At 0800 this morning, after being ritualistically cleansed of the city sludge and dirt of the land, I have been declared a Shellback by King Neptune and his royal court. The ship's captain came over the intercom just after 1000 to announce that we had just crossed the equator on our way back to port but since the cleansing had not been completed for some of the crew yet, we had turned to a new course (270 - due West) to avoid actually crossing before the ship had been purged of slimy pollywogs. The final count was that over 1500 sailors and Marines were declared to be "Trusty Shellbacks" and welcome to King Neptune's Realm. Trust me, the article I've linked to here today discusses things that were way worse than the stuff I had to do this morning, Mate. Arrrrrrr!
Tuesday, November 21
King Neptune has spoken
At 0800 this morning, after being ritualistically cleansed of the city sludge and dirt of the land, I have been declared a Shellback by King Neptune and his royal court. The ship's captain came over the intercom just after 1000 to announce that we had just crossed the equator on our way back to port but since the cleansing had not been completed for some of the crew yet, we had turned to a new course (270 - due West) to avoid actually crossing before the ship had been purged of slimy pollywogs. The final count was that over 1500 sailors and Marines were declared to be "Trusty Shellbacks" and welcome to King Neptune's Realm. Trust me, the article I've linked to here today discusses things that were way worse than the stuff I had to do this morning, Mate. Arrrrrrr!
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2 comments:
Congratulations Trusty Shellback! I had no idea the ritual had changed so much. Although, I hate to tell you how many times, after seeing the Tailhook sticker on my truck, people have asked me if it meant I was a "scandle" participant. Ha! They are clueless about Tailhook except it represent some type of "scandle". *sigh*
Anyway, ^5!
Thanks, Mike. If it makes you feel any better, my hands may forever resemble the no-skid surface of the flight deck and my legs still hurt from all the duck walking.
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