"Crossing the Line" ceremonies

I grew up in a seafaring area (near New Bedford, Mass. in fact) and one of the things we learned about in school was the ceremony of “Crossing the Line”. The old whalers used to take this very seriously. On each trip that took them across the Equator, any crewman who hadn’t previously crossed the Equator would be put throught a hazing/initiation ceremony presided over by “King Neptune” This turned the Polliwogs into Shellbacks and meant you were a “real sailing man”.

Does this take place in any actual merchant or naval service today? Googling gave me a bunch of vacation pictures of very silly versions taking place on cruise liners. I discount those completely as being tourist entertainment.

The question is: Is Crossing the LIne still a rite of passage on working vessels of a Navy or Merchant Marine?

I cannot speak for the Navy today, but it was still fairly civil hazing ritual twenty years ago.

As well as EB-Greening the youngest lieuenant.

Ok, I’ll bite. What is EB-Greening? Dumping some cleaning fluid in his shorts?

No, it is a type of duct tape from Electric Boat. It is green, and you could build an entire new hull out of it if needed.

It wraps junior officers very well.

I can’t speak for today, either, but this was a tradition way back in the 16th-17th centuries onwards-- it would usually have been a mock-baptism or shaving (also happened to people passing Cape Kullen (Danish waters) and Cape Raz (Brittany).
(per Burke, Unity and Variety in Popular Culture, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe)

Yes, to my recent knowledge it does continue on US Navy vessels to this day, although I am sure it is calmed down due to the PC Revolution.

As of 3 years ago it was still tradition in the US Nav. I ‘crossed the line’ a decade and a half ago, and have many times since. The ceremony (and ‘festivities’ leading up to the ceremony) are toned down a fair bit from my first encounter with Neptune Rex, but actually the last one I participated in was rowdier by far than the first one that I participated in that had female crew involved. It appears that as the women have proven themselves in the fleet, both they, and the men, are more willing to freely engage in the give-and-take of sailorly horseplay. When everyone is pulling their own weight, a respect exists that tends to keep everyone on the level.

BTW: EB Green is also good for making yardbirds and sandcrabs (shipyard workers) waterproof.

I was told of a ceremony that some Marines went through back in the 70’s. For brevity’s sake, let’s just say that after low-crawling through some stuff, they had to suck a black olive out of the bellybutton of the fattest guy aboard ship.

Whee.

suck a black olive out of the bellybutton of the fattest guy

Ahh, that brings back fond memories of the SDMB moderator initiation ritual.

Ah! That would be the Royal Baby. They should count themselves lucky they didn’t have to be ‘interrogated’ (truth serum could substitute for rocket fuel), or have to eat from the Royal Dog Bowl (toilet, broken out of stores for just this purpose).

It most certainly does still take place on U.S. Navy vessels, to echo UncleBill and Tranquilis.

Similar ceremonies take place when crossing other notable “lines.”

I participated in a ceremony as my submarine crossed the Arctic Circle. The ceremony was presided over by “Boreas Rex, Ruler of the North Wind and Sovereign of all the Frozen Reaches It Touches.” After going through the requisite hazing, I became a “True and Trusted Ice and Brine Encrusted Bluenose.”

(The ceremony has been toned down in recent years, but mine still was pretty unpleasant and downright disgusting. For the Bluenose ceremony, everything revolved around cold, of course. I and the other “hot-blooded neophytes” were blindfolded, sprayed with near-freezing saltwater from the fire main, made to stand in intense drafts, and other stuff that I’ve blocked out. Very juvenile and fraternity-like. Yay team! :D)

Various outfits make up impressive certificates that crewmembers can purchase. One’s name is embossed with gold calligraphy, and there is even a faux-seal with the boat’s name and hull number.

The certificates usually list the date and other particulars of the crossing. However, because submarine movements are classified, all of these entries simply say Classified in the same gold embossed script. :slight_smile:

On the same deployment, we also received certificates certifying our reaching the “Domain of the Golden Dragon” as we crossed the International Date Line (impressive for a submarine out of Groton, Connecticut).

Other certificates include the “Golden Shellback” (crossing the Equator at the International Date Line), the “Order of the Ditch” (transitting the Panama Canal), and “Order of Magellan” (circumnavigating the world).

This website shows the various certificates available:
http://www.tiffanypublishing.com/certificates.html

Note that none of the certificates are in any way official. They’re just a personal memento.

AAAAARRRGGGGHHHHH!!! :frowning: That was the part I blocked out! (For the Bluenose ceremony, it was a frozen blueberry.)

Thanks for the more modern perspectives. It seems that the modern ceremonies retain many features from teh traditional days of sail: Royal Baby, appearance of Neptune, crawling though muck, etc. (No cite, I’m talking about 19-th century logs and letters). Nice to hear that the tradition continues.

I’d appreciate any other remembrences, tho’

Oh, and ** robby, **you submariners always take things to the next level, dontcha? :slight_smile:

On cruise ships it used to be standard practice for the crew to fool passengers into believing that one could actually see the equator when approaching it.

A short length of black thread would be taped across the lens of a pair of binoculars and the awestruck passengers were then allowed to blather all over the ship concerning how they had actually “seen” the equator.

Jes’ bringin’ back the memories, mate! :wink:

paperbackwriter, boat sailors need to be a bit more creative, as we’ve got less space and fewer resources to work with. We usually manage to top the skimmers anyway. My Bluenose ceremony involved, among other things, swiming in the condensate bay (engineroom space containing the main condensers), which had about a foot and a half of frozen condensate, topped by a foot of near frozen condensate, complete with thin sheet of ice on top. From there, we went through the ‘trough’, and it just got more miserable as it went…

It weren’t pleasant, but it builds a sense of comraderie amd helps raise morale. Both are important in boats (subs).

I’m not a naval man (actually, I’m more of a leg or breast man myself :wink: ), but I do know that up here in Canada, the Canadian Navy practises a “crossing the line” ceremony as described. I’d therefore assume that the British Navy does the same sort of thing (after all, don’t ALL naval traditions tie back to the British in some form or another?!).

Any brits know for sure?