Royal Baby

[dennis grace]

Tim Ware recollects:
>Awhile back, someone posted a description of the Royal Baby ritual aboard
>sailing ships. I searched Andrew Dinn's archives and couldn't find it.
>Does anybody have it??

Ah.  That would have been me.  No, I don't still have the original post, but
the ritual went something like this.  The Royal Baby is a simple selection:
he's the fattest shellback (that's "non-pollywog" for you lubbers) on board.
In ancient days (i.e., the 18th century) the Baby's belly would be smeared
with tar (the same black pitch the sailor's smeared in their hair as a
delousing agent, the same goo that necessitated those huge collars the tars
wore).  Then a cherry, olive, grape, or somesuch tidbit would be poked into
the Baby's belly button.  Each successive wog was ordered to "kiss" the RB's
belly, actually to try to pluck the tidbit from the navel without getting a
tarred face.  Of course, once the wog's face was within an inch or so of the
belly, poised with mouth open and teeth unsheathed, the RB would grab the
wog's head and stuff his face into the tar.  With a moment's liberal
smearing, the tar would go up the wog's nose, into his teeth, eyelids,
beard, and even ears.  Earlier in this century, they started using gear
grease.  By the time I went through (1980), the US Navy had begun to insist
the "tar" be more-or-less edible.  Ours was a disgusting combination of
shortening, green food coloring, and sardine oil.

Any other shellback's aboard this virtual tub?  (No, commercial cruises
don't count.)

dgg
_____________________________
Dennis Grace
University of Texas at Austin
English Department
Recovering Medievalist
amazing at mail.utexas.edu

Micel yfel deth se unwritere.
                           Ælfric of York