52 Crossing the Line 



1774, continued 



with this method of bathing. I never in my life saw my brother in such a 

 passion; he swore solemnly, that the moment he got to land, he would raise 

 a prosecution agaist the Cap', who pleaded that it was the custom, and only 

 intended as a httle drink money to the sailors. If that is the case, rephed my 

 brother, let them give up theii- cloths, and they shall be satisfied. This was 

 complied with cheerfully, he gave them what they were satisfied with, to 

 which they returned three cheers, as he went to the cabin and serenaded us 

 with the favourite song, 



O grog is the liquor of life 



The delight of each free British tar. 



( Journal of a lady of quality; being the narrative of a journey from Scot- 

 land to the West Indies, North Carolina, and Portugal, in the years 1774 

 to 1776. Edited by Evangeline Walker Andrews, in collaboration with 

 Charles McLean Andrews, Famam Professor of American History in 

 Yale University. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1922. p. 69-72.) 



A footnote to "jolly boat" runs thus: "The jolly boat was generally swimg at the stem of the 

 vessel. Regarding the 'awful ceremony,' the author of A Brief Account of the Island of Antigua 

 ( 1789 ) , who made the voyage from the Downs to Antigua in 1786, says, 'I had almost forgot to 

 observe that on passing the tropic of Cancer, the old custom of ducking and shaving such as have 

 not before crossed it, was performed by the seamen with some humour on one man and two boys. 

 The passengers waved the ceremony by a liquor fine (p. 5. ) ." 



A footnote to "satisfied" in the last sentence: "Evidently meaning that if the sailors would give 

 up their claim to the clothes of the emigrants, he (Mr. Schaw) would pay for their grog." 



The original manuscript is Egerton 2423 of the British Museum. 



Join Janet Schaw of Edinburgh, the "Lady of Quality" here, with the writer of the letter 

 reprinted below under 1792 from the text in The Gentleman's Magazine, and all of us waU 

 certainly wish that we had more reports from women. Each tells the facts accurately enough to 

 satisfy the most insistent Gradgrind, each tells her tale with a hvehness markedly absent in most 

 of the reports by her male "superiors." Plenty of variations in detail show themselves here, 

 nothing of any great importance, though it is worth noting perhaps that not since Linschoten in 

 1583 do we find any such a brawl as seems to have broken out here. 



The ship shpped along easily. One day was like another, but each evening 

 foimd them nearer the Leeward Islands. The captain began to predict that 

 they would reach St. John's, the chief town on Antigua, about the end of the 

 week. One morning, after he had calculated the latitude, he told the pas- 

 sengers the ship would reach the fine and pass into the Torrid Zone late the 

 next morning or early in the afternoon. 



At noon the ship crossed the Tropic of Cancer. Since it was not to cross the 

 Equator and have the time-honoured celebration of that, the captain allowed 

 the old hands to hold an initiation ceremony for those first entering tropic 

 waters. It seemed wise to encourage anything that would reheve the tedium 

 of the voyage. The ceremony was a rude mummery with a sailor in an oakum 

 wig playing Neptune, come aboard to welcome the ship into his tropic king- 

 dom. Neptune sat as a judge on each candidate for initiation. Some he ordered 



