Ron Cooke - Was in the division that took care of ships' stores. He provided the following pictures of he 'Crossing The Line' ceremony. Two British soldiers who crossed the line on the West Point's first mission to Singapore describe the ceremony.

 November 24th 1941. The ship hoisted the 'Jolly Roger' and were boarded by 'Davey Jones'. He and his party were welcomed by the ships Commanding Officers. Charges were delivered to the 'lowly Pollywogs', who were tried and duly initiated into the Order of the deep. Neptune Rex presided.

This was the "Crossing the line" ceremony. Crossing the line. or sailing across the equator, advantage traditionally being taken of this practical joking aboard ship. Those who had not previously crossed the line are summoned to the court of Neptune for trial, sat in tilting chairs to be sentenced and after being lathered and roughly shaved with a large wooden razor, tipped un-ceremoniously backwards into the 'Briney', practical joking could be rough. At the end of the day all hands in the ceremony were now "Trusty Shellbacks" During the initiation there were a few minor injuries [From Albert's War, Paul Morrell]

   " It was soon after leaving Trinidad that we crossed the Equator, with the usual ceremonies. 'Polliwogs' a name given to all who had never crossed the line before. Shellbacks' being the old timers and seasoned sailors who had. Poor Clate who apparently was a Polliwog came to our locker room at the bathing pool with big tufts of hair missing, he sure looked a sight. We were many times threatened with the same but managed to escape. Our officers seemed to suffer the most. The ships captain had allowed the upper deck swim pool to be used for this crossing the line ceremony, it being kept empty all other times. It had been well and truly filled with the kitchen debris, potato peelings, cabbage leaves, tea leaves, coffee grounds (Yanks drink more coffee than us). It looked like a cuss pit. The victims were blind-folded and made to walk the plank, which was the diving board. All the O.R.' were gathered round cheering there own officers. Everyone took it in good spirit. The rapport between the American Crew and ourselves was tremendous and nearly every cabin had it's visitor C.P.O's and Officers alike. They introduced us to 'Housey Housey which of course is now known as 'Bingo' [excerpt from The Journey, source unknown]

   West Point crew member Karl Wurster was in the last group that endured equator-crossing hazing.   He said the captain stopped it because of the war situation. Karl was onboard from 11/43-12/45.
 

ALL PICTURES COURTESY OF RON COOKE