For a very brief instant our location became very simple as we bisected the planet into equal parts north and south. GPS units slowly counted down to zero and an S turned into an N. Crossing the Equator by ship is no small feat and carries with it centuries of tradition. Captain FitzRoy of HMS Beagle found initiation ceremonies like Equator crossings to be invaluable to the morale of his crew. Stuck on multi-year voyages, crew members would eagerly anticipate the event and recount the folly for many days afterwards. In the time of long sailing voyages, passing notable locations became a way to distract crew members from the banality of routine shipboard life. Lucky for us, Papua New Guinea was very exciting and distracting, so many were caught off guard by the appearance of royalty onboard.
Accompanied by trusty Davey Jones and “beautiful” Queen Tethys, King Neptunus Rex, Ruler of the Raging Main, burst into the lounge late last night demanding retribution and royalties from the crowd at hand. Uninitiated Pollywogs, once relegated to a single hemisphere, had to Kiss the Fish in order to pass safely from south to north. Uptake of the cleansing elixir and a toast to the sea made us all Shellbacks and members of the Solemn Mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep. We may not be on a multi-year voyage around the world nor stuck in the fo’c’sle of a creaky sailing vessel, but we’ll certainly talk about this ceremony for a long time. And if anyone forgets, there are plenty of pictures to prove it.
