The Twentieth Century 199 



You say "ahnost" because always while this was going on there were men 

 on watch scanning the skies and the sea from the bridge and from the gun 

 sponsons and there were others down in the damp heat of the engine room 

 and in the galleys, and when, at 2 p. m., the roy^ court was dissolved, the 

 whole ship setded back once more into the grim routine of war, but of war 

 that had seemed to hesitate, at least, for four hours. 



(W. C. Heinz, Staff Correspondent. The New York Sun, Friday, March 17, 

 1944.) 



Reprinted with permission of the pubhsher. 



Chief Printer Edwin L. Murray, U.S.N.R., 5721 Ninth Street N.W., formerly 

 employed in the composing room of The Evening Star, was inducted into the 

 "Ancient Order of the Deep" while crossing the equator in the Pacific recently. 

 He was haued before King Neptxxne's court on special charges of selling Shell- 

 back certificates to "pollywogs" (neophites of the order) and "not maintain- 

 ing the proper and meek demeanor of a chief petty ofiScer poUywog." 



In addition to regulation pimishment, such as wetting from tibe Pacific 

 Holy Hose and paddlings by the Royal Guard, he was prodded with an electric 

 fork by the Royal Devü while being paddled hard by the King's EHte Cops, 

 he wrote in a letter. The most spectacular of the punishments was a severe 

 haircut, administered at various points along the gantlet of paddle wielders. 



Later, Mmray was dumped backward into the Royal Pacific Pool, three 

 times unceremoniously ducked and finally sent down a greased chute to the 

 deck, paddled the while by veteran Shellbacks. 



(Washington, D. C. Sunday Star, Jamuary 7, 1945.) 



(R. O. Baumrucker, ed. USS West Virginia crosses the Equator again, 

 Oct., 1944. Captain H. V. Wiley, U. S. Navy, Commanding Officer, Com- 

 mander G. J. King, U. S. Navy, Executive Officer. Cartoons by D. L. 

 Johnson. Entire publication cleared by Fleet Chief Censor. San Fran- 

 cisco, The Trade Pressroom, 1944. ) 



Opens with photographs of the ship afire at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, another in 

 October 1944, portraits of the Captain and Executive Officer, facsimiles of the Warning of Davy 

 Jones and the Shellback Certificate. There are also texts of the Subpoena and Summons Extra- 

 ordinary and of the exchange of letters between the Captain and Neptunus Rex, with the pro- 

 ceedings that followed. Many prints of the proceedings, photographs of heads of departments, 

 group pictures of officers and crew, list of poEywogs converted and picture of converted 

 mountaineers. Added is a moving tale of "That Night at Subiago," sure to give the landlubber 

 a lasting impression of a battleship in action. Three pages of small snapshots show less stem 

 views of navy Me afloat and ashore. 



The book is the work of Robert Owen Baumrucker, Dartmouth College, 1931, vidth "three 

 years of battleship duty in practically all Pacific actions from Attn through Okinawa," separating 

 from the navy in January 1946 as a Lieutenant-Commander, and later in the merchandising and 

 advertising business. 



It was "originally intended as a souvenir of our exceptionally hilarious Shellback ceremonies 

 just before the invasion of the Phuippines, but produced under combat conditions — wdth censor- 

 ship, no mail for four to six weeks at a time, kamikazes. Second Battle of the Phihppines, Two 

 Jima, Okinawa and a new and unsympathetic Executive Officer — it didn't get off the press tOl 

 the following August. Meanwhile it was expanded to include a roster and pictm^es of the crew. 



