Crossing The Line Ceremony

671 Words2 Pages

I was steaming across the Pacific Ocean onboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CV-61). The sky was as dark blue as the ocean and it was hard to tell where the ocean stopped and the sky began. The captain announced over the 1MC that we would be crossing the Equator and the International Date Line in 3 days and we would be having a Crossing the Line Ceremony which is a very old maritime tradition dating back to the 19th century. It is very rare for a ship to cross the Equator and the International Date Line, a ship normally only gets to cross the Equator. It was explained to me that the ceremony was for all new sailors to participate in only if we wanted to. See, a new sailor is called a wog and after they cross the Equator they are called a Shellback. When a sailor crosses the Equator and the International Date Line they are called a Golden Shellback. The ceremony would involve being hit on your butt with a piece of fire hose that was soaked in sea water while you crawled on your hands and knees on the flight deck which was coated with a slip resistant non skid, being verbally deg...

More about Crossing The Line Ceremony

Open Document