74 Crossing the Line 



c. 1801, continued 



latitude, or vice versa. The custom, in some form or other, is believed to be 

 very ancient, and to have been originally instituted on the occasion of ships 

 passing out of the Mediterranean into the Atlantic, beyond the 'PiUars of 

 Hercules.' It had much more absurdity than vice about it; but sometimes it 

 became both insulting and cruel. When the victims made no resistance, and 

 yeilded as cheerfully as they could to the whim of the sailors, the ceremony 

 was performed somewhat in the following way, as related by Captain Ed- 

 ward Hall, and quoted by Hone: 'The best executed of these ceremonies I 

 ever saw, was on board a ship of the line, of which I was lieutenant, bound 

 to the West Indies. On crossing the line, a voice, as if at a distance, and at 

 the surface of the water, cried: "Ho, ship ahoyi I shall come on board!" This 

 was from a person slung over the bows, near the water, speaking through 

 his hands. Presently two men of large stature came over the bows. They had 

 hideous masks on. One represented Neptune. He was naked to the waist, 

 crowned with the head of a large wet swab, the end of which reached to his 

 loins, to represent flowing locks; a piece of taipaulin, vandyked, encircled 

 the head of the swab and his brows as a diadem; his right hand wielded a 

 boarding-pike, manufactured into a trident; and his body was smeared with 

 red ochre, to represent fish-scales. The other sailor represented Amphitrite, 

 having locks formed of swabs, a petticoat of the same material, with a girdle 

 of red bunting; and in her hand a comb and looking-glass. They were fol- 

 lowed by about twenty fellows, naked to the waist, with red ochre scales, as 

 Tritons. They were received on the forecastle with much respect by the old 

 sailors who had provided the carriage of an eighteen-pounder gun as a car, 

 which their majesties ascended: and were drawn aft along the gangway to 

 the quarter-deck by the sailors. Neptune addressing the captain, said he 

 was happy to see him again that way; adding that he beheved there were 

 some "Johnny Raws" on board who had not paid their dues, and whom he 

 intended to initiate into the salt-water mysteries. The captain answered 

 that he was happy to see him, but requested that he would make no more 

 confusion than was necessary. They then descended to the main-deck and 

 were joined by all the old hands, and about twenty "barbers," who sub- 

 mitted the shaving-tackle to inspection'. This shaving-tackle consisted of 

 pieces of rusty hoop for razors, and very unsavoury compounds as shaving- 

 soap and shaving-water, with which the luckless victim was bedaubed and 

 soused. If he bore it well, he was sometimes permitted to join in performing 

 the ceremony on other 'Johnny Raws!' See engraving on the following page. 



It was not always, however, that neophytes conformed without resistance 

 to such rough christening ceremonies. A legal action, instituted in 1802, 

 took its rise from the following circumstances. When the ship Soleby Castle 

 was, in the year mentioned, crossing the equator on the way to Bombay, the 

 sailors proceeded to the exercise of their wonted privilege. On this occasion, 

 one of the passengers on board. Lieutenant Shaw, firmly resisted the perform- 

 ance of the ceremony. He offered to buy off the indignity by a present of 



