June, 19th 1953
Crossing the line
“For the first time in half a century the Midshipmen Summer Cruise headed for a port in South America south of the Equator…”
“DEDICATION:
To all Pollywogs - the Officers, Midshipmen and Crew of the USS Wisconsin (BB-64), who, on June 19, 1953, at Latitude 000.0′, Longitude 36042.1′, were initiated by a handful of Shellbacks into the Solemn Mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep.
May your memories of this day be longer than we left your hair, warmer than we left your pants and tenderer than we left your posterior.”
“The boisterous ceremonies of "crossing the line" are of such ancient vintage that their derivation is lost. It is well known that ceremonies took place long ago when the ship crossed the thirtieth parallel, and also when going through the Straits of Gibraltar. These early ceremonies were of the roughest sort and were, to a great extent, supposed to try the crew to determine whether or not the novices on their first cruise would endure the hardships of a life at sea. Then as the custom of the present time, it was primarily a crew’s “party.””
Click on FIRST IN FIFTY YEARS for more interesting information about this cruise.
The above writing is an excerpt from the PDF booklet put out by our ship for it’s crew and midshipman titled, “Crossing The Line June 19 1953”. In it you will read about our encounter with his Royal Majesty, Neptunus Rex, “Ruler of the Raging Main”.