Shellbacks and Pollywogs

An old Navy tradition includes that of the shellbacks and pollywogs. Essentially, a shellback is a sailor who has crossed the equator, while a pollywog has not. To become a shellback one must prove yourself! :)
Dan recently had to undergo the transformation, and here's an excerpt from one of his emails on the subject:

The Shellbacks (people who'd crossed the equator and
gone through the ceremony before) wore pirate costumes, while the
Pollywogs (or just "Wogs"; the uninitiated) wore PT gear of some sort,
and had to come up with a tail of some sort . . . Everyone
was woken up at 0600. Then we went down to "stand" in line for
breakfast. I said "stand" because "Wogs" stand and walk in the duck-walk
position, and quack. So, we were there, waiting for breakfast, and the
Shellbacks made us sing songs, and some of them even sprayed us with a
watered-down syrup mixture (mostly water, but still kind of nasty). Then
we got in line for breakfast, and they had normal food items that were
altered in some way, and renamed something else. Like we had
orange-colored doughnut holes that they called fried seahorse roe, etc.
Then we waddled to a table, sat down, and proceeded to eat with our
mouths only (no hands). Then, with the excuse that, "there are no cups,
so we'll just pour your juice on top of your plate," they proceeded to
pour orange juice on our plates and heads. I used this opportunity to
get back at one of them, and once I'd fuinished my juice-soaked food, I
launched the rest of the juice on my plate at the shelback who had
poured it. He then proceeded to get another pitcher of juice and pour it
on my head. After breakfast, we waddled up to the foc'sle, where we were
sprayed with firehoses, and had to bail out a boat filled with seawater
with green dye in it. This whole thing was a bootcamp type thing, where
you could never fully accomplish the mission, but you just kept going
until they told you to stop. So, I used this opportunity to throw water
at some of the Shellbacks. Then, me and the group of officers I was with
decided to "bail" the boat out by capsizing it, which we did. So, the
next station was PT, where we did lots of pushups, some flutter kicks,
8-count body builders, and jumping jacks. Then we went up to the 02
level, where they continued to spray us with firehoses, and we were told
to dance. They were at first telling us to dance whenever they blew the
whistle, then we did the Mocarena (sp?). Then we did some more pushups,
and whatever they told us to do. Up here is where most of my guys were,
so I used this opportunity to antagonize them. I told them I wasn't wet
enough, and even when they were spraying the firehose at me, I continued
to taunt them by saying that I wasn't wet enough. Whenever I passed by a
Shellback, I quacked especially loud in their ears, and when they
ordered me to dance, I'd dance into them (picture Night at the
Roxbury-esque moves) and stuff. People underestimated me, and thought
that I'd be miserable, but I ended up making it fun, and making it as
hard on them as possible. So then we went to the quarterdeck, where we
were sprayed with firehoses, and told to lay in this huge puddle of
water and "swim." That was fun. Then we went back to the foc'sle, where
we were told to dance, and then we did like the locomotion around the
foc'sle. Then, EMO stopped a few of us, and we did more PT. Then, he
told us to form up a helicopter, and I was the tailrotor, so I swung my
arms around as we went to the next station. On the other side of the
quarterdeck, they put dye all over us, and we moved through there pretty
quickly. Next, we went to the flight deck, where there was bobbing for
apples, then they made us blow water out of pad-eyes (you know, like on
the tarmack, where there are those points where they tie the aircraft
down? Thoes holes with crossed metal rods running acros the top?) with
our mouths. They pretty much just continued to screw with us the whole
time, and once they made me go find Flipper (just yell for him over at
the rail), and another time, they made me go find Nemo (same thing,
different fish; I know a dolphin's not a fish :P). So, my goal was to
get them to give up trying to screw with me, and I eventually won. I was
fine with going through the thing several times, for hours longer, but I
was going to beat my division (who were the ones who antagonized me the
most). I pretty much played dumb, and they kept sending me back to
different stations, but that was part of my plan. I was going to break
their will before they broke mine"

Presiding over the ceremony are "King Neptune", "Davy Jones", and the rest of the court. I'm pretty sure Dan ended up enjoying himself. :)