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53-409: William Ian Miller notes the role of ritual humiliation in comic ordering and testing. Mircea Eliade discussed initiation as a principal religious act by classical or traditional societies. He defined initiation as "a basic change in existential condition", which liberates man from profane time and history. "Initiation recapitulates the sacred history of the world. And through this recapitulation,

106-539: A bucket or tub full of water, in which according to the ancient rite everyone who had not yet crossed the Line had to be dipped. His Excellency the Ambassador appeared before the court first, and promised, with his hand on a map of the world, to observe the ceremony, if ever he recrossed the Line, and in order not to be doused he put in the basin a fistful of silver. I did the same, as did all the officers, and those who had

159-405: A closed 'family' which absorbs in members, who are often formally accepted, generally after a form of trial or hazing . In addition, there can be similar rites of passages associated with parts of naval and military life, which do not constitute true initiations as the participants are already and remain members of the same community. One such rite is associated with crossing the equator on board

212-505: A form of initiation, also known as "sex in", though they may also be "jumped-in" like their male counterparts. One study shows that female members who were "sexed-in" as part of gang initiation were thereafter viewed with lower respect than those that were "jumped-in", even when promised they would become full-fledged members. Another study found that sexed-in members face greater risks of sexual exploitation and abuse by fellow male members. Tribes often have initiations. The initiation done in

265-497: A formally organized institution, variations of the names as well as the protocol involved in induction vary from ship to ship and service to service. Unique Shellback designations have been given to special circumstances which include: Variations to the Shellback designation include: Consequently, similar "fraternities" commemorating other significant milestones in one's career include: California Maritime Academy observed

318-470: A ladder from the forecastle to the superstructure deck of the ship. There, they crawled down a gauntlet of Shellbacks on both sides of a long, heavy canvas runner, about 10–12 meters. The shellbacks had prepared 3-foot lengths of canvas/rubber firehose, which they swung hard at the posterior of each Wog. The Wogs then ascended a ladder to the boat deck to slide down a makeshift chute into the baptism of messdeck leavings in sea water in an inflated liferaft back on

371-544: A naval ship, but it can even be taken by passengers on board a cruise liner , who are not and do not become members of anything but the so-called "equator crossing club". Another form, "Kissing the Royal Belly" or "Royal Baby", calls for initiates to kneel before a senior member of the crew, who wears a mock diaper. This "Baby" usually has a huge stomach covered with greasy materials ranging from cooking oil to mustard, shaving cream, eggs, and oysters. Junior sailors must lick

424-471: A notorious line-crossing ceremony took place on the Royal Australian Navy submarine HMAS  Onslow . Sailors undergoing the ceremony were physically and verbally abused before being subjected to an act called "sump on the rump", where a dark liquid was daubed over each sailor's anus and genitalia . One sailor was then sexually assaulted with a long stick before all sailors undergoing

477-645: A person who has crossed the Equator at the 180th meridian . The rarest Shellback status is that of the Emerald Shellback (US), or Royal Diamond Shellback (Commonwealth), which is received after crossing the Equator at the prime meridian , near the Null Island weather buoy. When a ship must cross the Equator reasonably close to one of these meridians, the ship's captain might plot a course across

530-407: A piece of roughened iron hoop. —a signal being given I was tilted head over heels into the water, where two men received me & ducked me. —at last, glad enough, I escaped. — most of the others were treated much worse, dirty mixtures being put in their mouths & rubbed on their faces. — The whole ship was a shower bath: & water was flying about in every direction: of course not one person, even

583-474: A shepherding process where those who are at a higher level guide the initiate through a process of greater exposure of knowledge. This may include the revelation of secrets, hence the term secret society for such organizations, usually reserved for those at the higher level of understanding. One famous historical example is the Eleusinian Mysteries of ancient Greece, thought to go back to at least

