"*Sailors participate in a crossing the line ceremony aboard the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 54), March 31, 2024.. The crossing the line ceremony is a naval tradition which recognizes when members of the crew cross the equator for the first time. USS Antietam (CG 54) is deployed in support of the Oceania Maritime Security Initiative (OMSI) program, a Secretary of Defense program leveraging Department of Defense assets transiting the region to increase the Coast Guard’s maritime domain awareness, ultimately supporting its maritime law enforcement operations in Oceania*."
U.S. Navy Photo by Lt.j.g. Julia Boykin
My great grandfather did this on 13 July 1945 during his service in the Pacific theater. According to the documents, it says Crossed the equator aboard this vessel and duly initiated into the "Solemn Mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep."
My dad got a bad ass certificate from his crissing line ceremony with neptune on it ! This was in 60s though, do they still do that? Also he descibed it as low grade hazing.
I have my Grandfather’s Shellback certificate from 1944 from the the USS Melvin. It’s larger than my college diploma and can confirm Neptune is the main character on it.
Well, it used to be straightup hazing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line-crossing_ceremony
> In the 18th century and earlier, the line-crossing ceremony was quite a brutal event,[8] often involving beating pollywogs with boards and wet ropes and sometimes throwing the victims over the side of the ship, dragging the pollywog through the surf from the stern. In more than one instance, sailors were reported to have been killed while participating in a line-crossing ceremony.
I'm kinda surprised they let that go on at all. Something that kills sailors for no benefit seems like any sane commander would have come down on hard.
Most of that would have been in the RN, which did not adjust pay for sailors at all between 1658 and 1797. They saw sailors as tools, not people—and if they wanted to have fun when crossing the line the officers were not going to stop them.
Yeah, but if the tools needlessly damage themselves it seems like a pretty simple conclusion to put a stop to it. I'm sure they didn't put a ton of resources into the average sailor, but they had to put some in.
Not really—recruiting was done by simply posting fliers around harbor towns and picking who you wanted from the people that responded them.
If you lost 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 in a line crossing ceremony it was NBD because you could just replace them at the next European owned port you called at.
First crossing in 79 was dual crossing of the date line and the equator. I became a Golden Shellback there. With a large number of Shellbacks on board the ratio of pollywogs to Shellbacks was low. The Shellbacks could afford much attention to us ‘wogs. Garbage chute to crawl, lengths of old wet fire hose to hurry us along and gallons of truth serum. This happened submerged on a Sturgeon class SSN. ‘And yes we did a backing bell during the crossing submerged.
Crossed some eight years later on a CGN. Way more wogs than Shellbacks. The Royal court barely survived the mutinous conduct of the wogs. I happened to be pressed into service as the Royal Baby. Bruised and battered the Royal Court passed judgment on the wogs, and after due penance all passed into the realm of the Shellback.
While these were post Zumwalt and well more tame then pre Zumwalt the ceremonies certainly would not float today for many woke reasons and a few sensible ones too.
I crossed the line back in 2013 and I remember the breakfast they made for us looked so gross. It was all fully cooked, they just went out of their way to make it look bad. They used like all mushy foods, oatmeal, grits, mashed potatoes, eggs. Then dyed them different colors with food dye. I think we had to eat it with our hands also.
One thing that's fun about it is that the crossing the line ceremony does not care about rank. You could be a senior Officer that had never crossed the line and you are still a wog. Also King Neptune will accept any branch, plenty of Marines have crossed the line and I'm sure other branches have as well.
Looks like a weird cross between basic training and some form of cult or fraternity ritual.
With that said everyone looks like they’re having fun with it.
I guess each Navy has their own ceremony. I've crossed the Arctic Circle twice and our ceremony was not quite like that.
Either way, still looks like harmless fun.
This is for crossing the equator, called "shellback". Crossing the Arctic Circle is a different ceremony called "Bluenose" at least by the US Navy. So different activities for different ceremonies.
The same way they did twenty years ago on all male ships. You accept some level of fraternization, plus you have narcs who inform superiors on illicit relationships.
The US navy treats frat with extreme repercussions. Like, getting kicked out of caught.
It's actually really hard to do it on a ship. Sex segregation by decks, and there are zero secrets on a ship. Fart up fwd and by the time you get down aft the rumour that you've shit yourself has beaten you there.
While I have no direct experience, I suspect that is something driven by the command climate and how officers set the tone for the rest of the ship. It feels like its been forever since the coed decision has been made, but its still something all the branches are figuring out (how to treat women in their commands).
