Although my wife and I actually set foot and straddled the equator in – where else? – Ecuador several times, I’m embarrassed to say that in my 20 years of active naval service I never crossed the equator. So I am still what the mariners call a pollywog. At least until yesterday.
A shellback initiation is a ritual dating back 400 years as a way the mariners observed the transformation of a pollywog, a seaman who has not crossed the equator into a shellback. A shellback also called a Son or Daughter of Neptune who as we all know is the mythical god of the ocean.
Traditionally, the mariners who have been shellback the longest dress up in elaborate colorful costumes. King Neptune and his royal court are entertained by pollywogs with a talent show – dancing, singing, poetry, skits, etc. The pollywogs are then charged with various offenses by the shellbacks. During the initiation ritual, they are made to eat slops (mixture of uneaten foods from the galley that is often spicy); they are made to crawl on their bellies on objectionable debris and end up kissing the greased belly of the royal baby (usually a sailor with big belly). You can visualize the ritual but it is all for fun!
Like the English, the ship observes the traditional tea time too. We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon after the organized chaos of the shellback initiation. We sipped a variety of tea, mine was Darjeeling and drank it like I like my coffee – pure and black, while Sasha (the resident pianist) entertained us with classical music. Need I mention that all these fine teas and foods are free?
As I already mentioned in my previous blogs, the ship has several lecturers presenting different topics of expertise. One of them is Mr Ian Wright who was a personal photographer of the late John Lennon, one of the Fab Four (Beatles). Ian shared with us anecdotes that gave us a view of John Lennon’s very private life. How he sailed from New York to the Bermuda where they encountered a hurricane and was ship wrecked. While recuperating in Bermuda, John Lennon was so inspired by a rare flower that he composed one of his final album – Double Fantasy. John Lennon was shot and killed on December 8, 1980 in front of his apartment building in New York City. He was only 40 years old.
Atlantic Ocean trivia: The Atlantic Ocean is divided in half, north and south, by the Mid Atlantic Ridge or MAR. Longer than the Rockies, the Himalayas and the Andes combined, this underwater range is the longes on Earth. The MAR was discovered in 1872 when the crew of the HMS Challenger set out to research a path for a future transatlantic telegraph cable.
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