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636-534: A small number of Shellbacks exist to conduct the initiation. The transition flows from established order to the "controlled chaos" of the Pollywog Revolt, the beginnings of re-order in the initiation rite as the fewer but experienced enlisted crew converts the Wogs through physical tests, then back to, and thereby affirming, the pre-established order of officers and enlisted. The eve of the equatorial crossing

689-590: A water coffin of salt-water and bright green sea dye [fluorescent sodium salt]; crawling through chutes or large tubs of rotting garbage; kissing the Royal Baby's belly coated with axle grease, hair chopping, etc.), largely for the entertainment of the Shellbacks. Once the ceremony is complete, a Pollywog receives a certificate declaring his new status. Another rare status is the Golden Shellback ,

742-420: Is an alternative initiation ritual sometimes performed as a ship crosses the Equator, involving water baptism of passengers or crew who have never crossed the Equator before. The ceremony is sometimes explained as being an initiation into the court of King Neptune . The ritual is the subject of a painting by Matthew Benedict named The Mariner's Baptism and of a 1961 book by Henning Henningsen named Crossing

795-404: Is called Wog Day and, as with many other night-before rituals, is a mild type of reversal of the day to come. Wogs (all of the uninitiated) are allowed to capture and interrogate any Shellbacks they can find (e.g., tying them up, cracking eggs or pouring aftershave lotion on their heads). The Wogs are made very aware that it will be much harder on them if they do anything like this. After crossing

848-446: Is occurring, initiation is not taken so seriously as before, although there are still certain areas which still perform initiations. In some African tribes, boys take about 3–4 months participating in initiation rites and girls take about 1–2 months. Australian Aboriginal tribes usually had long periods of time to help prepare adolescent boys, teaching them traditional lore before they were ready to attend large elaborate ceremonies at

901-510: Is then thought to produce feelings of strong group attraction among initiates after the experience, because they want to justify the effort used. Rewards during initiations have important consequences in that initiates who feel more rewarded express stronger group identity. As well as group attraction, initiations can also produce conformity among new members. Psychology experiments have also shown that initiations increase feelings of affiliation . A spiritual initiation rite normally implies

954-459: The Bapedi tribe of South Africa is normally regarded as a stage where a boy is to be taught manhood and a girl to be taught womanhood. In many African tribes, initiation involves circumcision / genital mutilation of males and sometimes circumcision / genital mutilation of females as well. Initiation is considered necessary for the individual to be regarded as a full member of the tribe. Otherwise,

1007-512: The Golden X so that the ship's crew can be initiated as Golden or Emerald/Royal Diamond Shellbacks. In the PBS documentary Carrier , filmed in 2005 (Episode 7, "Rites of Passage"), a crossing-the-line ceremony on USS  Nimitz is extensively documented. The ceremony is carefully orchestrated by the ship's officers, with some sailors reporting the events to be lackluster due to the removal of

1060-614: The Guru and also implies that the Chela (student or disciple) agrees to the requirements (such as living an ethical lifestyle, meditating, etc.) One of the most recognized religious initiation rites is Baptism within Christianity . Christian Baptism is seen as both part of the individual's faith and conversion as well as their initiation into the Church. In unionised organizations ,

1113-495: The Mycenaean period or " Bronze Age ". In the context of ritual magic and esotericism , an initiation is considered to cause a fundamental process of change to begin within the person being initiated and its "evolution operates within both the material world and the spiritual world". The person conducting the initiation (the initiator ), being in possession of a certain power or state of being, transfers this power or state to

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1166-483: The Navy and are also sometimes carried out for passengers' entertainment on civilian ocean liners and cruise ships. They are also performed in the merchant navy and aboard sail training ships. Throughout history, line-crossing ceremonies have sometimes become dangerous hazing rituals . Most modern navies have instituted regulations that prohibit physical attacks on sailors undergoing the line-crossing ceremony. In 1995,