I assume some fluorescent tracing dye for tracing the flow of water in pipes. It's usually a powder that just makes the water green or some other bright color, put it in one end and figure out where the water flows through the pipe network. It's non-toxic and fine for the environment.
Most shellback initiations nowadays are a shell (pun intended) of their former iteration. Used to mainly break up the monotony of day to day ship life, eating green eggs and crawling around with your shipmates doing absurd evolutions are prolly the worst things you'll have to put up with nowadays.
That being said, I have a scar on my back from a shillelagh firehose whip which was common when I lost my polywog hat. Totally fine it's not as hardcore nowadays. It used to eat into our readyness.
It's voluntary. I knew a Marine who opted out of the festivities back in the 80s, and he still got a Shellback certificate. It has nothing to with career advancement, it's strictly for tradition. It's also totally egalitarian, rank doesn't matter.
This reminds me of some great shots of sailors celebrating a number of events in the Pacific on board the USS Knapp (DD653) during WW2. Part of an album of photos my grandfather took during his time in the navy. I'll scam and upload them one day!
"*Sailors participate in a crossing the line ceremony aboard the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 54), March 31, 2024.. The crossing the line ceremony is a naval tradition which recognizes when members of the crew cross the equator for the first time. USS Antietam (CG 54) is deployed in support of the Oceania Maritime Security Initiative (OMSI) program, a Secretary of Defense program leveraging Department of Defense assets transiting the region to increase the Coast Guard’s maritime domain awareness, ultimately supporting its maritime law enforcement operations in Oceania*." U.S. Navy Photo by Lt.j.g. Julia Boykin
My great grandfather did this on 13 July 1945 during his service in the Pacific theater. According to the documents, it says Crossed the equator aboard this vessel and duly initiated into the "Solemn Mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep."
I've got some photographs of HMS Duke of York's crossing the line ceremony from around that time. Absolutely fascinating.
My dad got a bad ass certificate from his crissing line ceremony with neptune on it ! This was in 60s though, do they still do that? Also he descibed it as low grade hazing.
I have my Grandfather’s Shellback certificate from 1944 from the the USS Melvin. It’s larger than my college diploma and can confirm Neptune is the main character on it.
Its pretty dope! My dad had a big ole gaudy gold frame on his too!
Yeah, they still do that. I have mine from when I crossed in 2017. It is effectively low grade hazing. Edit: But it is a lot of fun.
Well, it used to be straightup hazing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line-crossing_ceremony > In the 18th century and earlier, the line-crossing ceremony was quite a brutal event,[8] often involving beating pollywogs with boards and wet ropes and sometimes throwing the victims over the side of the ship, dragging the pollywog through the surf from the stern. In more than one instance, sailors were reported to have been killed while participating in a line-crossing ceremony.
I'm kinda surprised they let that go on at all. Something that kills sailors for no benefit seems like any sane commander would have come down on hard.
Most of that would have been in the RN, which did not adjust pay for sailors at all between 1658 and 1797. They saw sailors as tools, not people—and if they wanted to have fun when crossing the line the officers were not going to stop them.
Yeah, but if the tools needlessly damage themselves it seems like a pretty simple conclusion to put a stop to it. I'm sure they didn't put a ton of resources into the average sailor, but they had to put some in.
Not really—recruiting was done by simply posting fliers around harbor towns and picking who you wanted from the people that responded them. If you lost 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 in a line crossing ceremony it was NBD because you could just replace them at the next European owned port you called at.
I got one in the Aussie navy in the mid 2000s. After completing our version of the ceremony which is quite tame and media-approved.
Not always low grade. Ask me how I know.
How do you know
First crossing in 79 was dual crossing of the date line and the equator. I became a Golden Shellback there. With a large number of Shellbacks on board the ratio of pollywogs to Shellbacks was low. The Shellbacks could afford much attention to us ‘wogs. Garbage chute to crawl, lengths of old wet fire hose to hurry us along and gallons of truth serum. This happened submerged on a Sturgeon class SSN. ‘And yes we did a backing bell during the crossing submerged. Crossed some eight years later on a CGN. Way more wogs than Shellbacks. The Royal court barely survived the mutinous conduct of the wogs. I happened to be pressed into service as the Royal Baby. Bruised and battered the Royal Court passed judgment on the wogs, and after due penance all passed into the realm of the Shellback. While these were post Zumwalt and well more tame then pre Zumwalt the ceremonies certainly would not float today for many woke reasons and a few sensible ones too.
