THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 



1904 



There is an old custom among sailors that if a person has never been across 

 the equator before, he must be ducked in the sea when he first crosses that 

 line. There was some talk in fun among the passengers of ducking two or 

 three of us on board who had never been across, but no eflFort was made. I 

 think they feared we would make a fight and possibly duck some of the other 

 fellows. 



( Richard Alexander Fullerton Penrose. Life and letters of R. A. F. Pen- 

 rose, Jr. By Helen R. Fairbanks and Charles P. Berkey. New York, 1952. 

 p. 343 of the manuscript diary, 18 July 1904. ) 



ca. 1910 



On this voyage we had a number of young people on board who were cross- 

 ing the equator for the first time, so Neptune kindly offered to leave his 

 ocean depths and to board the ship, in the good old-fashioned orthodox style 

 to further these young folks' education. Just as we crossed the Line, the ship 

 was hailed from the sea, her name and destination were ascertained, and she 

 was peremptorily ordered to heave to, Neptune naturally imagining that he 

 was stül dealing with saihng ships. The engines were at once stopped, and 

 Neptune, with his Queen, his Doctor, his Barber, his Sea Bears and the rest 

 of his Court, aU in their traditional get-up, made their appearance on the 

 upper deck, to the abject terror of some of the httle children, who howled 

 dismally at this alarming irruption of half -naked savages with painted faces. 

 I myself enacted Neptime in an airy costume of fish-scales, a crown, and a 

 flowing beard and wig of bright sea-green. Of course my Trident had not 

 been forgotten. Amphitrite, my queen, was the star-comedian of the South 

 African music-hall stage, and the Httle man was really extraordinarily funny, 

 keeping up one incessant flow of rather pimgent gag, and making the spec- 

 tators roar with laughter. All the traditional ceremonies and good-natured 

 horseplay were scrupulously adhered to, and some twenty schoolboys and 

 five adults were duly dosed, lathered, shaved, hosed, and then toppled back- 

 wards into a huge canvas tank of sea-water, where the boys persisted in swim- 

 ming about in all their clothes. The proceedings were terminated by Neptune 

 and his entire Covurt following the neophytes into the tank, and I am afraid 

 that we induced some halE-dozen male spectators to accompany us into the 

 tank rather against their wül, one old German absolutely fuming with rage 

 at the unprecedented Hberty that was being taken with htm. 



(Lord Frederic Hamilton. Here, there, and everywhere. New York 

 [copyright 1921] p. 278-279.) 



This voyage from Capetown is noteworthy for one of the rare performances on crossing from 

 the south and also for having Neptune and his Queen enacted by Üie passengers, not the seamen. 

 Date not given, but probably before 1914. 



[179] 



