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The line-crossing ceremony is an initiation rite in some English-speaking countries that commemorates a person's first crossing of the Equator. [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 ...
I have always called them pollywogs and only recently found out about the use of the term for the line crossing ceremony, and wondered about its etymology. It would make sense, as in woodlouse/pollywog = crustacean with no shell, and shellback = crustacean with shell. 86.133.212.6 ( talk ) 14:37, 16 March 2012 (UTC) [ reply ]
This resulted in the initiation of the "Pollywogs" (those who have not crossed the equator) by the "Shellbacks" (those who have crossed the equator). During this period, John Rodgers made port calls on four continents, including Panama, Spain, Italy, France, Monaco, England, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Bahrain and Kenya.
During the ceremony, the Pollywogs undergo a number of increasingly embarrassing ordeals (such as wearing clothing inside out and backward; crawling on hands and knees; being swatted with short lengths of firehose; kissing the Royal Baby's belly coated with axle grease, etc.), largely for the entertainment of the Shellbacks.
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As Fiske crossed the Equator at Longitude 106 degrees, 27 minutes East, in the Singapore Strait, the segment of the crew that heretofore had never crossed the equator received justice from those who had: the "Shellbacks", and were mercifully, and most ceremonially converted from "Pollywogs" to "Shellbacks" after suffering the pains and torments ...
The crew was initiated from 'pollywogs' into respectable 'shellbacks' at the Equator. From Tulagi she steamed to Noumea, New Caledonia, then back to the Mariana Islands. On the morning of 3 July, on the way into Guam, she participated in the air-sea rescue of 10 downed Army fliers. From Guam she returned to the US.
Among the 14 people killed in the New Orleans attack: a warehouse manager, an account executive, an aspiring nurse and two loving parents.