1219-660: The University of Michigan . He is also Honorary Professor of History at the University of St. Andrews. His area of specialty is the sagas of medieval Iceland, but he also has written extensively on revenge and on various emotions, mostly self-attentional. He grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, received his BA from the University of Wisconsin in 1969; a Ph.D in English and a JD in law at Yale 1975, 1980. Crossing

1272-561: The Urapmin people used to practice a type of male initiation known in Urap as ban . These elaborate rituals were a central part of Urapmin social life. The ban was a multistage process which involved beatings and manipulation of various objects. At each stage, the initiate was offered revelations of secret knowledge (Urap: weng awem ), but at the next stage these would be shown to be false (Urap: famoul ). These initiations were abandoned with

1325-455: The "initiation" is typically no more than a brief familiarization with basic procedures and the provision of a copy of the appropriate collective bargaining agreement that governs the work performed by members of the union. Some unions also charge a one-time initiation fee, after which the joining person is officially deemed to be a member in good standing. Some communities on board a military vessel and also of military soldiers tend to form

1378-434: The 18th century and earlier, the line-crossing ceremony was quite a brutal event, often involving beating pollywogs with boards and wet ropes and sometimes throwing the victims over the side of the ship, dragging the pollywog through the surf from the stern. In more than one instance, sailors were reported to have been killed while participating in a line-crossing ceremony. Baptism on the line, also called equatorial baptism,

1431-609: The Baby's navel area, while the "baby" grabs and shakes their head to better smear the goo onto their faces. Gangs often require new members to commit crimes before accepting them as part of the gang. New members may be physically beaten by fellow gang members to demonstrate their courage, also known as "beat-in" or "jump-in", which occasionally results in a fatality. One study indicates that young people are more likely to be hurt in gang initiation than they are by refusing to join. Female members may be required to have sex with male members as

1484-532: The Captain, got clear of being wet through." The ship's artist, Augustus Earle , made a sketch of the scene. The U.S. Navy , U.S. Coast Guard and United States Marines have well-established line-crossing rituals. Sailors who have already crossed the Equator are nicknamed Shellbacks , Trusty Shellbacks , Honorable Shellbacks , or Sons of Neptune . Those who have not crossed are nicknamed Pollywogs , or Slimy Pollywogs, or sometimes simply Slimy Wogs. In

1537-466: The Equator: Sailor's Baptism and Other Initiation Rites . U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt described his crossing-the-line ceremony aboard the "Happy Ship" USS  Indianapolis with his "Jolly Companions" in a letter to his wife Eleanor Roosevelt on 26 November 1936. Later, during World War II , the frequency of the ceremony increased dramatically, especially in the U.S. Navy in

1590-538: The Pacific, where the service's fleet operations grew enormously to counter widely dispersed Japanese forces. As late as World War II, the line-crossing ceremony was still rather rough and involved activities such as the "Devil's Tongue", which was an electrified piece of metal poked into the sides of those deemed pollywogs. Beatings were often still common, usually with wet firehoses, and several World War II Navy deck logs speak of sailors visiting sick bay after crossing

1643-602: The Slimy Pollywogs into "the mysteries of the Deep". Physical hardship, in keeping with the spirit of the initiation, is tolerated, and each Pollywog is expected to endure a standard initiation rite in order to become a Shellback. Depending on the Ocean or Fleet AOR, there can be variations in the rite. Some rites have discussed a role reversal as follows, but this is not always a normal feature, and may be dependent on whether

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1696-494: The adoption of Christianity, and the Urap have expressed relief at no longer having to administer the beatings which were involved. The Sateré-Mawé people of Brazil use intentional bullet ant stings as part of their initiation rites to become warriors. Among the various Austronesian peoples , head-hunting raids were strongly tied to the practice of tattooing . In head-hunting societies, tattoos were records of how many heads

