Shellback Certificate

On January 22, 1944, the first crew to serve on the aircraft carrier Intrepid crossed the equator. The crew marked the occasion with the traditional “Crossing the Line” initiation ceremony. In what amounted to a hazing, the “shellbacks,” sailors who had already crossed the equator, tested the mettle of the “pollywogs,” the uninitiated. The pollywogs ran a gauntlet of paddle-wielding sailors and were doused with a hose, among other trials. At the end of the ceremony, all members of the crew became trusty shellbacks and received certificates and identification cards confirming their new status. At the end of the “Crossing the Line” ceremony, each crew member received a colorful certificate acknowledging his initiation into the “Solemn Mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep.”