Mount Baker (AE 34) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 26 text:

LEFT ■ QMC Shearn (left) left his charts to take the role of King Neptune during this special day. Chief Shearn, who received the part for being the oldest shellback on board, is seen here accepting the challenge of cleaning Captain Hetherington ' s ship of all polywogs. BOTTOM LEFT - OS3 Jarret illustrates how to make a slimy wog even more slimy. Here the week-old shellback gets revenge on SM2 Pipkin during the return trip across the Equator. BOTTOM RIGHT - Angered by the polywog ' s chant of Wogs! Wogs! Wogs!, the Executive Officer, LCDR Wright, raises his shillelagh ready to come down on the bullseye backside of the lowly polywogs.

Page 25 text:

On my hands and knees I ' ve crawled the steel decks and partook of the feast on the mess decks. I ' ve heard the words of Davey Jones and knelt in fear of the Shillelaghs tones. The royal judge found me guilty of all counts and I felt the pain as sentence was carried out, I ' ve tasted the stinging spray of salt and tried to run. until the royal sheriff yelled, Halt! r v V I ' ve crawled through the royal chute of slime and found the cherry of the royal baby covered with grime, I have kissed the foot of old King Neptune and heard his royal trumpets tune. I ' ve rolled and wallowed in the royal bin and was cleansed of all my woggy sins, I drank from a royal bed pan and found no mercy at the royal barber ' s hand. I was bathed in a royal bath that washed away my slimy wog trash. Now in History and documented fact I stand proud, a trusty SHELLBACK.

Page 27 text:

TOP LEFT ■ A never ending line of polywogs wait their turn to era wl to the royal baby, GMG3 Moore, and find the cherry buried in his greased stomach. CW03 Hale (left) is seen taunting the wogs or perhaps hunting out the alias Billy Budd. ' ' TOP RIGHT ■ SN Porter raises his leg to fend off the swatting shellbacks to no avail. RIGHT ■ Although SN Seraile looks to be stuck to the flight deck, he ' s just carrying out an assigned task of blowing the water out of a tie-down padeye.