1749-453: The ceremonies involved. Nearing the late parts of the ceremony, the initiate gains an alias, or a " Courtesy name "; thereafter use of their personal name is strictly prohibited except before parents and rulers. [REDACTED] Media related to Initiation at Wikimedia Commons William Ian Miller William Ian Miller (born March 30, 1946) is the Thomas G. Long Professor of Law at

1802-574: The ceremony were forced to jump overboard and tread water until permitted to climb back aboard the submarine. A videotape of the ceremony was obtained by the Nine Network and aired on Australian television. The coverage provoked widespread criticism, especially when the videotape showed some of the submarine's officers watching the entire proceedings from the conning tower. In the Royal Canadian Navy , those who have not yet crossed

1855-555: The crew drew up a list of everyone on board, including cats and dogs, and interrogated them as to whether they had crossed the equator. If they had not, they must choose to give up their allowance of wine for four days, or undergo a ducking ceremony in which they were ducked three times into the ocean. According to Banks, some of those ducked were "grinning and exulting in their hardiness", but others "were almost suffocated". Captain Robert FitzRoy of HMS  Beagle suggested

1908-502: The equator The line-crossing ceremony is an initiation rite in some English-speaking countries that commemorates a person's first crossing of the Equator . The tradition may have originated with ceremonies when passing headlands, and become a "folly" sanctioned as a boost to morale, or have been created as a test for seasoned sailors to ensure their new shipmates were capable of handling long, rough voyages. Equator-crossing ceremonies, typically featuring King Neptune , are common in

1961-582: The equator are nicknamed Tadpoles , or Dirty Tadpoles ; an earlier nickname was griffins . The French author François-Timoléon de Choisy crossed the equator in April 1685 (aboard the Oiseau bound for Siam ), and had the following to say about their tradition: "...we had the ceremony this morning. All the sailors who had already crossed it were armed with tongs, pincers, cooking pots and cauldrons... This company, after having done their drill, lined up beside

2014-459: The equator on the evening of 16 February 1832, a pseudo-Neptune hailed the ship. Those credulous enough to run forward to see Neptune "were received with the watery honours which it is customary to bestow". The officer on watch reported a boat ahead, and Captain FitzRoy ordered "hands up, shorten sail". Using a speaking trumpet he questioned Neptune, who would visit them the next morning. About 9 am

2067-399: The individual may not be allowed to participate in ceremonies or even in social rituals such as marriage. A man will not be allowed to marry or have any special relationship with a woman who did not go to an initiation, because she is not considered to be a woman. Initiation may be thought of as an event which may help teens prepare themselves to be good husbands and wives. Where modernization

2120-544: The line, Pollywogs receive subpoenas to appear before King Neptune and his court (usually including his first assistant Davy Jones and her Highness Amphitrite and often various dignitaries, who are all represented by the highest-ranking sailors who are Shellbacks), who officiate at the ceremony, which is often preceded by a beauty contest of men dressing up as women, each department of the ship being required to introduce one contestant in swimsuit drag. Afterwards, some may be "interrogated" by King Neptune and his entourage, and

2173-419: The line-crossing ceremony until 1989, after which the ceremony was deemed to be hazing and was forbidden. The 1989 crossing was fairly typical, as it was not realized to be the last one. Pollywogs participated voluntarily, though female midshipmen observed that they were under social pressure to do the ceremony but were targets of harder abuse. Pollywogs (midshipmen and anyone else who had not crossed) ascended

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2226-423: The line. Efforts to curtail the line-crossing ceremony did not begin until the 1980s, when several reports of blatant hazing began to circulate regarding the line-crossing ceremony, and at least one death was attributed to abuse while crossing the line. The two-day event (evening and day) is a ritual in which previously inducted crew members (Trusty Shellbacks) are organized into a "Court of Neptune" and induct

2279-494: The next day, the novices or "griffins" were assembled in the darkness and heat of the lower deck, then one at a time were blindfolded and led up on deck by "four of Neptunes constables", as "buckets of water were thundered all around". The first "griffin" was Charles Darwin , who noted in his diary how he "was then placed on a plank, which could be easily tilted up into a large bath of water. — They then lathered my face & mouth with pitch and paint, & scraped some of it off with

