Ancient Order of the Shellback King Neptune 3-Inch Patch

The 00 degree mark stitched beside King Neptune's head is latitude zero, and crossing it aboard ship is what turns a Pollywog into a Shellback. A sailor who has never crossed the equator at sea is a Pollywog, or a slimy wog to everyone who has. On the crossing, the Pollywogs are summoned before King Neptune's court and put through a run of initiation trials. The roles of King Neptune, Davy Jones and Her Highness Amphitrite go to the most senior Shellbacks aboard. Come out the other side and you hold a certificate and a title for good.

Crossing the line is a Western seafaring initiation centuries old, later formalized in U.S. Navy tradition, and for most of that history it was a rough day to be a wog. There are rarer grades for the sailors whose track lines fall just right. A Golden Shellback crossed the equator at the 180th meridian, the date line. An Emerald Shellback, sometimes called a Royal Diamond Shellback, crossed it at the prime meridian, zero and zero. The northern counterpart is the Blue Nose, earned by crossing the Arctic Circle into the realm of Boreas Rex, King of the North.

The patch is round, 3 inches across, with a gold merrowed edge around a blue field. Across the top, ancient order of the arcs in gold old English lettering, and SHELLBACK runs in large gold letters along the bottom. King Neptune fills the center, gray haired and full bearded, bare chested, with his gold trident in hand. A mermaid sits on each side of him, a redhead on the left and a blonde on the right, both with gray tails curling down. Under Neptune is a fouled anchor, the anchor wrapped in its own line that sailors have worn as their mark for generations.

Every Shellback remembers the day, and most remember it in more detail than they would admit. The ceremony is theater with a purpose: the new hands and the old salts go through it together, and when it is over the ship has one more thing in common. A Shellback can meet another Shellback thirty years later and skip the explaining. That is what this patch is for.

Put it in a shadow box with the Shellback certificate and the ship's cruise book, or on the jacket or vest you wear to ship reunions. It makes a good gift for a sailor heading out on a first deployment that will cross the line, or for a father who still tells the story every time it comes up. The backing is iron-on, and it can be sewn on as well. Neptune keeps the record.