Line-crossing Ceremony - Honors

Honors

A popular patch has also been created for shellbacks that depicts Neptune battling a sea serpent with his trident.

This is the text from a certificate issued on a Royal Navy ship during the Second World War:

A Proclamation

Whereas by our Royal Consension, Our Trusty, Well Beloved .................... has this day entered Our Domain. We do hereby declare to all whom it may concern that it is Our Royal Will and Pleasure to confer upon him the Freedom of the Seas without undue ceremony. Should he fall overboard, We do command that all Sharks, Dolphins, Whales, Mermaids and other dwellers in the Deep are to abstain from maltreating his person. And we further direct all Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen and others who have not crossed Our Royal Domain, to treat him with the respect due to One of Us. Given under Our Hand at Our Court on board H.M.S. .............. on the Equator in Longitude .....° on this ..... day of ..... in the year .....
(Signed)
Cancer — High Clerk
Neptune — Rex

This is the text from a certificate issued to United States Ships during World War II

Imperium Neptuni Regis

To all Shellbacks Greetings:

This is to Certify, that ..............
USS...............
was duly initiated into the Solemn Mysteries of the
Ancient Order of the Deep
And made a worthy Shellback in our Royal Dominion at Latitude 0000.
........,194-

Neptunus Rex
Ruler of the Raging Main

Official:
(Signed)
Commanding Officer, USS ...................

The certificate dipped in a bucket of ocean water and presented to the new trusty shellback.

This is the text from a certificate issued on a United States Navy ship during the 1960s:

Know ye, that .................... on the ..... day of ....., aboard .............. appeared at the equator at Latitude .....°, Longitude .....° entering into Our Royal Domain, and having been inspected and found worthy by My Royal Staff and was initiated into the Solemn Mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep. I command my subjects to Honor and Respect him as one of our Trusty Shellbacks.

(Signed)
Davey Jones — His Royal Scribe
Neptunus Rex — Ruler of the Raging Main

The USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42), under way to Rio de Janeiro, crossed the line on 4 July 1966, and its crew became known as "Star Spangled Shellbacks"; however, no previous mention of such honor has to date been located.

Submariners often become "Top Secret Shellbacks" having crossed the equator at a classified degree of longitude.

Similar "fraternities" in the navy include:

• The Order of the Blue Nose for sailors who have crossed the Arctic Circle.
• The Order of the Red Nose for sailors who have crossed the Antarctic Circle.
• The Order of the Golden Dragon for sailors who have crossed the International Date Line.
• The Order of the Ditch for sailors who have passed through the Panama Canal.
• The Order of the Rock for sailors who have transited the Strait of Gibraltar.
• The Safari to Suez for sailors who have passed through the Suez Canal.
• The Golden Shellback for sailors who have crossed the point where the Equator crosses the International Date Line.
• The Emerald Shellback or Royal Diamond Shellback for sailors who cross at 0 degrees off the coast of West Africa (where the Equator crosses the Prime Meridian)
• The Realm of the Czars for sailors who crossed into the Black Sea.
• The Order of Magellan for sailors who circumnavigated the earth.
• The Order of the Lakes for sailors who have sailed on all five Great Lakes.