2332-524: The person being initiated. Thus the concept of initiation is similar to that of apostolic succession . The initiation process is often likened to a simultaneous death and rebirth, because as well as being a beginning it also implies an ending as existence on one level drops away in an ascension to the next. Initiation is a key component of Judaism , Sufism and Shiism , Vaishnavism , Sant Mat , Surat Shabd Yoga , Vajrayana Buddhism , Wicca , and similar religious gnostic traditions. It denotes acceptance by

2385-626: The practice had developed from earlier ceremonies in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian vessels passing notable headlands . He thought it was beneficial to morale. FitzRoy quoted Otto von Kotzebue 's 1830 description in his 1839 Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the Years 1826 and 1836 . A similar ceremony took place during the second survey voyage of HMS Beagle . As they approached

2438-461: The rites of initiation. Reflecting the popularity of tattoos among sailors , some people choose to get tattoos to mark that they have participated in a ceremony, such as an image of a shellback turtle or King Neptune. As Shellback initiation is conducted by each individual ship as a morale exercise and not officially recognized by the Navy with inclusion on discharge papers ( DD Form 214 ) or through

2491-470: The summer of 2019, on the TSES VI , held shortly after departing Reykjavik . Cadets crawled through a tunnel with lo mein , or "Eel Spawn", and then had food put in their hair before crawling through the fantail while being sprayed by fire hoses. Colorado State University's Semester at Sea Program holds a line-crossing ceremony twice a year for its students when their vessel, Blue Dream Star , crosses

2544-462: The superstructure deck. Wogs then returned to the forecastle , where they were hosed off by firehose and then allowed to kiss, in turn, the belly of the sea-baby, the foot of the sea-hag, and the ring of King Neptune , each personified by Shellbacks. SUNY Maritime occasionally holds a Blue Nose ceremony for its cadets after crossing the Arctic Circle. Their most recent ceremony was during

2597-519: The time of initiation when they were finally recognized as full-fledged men in their society. Most tribes had circumcision and scarification as part of the male initiation rituals, while many Central Australian tribes also practiced subincision . A salient shared cultural feature of the Min peoples of the New Guinea Highlands is initiation into a secret male religious cult. For example,

2650-465: The use of "truth serum" (hot sauce + after shave) and whole uncooked eggs put in the mouth. During the ceremony, the Pollywogs undergo a number of increasingly embarrassing ordeals (wearing clothing inside out and backwards; crawling on hands and knees on nonskid-coated decks; being swatted with short lengths of firehose; being locked in stocks & pillories and pelted with mushy fruit; being locked in

2703-532: The warriors had taken in battle, and was part of the initiation rites into adulthood. The Sande society in West Africa initiates girls into adulthood by rituals including female genital mutilation . Chinese boys, under the Rites of Zhou , initiate their adulthood when they are 20 years old (加冠) and girls when they are 15 (及笄). Yili (儀禮), a text in the chapter of the rites(?) (士冠禮) describes various details of

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2756-499: The wherewithal to buy their way out. The rest were plunged into the tub, and drenched in twenty buckets of water. Nearly sixty crowns were collected, which will be spent on buying refreshments for the crew". By the eighteenth century, there were well-established line-crossing rituals in the British Royal Navy . On the voyage of HMS Endeavour to the Pacific in 1768, captained by James Cook , Joseph Banks described how

2809-515: The whole world is sanctified anew... [the initiand] can perceive the world as a sacred work, a creation of the Gods." Eliade differentiates between types of initiations in two ways: types and functions. These can be broken into two types: In the study of certain social forms of initiation, such as hazing in college fraternities and sororities, laboratory experiments in psychology suggest that severe initiations produce cognitive dissonance . Dissonance

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