History of the Shellback Ceremony
Posted by NavyDads Admin (Paul) on September 27, 2008 at 1:15am in Naval History & Information
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When a ship crosses the equator the Sailors on board have a big festival called Wog Day. For newbies like me who hadn't crossed before, Polly Wogs, we have to go through a gauntlet of activities to become Shellbacks. All of this includes parading before King Neptune, his cronie Davey Jones and a bunch of other officers and chiefs dressed up as babies and other characters.
We had to be up at 4 am, dressed in our utilities (inside out and
backwards) with our Pollysog shirts decorated and on. The Shellbacks dress as pirates.
It was a long morning. We were all the way through and named Shellbacks by 6:46 am, but it felt so much longer than that.
Last night, all the Wogs put on a talent show to entertain Davey Jones and all the Shellbacks. We did a song and dance to the Bee Gee's Stayin Alive, but the words were changed by our Chief to make fun of the Command Master Chief. We lost. Our Chief is really annoying, so it's no surprise that everyone hated us. We had a lot of fun though, which is what counts.
Anyway, I included some photos.
The ones of me in the green shirt and jeans was from the talent show. I was a "dancer" though all we did was the electric slide.
The rest are from the various activities we did today. Before we went to the hangar bay/flight deck we had to entertain our Shellbacks. We sang "I'm a little tea pot," "Row Row Row Your Boat" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" over and over and over again. We also danced, folded one of the Shellback's laundry and other silly fun and games kinds of things. In the hangar bay we had "Polly Wog Breakfast" which we had to eat without using our hands and while laying on the ground while the shellbacks doused us with water and juice. On the hangar bay we had to blow water out of the pad-eyes, an impossible feat, carry a potatoe with our mouths through a mini obstacle course and swim through a half pipe of water and the man over board markers. Then we had to lay on the deck before Kind Neptune and when he decided we'd done enough, he named us Shellbacks.
I think that explains all the photos... Let me double check.
Ok, "Talent Show" and "Talent Show 2" are both from the talent show. "Tea Pot" is Anderson and I doing "I'm a Little Tea Pot." (check out how cute my Pollywog shirt was. On the back it said "Pollywhat? And Media Wog). "Pad Eye" is of Quinn and I trying to blow water out of the padeye, but Morton was soaking us with water, so it was really hard. "Shellback" is when I made it through the half pipe and took the potato out of my mouth. "Neptune" is me waiting for Neptune to title me as a Shellback. I'm in the upper left hand corner.
Paul Here_ I'll add the Wog Day photos tom page!!