CROSSING THE LINE

On 29 December 1907, after their first coaling stop in Trinidad, the Atlantic Battleship Fleet, nicknamed “the Great White Fleet,” weighed anchor and headed south on their epic world cruise.  Five days later off Macapa, Brazil, they made their first of what would be four crossings of the Equator.  According to longstanding custom, each ship was duly visited by King Neptune and his court.  Aboard each the uninitiated polliwogs atoned for such sins as knowing more about haystacks than about seaweed in a traditional ceremony, which today adheres to anti-hazing regulations.

Maritime lore holds that crossing the Equator provides one the opportunity to be introduced to the Solemn Mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep–provided one is properly expunged of any landlubber attributes.  Toward that end King Neptune’s henchman, Davy Jones, appears the evening before the ship approaches the Equator to announce that the ship must heave to for an audience on the morrow with the King.  In the hours that follow, the polliwogs among the crew endure good-natured “cleansing” at the hands of the shellbacks.  King Neptune appears the following morn in his royal splendor, accompanied by an entourage that includes Davy Jones, Queen Amphitrite, and perhaps the Royal Chaplain, Royal Doctor, Royal Dentist, Royal Barber, the Devil, and one or more Royal Babies.  Acquiescent skippers, respecting the august ruler, dutifully welcome him aboard.  The polliwogs are now summoned before the King, who, of course, finds them unclean and orders the appropriate expurgating rituals.  These may include ministrations by the members of the Royal party, appeals to various Gods of the Sea, dosing with Truth Serum, and other purifying practices.

As maritime traditions go, the observance of an initiation ritual upon crossing the Equator is old indeed.  It probably began soon after the spherical nature of the globe was established.  European navigators from the 1500s, such as Magellan and Jean Parmentier, record such rituals.  The first US Naval vessel to cross the line was the frigate ESSEX, 32, during the War of 1812.  Her skipper, CAPT David Porter, did not log the details of his crossing ceremony while enroute to harass British shipping in the Pacific.

In 1989 complaints of sexual harassment arising from such a ceremony aboard the Merchant Marine training ship Golden Bear prompted the National Maritime Administration to examine the notorious vigor with which parts of the ritual were conducted.  In a similar vein such ceremonies aboard US Navy vessels today are well controlled to insure the safety of all participants while preserving the flavor of the rite.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  8 JAN 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Mack, William P. and Royal W. Connell.  Naval Ceremonies, Customs and Traditions, 5^th ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1980, pp. 184-87.

Oral history, CAPT James Bloom, converted to Shellback aboard USS DIXON (AS-37), November 1995.

Reckner, James R.  Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1988, p. 32.

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                                               RADIO FAUX PAS

Communication between ships at sea had been line-of-sight visual to date, even in foul weather.  Experimentation had been in the works for years, indeed in 1888 a genius of naval invention, CAPT Bradley A. Fiske, ran current pulses through insulated wire wrapped around the steel hull of the cruiser ATLANTA and listened to sounds picked up on a nearby similarly enwrapped ship.  Fiske later experimented with “fleet telephony”–stringing telegraph wire between ships steaming in column.  By 1903, Guglielmo Marconi’s wireless telegraph had become practical, and shore wireless sets of 1906 were broadcasting weather information seaward.  As well, the Naval Observatory was transmitting wireless time signals to 75 radio-equipped US Navy warships.

On this brilliant blue Monday morning of December 16^th, the steam yacht USS MAYFLOWER (PY-1), with President Theodore Roosevelt embarked, weighed anchor and proceeded out of Hampton Roads.  She led sixteen first-class battleships of the “Great White Fleet” in single file.  This was Roosevelt’s “big stick,” cruising around the world to demonstrate new-found US naval prowess.  MAYFLOWER paused at the mouth of the Chesapeake to wish the fleet a final farewell.  The battleships filed past the Commander-in-Chief at precise 400-yard intervals, CONNECTICUT (BB-18) in the van, each firing a gun salute, each with the rails manned.  No spectacle of this scale had ever before been accomplished.  These were the finest and best equipped ships in any Navy, but even among our own sailors there were doubts about the durability of turn-of-the-century naval technology.  In fact, against the possibility of embarrassing mechanical failures, Roosevelt and Navy officials announced only that the fleet intended to go as far as California.

After dinner on this first night at sea, fleet commander RADM Robley D. Evans addressed his fleet.  Despite official precautions about the itinerary, and despite Evan’s unfamiliarity with this new-fangled radio, he announced to the fleet their true intent to sail around the world.  Cheers echoed across the water.  Unknown to Evans however, his broadcast was picked up by wireless stations along the Atlantic coast.  The story headlined newspapers around the nation the next day, humiliating President Roosevelt.  An immediate walk-back claimed it was only Evans’ personal belief that a world cruise was planned.  Secretary of the Navy Victor H. Metcalf denied even this, stating that the ultimate destination of the fleet beyond San Francisco was as yet “undetermined.”  In fact, the political damage control proved prudent on December 20^th, when ILLINOIS (BB-7) and KENTUCKY (BB-6) did suffer brief mechanical issues.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  25 DEC 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Fiske, Bradley A.  “Fleet Telephony”.  Proceedings of the USNI, Vol 121, March 1907, pp. 239-42.

Love, Robert W.  History of the US Navy, Vol 1  1775-1941.  Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, p. 442.

Reckner, James R.  Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1988, pp. 23-27.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History:  An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3^rd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, pp. 109-10.

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