Crossing the Line

susan · Wed Dec 10, 2008 7:56 am

Found a description of the ceremony held on board the US privateer Yankee (during the War of 1812), upon crossing the "Northern Tropic." It includes the ingredients which were used in the various mixtures used during the ceremony by Neptune and his minions.

The men were lathered by the barber with "soap" that was composed of "different coloured paint, slush, greese [sic], dirt, bilge-water, gun-powder, & other delicious essences." After being shaved with an iron hoop and nearly choked with bilge water poured into a speaking trumpet, they were pushed into the barge, which was filled with a mixture of "dirty water, tar, slush, rotten onions, and potatoes, stinking codfish, bilge-water, and various other nauseous ingredients improper to mention."

From Journals of Two Cruises Aboard the American Privateer Yankee by "A Wanderer"

Crossing the Line

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