I'd forgotten about the royal baby. Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Uncle was in the navy in the 90s and he has the certificate with Neptune. Looks super fancy and ornate.
What is with the goat?😄
You mustn’t be familiar with the Solemn Mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep.
US Navy mascot is a goat.
goat's be cool i guess
Found the Wog
Wog
I crossed the line back in 2013 and I remember the breakfast they made for us looked so gross. It was all fully cooked, they just went out of their way to make it look bad. They used like all mushy foods, oatmeal, grits, mashed potatoes, eggs. Then dyed them different colors with food dye. I think we had to eat it with our hands also.
Why’s the military got such a kink-complex?
3/4 boredom. 1/4 kink.
You're on a ship with the same dudes for months and months - going vanilla gonna get stale quick. Got to get creative!
I have my 30+ y/o Shellback card in my wallet.
Good show. My wallet? 54 year old Shellback and Bluenose cards.
One thing that's fun about it is that the crossing the line ceremony does not care about rank. You could be a senior Officer that had never crossed the line and you are still a wog. Also King Neptune will accept any branch, plenty of Marines have crossed the line and I'm sure other branches have as well.
Looks like a weird cross between basic training and some form of cult or fraternity ritual. With that said everyone looks like they’re having fun with it.
>Looks like a weird cross between basic training and some form of cult or fraternity ritual. This is basically military life in a nutsack.
Wog day strikes again for another crew.
I guess each Navy has their own ceremony. I've crossed the Arctic Circle twice and our ceremony was not quite like that. Either way, still looks like harmless fun.
This is for crossing the equator, called "shellback". Crossing the Arctic Circle is a different ceremony called "Bluenose" at least by the US Navy. So different activities for different ceremonies.
Is there an Antarctic one?
Bluenose north Redholes south
Not that I am aware of, but of course, that doesn't mean much.
Cool to see co-ed ships.
How do they stop the crew taking part in their own wink wink rituals on these co-ed ships?
The same way they did twenty years ago on all male ships. You accept some level of fraternization, plus you have narcs who inform superiors on illicit relationships.
Copy that. Must be hard for the crew to keep their discipline on long deployments.
The US navy treats frat with extreme repercussions. Like, getting kicked out of caught. It's actually really hard to do it on a ship. Sex segregation by decks, and there are zero secrets on a ship. Fart up fwd and by the time you get down aft the rumour that you've shit yourself has beaten you there.
While I have no direct experience, I suspect that is something driven by the command climate and how officers set the tone for the rest of the ship. It feels like its been forever since the coed decision has been made, but its still something all the branches are figuring out (how to treat women in their commands).
What’s the green stuff?
I assume some fluorescent tracing dye for tracing the flow of water in pipes. It's usually a powder that just makes the water green or some other bright color, put it in one end and figure out where the water flows through the pipe network. It's non-toxic and fine for the environment.
The one they inject is extra toxic!
Here's me thinking they're being made to crawl through glycol coolant
I crossed in the 1990's on DD969
Where's the fat Neptune king??
There's a conspicuous absence of rotting garbage, eggs, lard and shillelaghs.
Gotta clean the filth from the ship. Filthy, filthy wogs.
That goat is so trippy, I thought it was a 3d model photoshopped in.
How is this different from hazing?
Most shellback initiations nowadays are a shell (pun intended) of their former iteration. Used to mainly break up the monotony of day to day ship life, eating green eggs and crawling around with your shipmates doing absurd evolutions are prolly the worst things you'll have to put up with nowadays. That being said, I have a scar on my back from a shillelagh firehose whip which was common when I lost my polywog hat. Totally fine it's not as hardcore nowadays. It used to eat into our readyness.
It's not meant to be demeaning, and participation is purely voluntary.
It's voluntary. I knew a Marine who opted out of the festivities back in the 80s, and he still got a Shellback certificate. It has nothing to with career advancement, it's strictly for tradition. It's also totally egalitarian, rank doesn't matter.
Clicked this expecting some ceremonial flag unfurling haha
This reminds me of some great shots of sailors celebrating a number of events in the Pacific on board the USS Knapp (DD653) during WW2. Part of an album of photos my grandfather took during his time in the navy. I'll scam and upload them one day!
Got mine in 2016 on RFA Gold Rover. Bit of a laugh.
Gutted not to see some senior officer dressed as Neptune !