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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 ...
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.
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 ...
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.
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 ]
Winding up her Philippine Sea Frontier duty, Brock set course for Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, on 20 August 1945 and crossed the equator for the first time on 23 August 1945; in the traditional "Neptune Ceremonies," her 33 "shellbacks" duly initiated nearly 200 "pollywogs," including the commanding officer and 10 of the 12 officers on board.
A tadpole or polliwog (also spelled pollywog) is the larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Tadpoles have some fish-like features that may not be found in adult amphibians such as a lateral line, gills and swimming tails.
Polly Wog Stew is the first recorded release by Beastie Boys, released as an EP in 1982 on the independent record label Rat Cage.Now out of print in its original form, all eight songs saw reissue on the 1989 punk rock compilation Killed by Death #1 but were removed from the record's subsequent releases when the band repackaged the entire EP, along with the Cooky Puss 12", as the compilation ...