| We also learned, to the chagrin of all polliwogs
aboard, that on the way we were to cross the Equator. For several days
prior to that most infamous day in HOPEWELL history, 14 March 1955,
strange things were happening. Several times a day word would be passed
for "All shellbacks lay up to the CPO quarters," and woe be
unto the polliwog who happened to blunder in on one of these fateful
gatherings. |
 The
ship became divided into two camps; the one wandering around in a state
of bewilderment as to why the garbage was being saved, and why polliwogs
were not to go on the forecastle or on the port side of the fantail; the
other chuckling fiendishly at the quandary of the first. Finally the
fateful day arrived, and the long line of clean-shave neophytes was
summoned before the Royal Court for "justice," tried,
sentenced, and dealt with severely. |
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 |
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| At the end of
this hectic day, the HOPEWELL set course for Singapore manned with a full company of Crusty Shellbacks, duly initiated into the Ancient Order of the Deep. |