered to be low in wind. NASA Home. Those who have not crossed are nicknamed Pollywogs, or Slimy Pollywogs. [17]. The third USS Proteus (AS-19) was a Fulton-class submarine tender in the United States Navy. [ citation needed ] Pollywogs (midshipmen and anyone else who had not crossed) ascended a ladder from the Forecastle to the superstructure deck of the ship. The ceremony of Crossing the Line is an initiation rite in the Royal Navy, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Marine Corps, and other navies that commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the Equator. After the ceremony, the Sailors were inducted into the "Solemn Mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep" meaning that King Neptune had accepted them as one of his trusty shellbacks. Line-crossing ceremony. Davy Jones's Locker is a metaphor for the bottom of the sea: the state of death among drowned sailors and shipwrecks. Captain Robert FitzRoy of HMS Beagle suggested the practice had developed from earlier ceremonies in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian vessels passing notable headlands. There, they crawled down a gauntlet of shellbacks on both sides of a long, heavy canvas runner, about 10–12 meters. It has been a long naval tradition to initiate pollywogs, sailors who have never crossed the Equator, into the Kingdom of Neptune upon their first crossing of the Equator. Neptune — Rex, This is the text from a certificate issued to United States Ships during World War II, This is to Certify, that .............. Afterwards, some wogs may be "interrogated" by King Neptune and his entourage, and the use of "truth serum" (hot sauce + after shave) and whole uncooked eggs put in the mouth. U.S. There, they crawled down a gauntlet of shellbacks on both sides of a long, heavy canvas runner, about 10–12 meters. The Line Crossing Ceremony might just be the most interesting of today's naval traditions. U.S. Coast Guard photo by … We started from Las Perlas / Ilsa del Rey. A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. ), largely for the entertainment of the Shellbacks. Line Crossing Ceremony Timeline. Line Crossing Ceremony. In an extended sense it can also signify a transformation in which the initiate is 'reborn' into a new role. This is the text from a certificate issued on a Royal Navy ship during the Second World War: Whereas by our Royal Consension, Our Trusty, Well Beloved .................... has this day entered Our Domain. The evening before we expected to cross the line, the lookout man reported at 8, P.M., a light a head; presently a hoarse voice hailed "ship ahoy" which being answered by the Captain, Neptune intimated his intention to visit the ship early next morning. Our passage from Panama to Ecuador took a good 6 days. [8] Blossom was just starting a three-year voyage of exploration around the Horn to the Arctic. Ancient Order of the Deep The ritual dates back at least 400 years in Western seafaring. Line-crossing ceremony "Ray-J" presents Cary Klemm with Line-crossing Certificate after Cary came back from POSIDION Science Flight as a backseater for "T-Rex". entire ceremony at the hands of the shellbacks before being accepted into their number; those who complete the ceremony while also crossing the international dateline are termed “golden shellbacks” because the international dateline is known as the “realm of In more than one instance, sailors were reported to have been killed while participating in a line-crossing ceremony. Mission: POSIDON. Shellback Certificate. The Line-crossing ceremony commemorates a sailor’s first crossing of the Equator. USS Fiske (DD/DDR-842) was a Gearing-class destroyer of the United States Navy, the second Navy ship named for Rear Admiral Bradley A. Fiske (1854–1942), inventor of the Stadimeter and the aerial torpedo. An immense grey horse hair wig, sufficiently long to reach well down the back of Neptune, had been purchased in England by subscription, accompanied by a venerable grey beard to sweep his aged breast; a tin crown and a trident completed the regalia. The wogs then ascended a ladder to the boatdeck to slide down a makeshift chute into the baptism of messdeck leavings in sea water in an inflated liferaft back on the superstructure deck.
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