Did German U-boat crews have a "Shellback" ceremony?

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

During my time in the US Navy, I had the "good fortune" of crossing the equator, crossing the Artic Circle, crossing the Panama Canal, and the Straits of Gibraltar. We marked these crossings with ceremonies on board where the folks that had previously crossed over initiated those who had not.

Did U-boat crews do the same thing?

Also, has anyone else taken part on a Shellback (equator crossing) or Bluenose(Artic Circle) ceremony?

Personally, I thought Blue Nose was the worst...it was like Shellback, except for with freezing cold seawater thrown in to the mix.

Sorry for the off-topic post...

[Ducimus]

Oh yes. I've read several articles about uboat crews doing the "crossing the line" shennanigans. It seems its a universal sailor tradition.

I read in Jordan Vause's bio of Wolfgang Luth about Luth's crossing of the Equator in U-181 and the ritual involving King Neptune and the planning of the days celebration including the honours, ceremony and even costumes! I think it may be a standard sailors ritual regardless of flag and nation.

[EM2(SS)]

LOL ! I was "fortunate" to be inducted as a Bluenose.

Dont think i ever felt so cold in my life. First getting sprayed with Arctic seawater then sitting on a block of ice in the freezer, then having to crawl through last weeks leftovers and th en the nastiest part of having to pick a cherry out of a fat chiefs belly button. (ugh!!!!!)

[Dowly]

Umm... why do you think so many uboats were lost in Gibraltar? In reality, the Brits had only 1-2 warships guarding the strait as they knew that the Germans would hold a big and noisy party everytime they reached the Gibraltar. Wasnt too hard for the warships to pinpoint the uboat´s position and sink it.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by EM2(SS)

having to pick a cherry out of a fat chiefs belly button. (ugh!!!!!)

My dad has a picture of this from when his boat crossed the Arctic Circle. That guy was BIG....and all that grease....yeck!

My dad still has his Bluenose certificate, framed and hanging in the garage. It's a hoot to read.

[peterloo]

Yes. Absolutely. I even have a picture (if I didn't get it wrong) about this event...
Maybe post it to u later

[don1reed]

can't remember where I saw the pic of "polywogs" on the foredeck of a U-Boat, hands behind their backs, heads lifted high, some on tiptoe, trying to bite into sausages hanging/dangling from the fwd antenna cable...bobbing for wennies, as it were... oh the humility!!!

[Ducimus]

Since i've got nothing better to do at the moment, heres an excrept from Han's Groebeler's book, "Steel boat, Iron hearts" . (he was a control room mate on U505 from its first war patrol up to it's capture).


Ironically, this incident was on his first war patrol. Which was to patrol the area south of Freetown, down into the hip of africa.

Emergency diving several times a day to escape from aircraft caused fatigue and frustrations, which also begain to tear at our nevers. WIth no success to show for our labors, our crowded boat became a pressure cooker of emotions. Off-duty personnel begain to succcomb to Blechkoller .... the so called "tin can disease". A psycological condition casued by prolonged confinement, its classic symtoms were the outbreak of "baloney-quarrels" between boys who argue and fight over nothing.

Situations like these seperate a real leader from a mere giver of orders, and KapitanLeutanant Lowe now showed himself to be a commander of the first rank. He sensed the mood in the crew and decided to create a little mental diversion during this lull in the action.

Stetching his orders a bit, Lowe ordered u-505 south of our offical operational area. On April 1, we crossed the equator, an occasion requiring the crew to undergo the ancient baptism of rituals of Neptune.

The cremony was celerbrated on the uppder deck of the boat with the entire crew in attendance. After an appopriate fanfare, King Neptune appeared on the bridge to preside over the rituals, complete with flowing beard and trident. An extra touch of hiltarty was provided by our baby-faced ensign, who had the embarrasing task of portraying Neptunes lovely mermaid wife.

The other veteran sea dogs in the crew, also dressed in makeshift costumes, took devlish delight in subjecting us first timers to a wide variety of elaborate rituals and good-natured tortures. Quite alot of water and rought scrubbing was required to wash the dirt of the northern hemisphere off our skins before we could enter the southern half of King neptunes Empire!

Of course, we were told, it also required to be cleaned out on the inside to. Depending on how many "bad points" one had collected, we were each required to eat a certain number of speciallly prepaired laxative balls made of flour and caster oil. Pepper and other evil-tasting spices were added to the mixture to enhance the entertainment. If we couldn't swallow the golf-ball sized pills without chewing, we were assisted in the endeavor by a water house in the mouth. Then we would pull down our shorts, and crawl out onto a long plank extending from the side of the boat. There we sat on a large hole drilled through the plank until the caster oil provided the final amusement.

Without a doubt, it was the most foolish and memorible april 1st any of us would experience. When it was all over, we each received an award document from King Neptune, attesting to our accomplishment. It may sound strange, but getting that silly little piece of paper did much to fullfill the Kaptianleutnant's very serious purpose of raising our morale.

[Herr Russ]

Dang,

Here I thought I had it bad when I first crossed the equator in 1985....

[soma]

Ive got some pictures if the ritual somewhere, Ill look them up and scan them when I have the time

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

We had to take a dose of "truth serum" for the blue nose ceremony, which was a blended mix of hot peppers, sardines, and God knows what else...it would make a billy goat gag, but I don't remember it working as a laxative (or maybe I blocked that out of my memory). It was a thick, grey, lumpy, sauce that they put into sqeeze bottles and fed us while we sat on a huge block of ice and getting sprayed with icy seawater. I can still remember vividly the smell of garbage that we crawled through in the aft part of the torpedo room as we waited our turn on the ice block. It was a relief to get the blue dye on your nose...although it wouldn't come off for days, we weren't going to being seeing anyone anyhow!

[CybrSlydr]

Sheesh...

I could never be in the Navy.

How assinine. Disgrace ones self as such, or then be ostracised from the crew for having some personal dignity.

[dinadan122]

i was watching a documentary on the history channel or something on the uss enterprise. they where doing the same ritual and from what they said it is a common ritual of european sailors.and thus the america's as well. dunno about other contries outside of europe.it very well could thought as greek mythology is widespread since they where a commercial ppl back in the BC's

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

Originally Posted by CybrSlydr

Sheesh...

I could never be in the Navy.

How assinine. Disgrace ones self as such, or then be ostracised from the crew for having some personal dignity.

If you are the sensitive type, the Navy is probably not for you...and the submarine force is definitely not for you!