View allAll Photos Tagged INITIATION
Photographer: Henrik "Pettsson" Pettersson
This photo is CreativeCommons, it may be used for non-commercial reasons as long as one credit the photographer and link back here
Photographer: Henrik "Pettsson" Pettersson
This photo is CreativeCommons, it may be used for non-commercial reasons as long as one credit the photographer and link back here
Photographer: Henrik "Pettsson" Pettersson
This photo is CreativeCommons, it may be used for non-commercial reasons as long as one credit the photographer and link back here
Photographer: Henrik "Pettsson" Pettersson
This photo is CreativeCommons, it may be used for non-commercial reasons as long as one credit the photographer and link back here
Sadhus assemble to take part in the initiation process. By the end of it, all of them will be inducted into the Naga Sadhu clan, free to roam the planet......naked.
Ah, the joy.
This display depicts the initiation ceremony Navy sailors undergo when passing the equator. Sailors are divided into two classes -- shellbacks who've passed the equator and undergone the initiation, and pollywogs (or wogs for short) who haven't. The oldest Shellback on board serves in the role of King Neptune who passes judgment on the wogs. His court also includes Davy Jones and someone called the Baby.
Davy Jones doesn't do much, but the Baby greases up his bare belly with shortening and smears your face in it. Sometimes he puts an olive in his navel and you have to pull it out with your mouth. Wogs have to wear all their clothes turned inside out and put their underwear on over their pants. Wogs also have to make a circuit of the main deck crawling on their hands and knees while the Shellbacks whip you on the back with lengths of firehose called shillelaghs.
The Wogs are also sprayed with salt water from fire hoses and made to wallow around in rotten garbage. After being judged by King Neptune, you get dunked in a salt water pool and when you come up they ask you what you are. If you say "a pollywog" (like I did stupidly) they dunk you again. If you answer "a shellback" then the initiation is over and you walk back to the fantail, strip off your nasty clothes, and throw them overboard. After that, you get a certificate that says you're a Shellback and then the next time you're on a ship that passes the equator you get to be the one whipping the Wogs.
It sounds pretty brutal, but it's all voluntary and it's actually pretty fun. You don't have to take part if you don't want to and it's a nice break from the normal humdrum routine of being at sea. Not sure how the initiation might have been altered now that all warships are co-ed. I'm guessing some adjustments have had to be made. There is also another initiation ceremony for crews that pass within the Artic Circle called Bluenose initiation. Don't know what all goes on in that one, but I do know you get dunked in freezing cold water.
The USS New Jersey (BB-62), the American Navy's most decorated battleship. It saw action in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and Operation Desert Storm. It's now a museum ship moored along the bank of the Delaware River in Camden, New Jersey.
Photographer: Henrik "Pettsson" Pettersson
This photo is CreativeCommons, it may be used for non-commercial reasons as long as one credit the photographer and link back here
Photographer: Henrik "Pettsson" Pettersson
This photo is CreativeCommons, it may be used for non-commercial reasons as long as one credit the photographer and link back here