No ones seems to know exactly why or when it began, but approximately 400 years ago navies the world around began an initiation ritual for anyone crossing the equatorial line for the very first time. This time-honored tradition is now also carried out on commercial cruise ships. This “line crossing” ceremony celebrates a passengers rite of passage from slimy pollywog (one who hasn’t crossed the equator) to trusty Shellback, the nickname given to a son or daughter of King Neptune, ruler of the seas.
The ceremony goes something like this…As the ship approaches the equator, King Neptune boards the ship to execute his authority over the high seas and hold all of the pollywogs accountable for posing as sailors; one must have crossed the equator to be considered a true sailor. Initiation rituals differ from ship to ship, but in our case, the King calls all pollywogs to task, beginning with the pollywogs on the crew, then deals with them one by one. Each pollywog approaches the King, gets water dumped on their head, then has to kiss a REAL dead fish (ewwww!)!!! The crew also got noodles and all kinds of stuff rubbed in their hair, but the King was a little more kind to the passengers. It was a good time, and in case you are wondering, no, we did not choose to participate in the ceremony. We didn’t pay close enough attention to our bulletin and so did not come properly dressed for the occasion. Darn!
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