That's the problem. Filthy Wog fighters. Davy Jones has been angered, and sacrifices must be made.
The thing that pi*sed me off most about going shellback was the sequence....
The XO (?, engineer, some d*mned shellback down in the boiler room) managed to secure fresh water to the showers right AFTER the all the polly's had gotten wogged .....
And while we were still filthy and slimy.
(There were so many (in early 70's) who had not crossed, that he ran two shellback watches: First watch went through while the 2nd was on station, then they all swapped and the 2nd watch of polly's and shellbacks went through. Capt zig-zagged across the equator at the right time to indoctrinate both sections - so I guess we were among the first Americans to ever get a shellback initiation while crossing from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere.
Shellbacks, schmellbacks. Real mean are Bluenoses.
We didn't do weird stuff like that in the USAF. First time I crossed the dateline, it was observed only by the navigator announcing that we had crossed it and it was now Tuesday instead of Monday. First time I crossed the equator, no one said anything at all.