The skipper on the last ship was going to put something together that would
not violate the new rules but would retain somewhat the flavor of the
crossing ceremony. As it happened he received from many on the crew
complaint letters and verbal complaints for not having the ceremony. The
newer men and all three of the woman were behind that. They see it as a
professional rite of passage and only talk about attaining "Golden" status.
I myself am both a long time shellback and a member of the Order of the
Golden Dragon but not simultanously mores the pity. I did however manage
to see three green flashes in the last six months. The first in 30 years
of looking. Some people see without knowing what they see and having seen
still have not a clue what they are looking at. Oh well . .. On the three
master I sailed on in '97 we had the crew swim under the line to clean off
the 'residue' of the crossing.

Off to Raffles for the obligatory Singapore Sling! The good news came in we
don't leave until tomorrow at the earliest!

Michael

So how was Shellback Day?

Goodnews and bad news. My usual job was to be the Royal Baby. I have a
great belly smear concoction for that. However I couldn't qualify
anymore
so I opted to become the Royal Barber. Then we found out there is no
more
ceremony in the damn Navy. Something about hazing and PC and all that
crap.
So three crossings later the pollywogs are still pollywogs. Silly asses
mights well have taken a plane!
That's too bad, though I have seen them get a little out of hand (the guy
who
got carried away with the fire hose had to help the guys rebuild the R-112
unit
he sprayed down when it was running). On one of my cruises became a
Golden
Shellback, crossed the line at the dateline.

JJ


Cool. I had a friend who spent some time at DG and learned to sail
there.
From his description it's one of the sailing paradises of the world.

You got that right. Went out twice and it's pure heaven. It's part of
the chain, an underwater mountain range actually that runs from tip fo
India
over to Africa.

And I'll drink to that! OK OK and then you can buy the third round.



M.S.




James Johnson
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