The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-02-07
NAUTICAL HIGH JINKS.
Old-Time Ceremonies Observed
When Crossing the Equator.
Neptune's Rude Performances-A Stupid
and Barbarous Custom, Once Unfver-
sally Prevalent, But Now Hap
PLY Passed Out of Date.

During some boisterous skylarking
on board ship outward bound to New
Zealand port, a sailor lost his temper
and stabbed man. who shortly after
died. On the arrival of the vessel the
assassin was delivered to the 'autheri-
ties. How he was dealt with | do
not know, says the writer in the Lon
1on Telegraph, having lost sight of the
case. The main interest of the thing
to me lay in the occasion of this crime
being a survival of those high jinks
which were customary on board ship
when she crossed the equator. Most
Of US, dare say. view the old soaping,
lathering, shaving and ducking busi-
hess as pretty near as dead as the sort
of craft whose decks resounded with
the nnerriment of this kind of revelry.
Indeed, to understand that the cere-
monies attendant upon cutting the
Tine, as it was called, have drifted
hopelessly out OF date. was to be in a
position to congratulate the merean-
tile marine upon the extinction of a
stupid and barbarous custom. A
romantic feature, it is true, is Topped
away; very useful bit of color is lost
to the nautical fictionist; but there is
assuredly no other cause for regret.
In fact, the reader of marine novels
might consider the decay of the joke
of Neptune crawling aboard over the
bows as distinct gain to literature,
for there was scarcely work relating
to the sea which did not contain an ac-
count of this example Of traditional
forecastle horse-play. One grew weary
OF it at last. 1t was impossible for the
ship to approach the equator without
the description stealing in.
Old jokes are very well in their way
-the mind wears them comfortably, as
old slippers sit easily on the feet-but
this portraiture of crossing the equator
had been made stale years ago. The
great tubful of water, Neptune in sea-
weed and trident, his wife in bonnet
and beard, the attendants of the
court hideous as fetishes with paint
and forecastle finery, the anguish Of
the green hand about to be operated
on, the rigging and sides filed with
grinning salts, crowd of passengers
staring from the poop, the captain
among them glanciug with one conde-
scending eye at the sports and keeping
the other fixed upon the weather. how
weary one grew of it! How tiresome
1t became! Would the day ever arrive
when a nautical writer should arise
and cry: .'Behold! / will navigate
you from the Thames to the Hooghley,
without an instant's pause, upon the
equator, to exhibit the buffoonery of the
old custom?n Steam. however, under
took an artistic obligation sternly de-
clined by the romancist, who refused
to let go Of his equatorial maritime
ceremony on any account whatever,
and with rushing paddle-wheels, whirl-
ing propellers, and shrieking whistles
exercised what had long been reduced
to the condition of a bogey of oceanic
literature. When the East Indiaman
dropped anchor for the last time, the
equinoctial joke fell overheard out of
the stern windows and was drowned.
at least this was my belief until read
the account of that murder done by an
angry man while the sailors were sky
larking over the old busines of shaving
and ducking two or three wretches
who had never been farther south than
latitude l degree north. But let us
take heart. Here and there a ships
company may be favored by their skip
per with leave to grin through that
ancient horse-collar in which genera
tons Of pig-tailed WORTHLESS have
framed their convulsed and purple
eountenances. But there is small
chance of the custom ever gaining
fresh footing. The sentiment of the
tunes is opposed to practical joking,
and even the most waggish Jack migh
md It hard to get a laugh out of him
sell at the sight Of a green shipmate
struggling half-drowned in a great
Fuo Of water with bis mouth tall Of tai