The Eighteenth Century 47 



Henningsen has twenty-one references to a ceremony on the passing of Gibraltar, from 1637 on. 

 The oldest reference to a baptism on reaching the Grand Banks of Newfoundland by the cod- 

 fishers is from Lahontan, about 1690, and le Beau from 1729; the latest is 1880. Vicomte de 

 Chateaubriand tells his tale of the Grand Banks ceremony under 1791. 



1764 



As we now approached near to the Mediterranean, some of the sailors had 

 got a strong new rope, and prepared it for ducking such of the crew as were 

 novices in this sea. They were to be let down from the yard-arm, with their 

 hands and feet tied to two bars of wood, placed at convenient distances; but 

 when every thing was ready they all preferred the alternative, which is a 

 small forfeit to be deducted from their pay. 



( Richard Chandler. Travels in Asia Minor and Greece. New edition edited 

 by Nicholas Revett. Oxford, 1825. v. 1, p. 2.) 



The Reverend Doctor of Divinity was sent by the Dilettanti Society, with Revett, an architect, 

 and Pars, a painter, to study and report on the antiquities of Ionia and Greece, in 1763-1766. Their 

 report appeared in 1769 in shape of two fine fohos. 



His lively report tells of embarking at Gravesend on July 9, 1764 on the ship Anglicana, with a 

 fair vnnd, "but our pilot, being in liquor, did not sail that evening." Note that the ducking was 

 for "novices in this sea," the Mediterranean. I doubt if the "small forfeit to be deducted from their 

 pay" was put to the expenses of the expedition, even of so worthy a cause. 



This is the only account I have found for the ceremony at this place. It all seems, however, to 

 be the accepted and recognized way to mark the event. 



Melusine, v. 3, column 263 ( 1886-7) prints the text of the French version of 1806, v. 1, p. 3. 



1768 



On the 25th of October we crossed the line with the usual ceremonies in 

 29° 24', when, by the result of several good azimuths, the variation was 2° 24'. 



( James Cook. An account of a voyage round the world in the years 1768, 

 1769, 1770, and 1771. By Lieutenant James Cook, Commander of his 

 Majesty's Bark the Endeavour. Hawkesworth's Voyages. London, 1785. 

 v. 2, p. 236.) 



So stands the earliest printed record of the first crossing made by the great seaman. The 1785 

 entry was severely cut down from the original text. Owing to Hawkesworth's idea of propriety or 

 dignity or importance or to lack of space? 



Thanks to Admiral Sir W. J. L. Wharton, however, we get the whole log entry in his edition of 

 Captain Cook's journal during his first voyage round the world made in H.M. Bark 'Endeavour, 

 1768-71, London, 1893, p. 13-14, running thus: 



Tuesday, 25th. — A Genteel breeze and Clear weather, with a Moist Air. Soon 

 after sunrise found the Variation of the Compass to be 2° 24' W., being tlie 

 Mean result of several very good Azimuths. This was iust before we crossed 

 the Line in the Longitude of 29° 29' W. from Greenwich. We also try'd the 

 Diping Needle belonging to the Royal Society, and found the N. point to Dip 

 26 degrees below the Horizon; but this Instalment cannot be used at Sea to 

 any great degree of accuracy on account of the Motion of the Ship, which 

 hinders the Needle from restmg. However, as the Ship was pretty steady, and 



