(midshipmen and anyone else who had not crossed) ascended a ladder from the forecastle to the superstructure deck of the ship. There, they crawled down a gauntlet of Shellbacks on both sides of a long, heavy canvas runner, about 10–12 meters. The shellbacks had prepared 3-foot lengths of canvas/rubber firehose, which they swung hard at the posterior of each Wog. The Wogs then ascended a ladder to the boat deck to slide down a makeshift chute into the baptism of messdeck leavings in sea water in an inflated liferaft back on the superstructure deck. Wogs then returned to the forecastle, where they were hosed off by firehose and then allowed to kiss, in turn, the belly of the sea-baby, the foot of the sea-hag, and the ring of King Neptune, each personified by Shellbacks. Others SUNY Maritime occasionally holds a Blue Nose ceremony for its cadets after crossing the Arctic Circle. Their most recent ceremony was during the summer of 2019, on the TSES VI, held shortly after departing Reykjavik. Cadets crawled through a tunnel with lo mein, or "Eel Spawn", and then had food put in their hair before crawling through the fantail while being sprayed by fire hoses. Colorado State University's Semester at Sea Program holds a line-crossing ceremony twice a year for its students when their vessel, , crosses the equator. See also Domain of the Golden Dragon Bibliography Bronner, Simon J. (2006). Crossing the Line: Violence, Play, and Drama in Naval Equator Traditions. Meertens Ethnology Cahier no. 2. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. References External links Brief description of equatorial baptism Some accounts of baptism on the line: - The Anti-Vacation - Pust-Norden - Greenpeace Listen to audio recordings of a Crossing the Equator ceremony on board a New Zealand troopship in 1940 (the Canadian-Pacific line's "Empress of Japan" which had been requisitioned for war service) Line-crossing Ceremony: Homophobic or Homoerotic? Matthew Benedict's painting WW2DB: Line Crossing Ceremony Video of 1957 Coast Guard crossing ritual USS Bailey web page on ships' ceremony. USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) UPDATE of 1973 CTL. Crossing Line ceremony (Portuguese) Maritime folklore Naval ceremonies Rites of passage United States Navy traditions Royal Navy traditions Neptune (mythology)