I am a Marine Biologist working with the British Antarctic Survey based at Rothera Research Station. This is mostly a blog about, of course, Antarctica but also station life, the people that keep it running and the research that we conduct.

Crossing the equator- King Neptune's court

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This time last week at 04:00 am on 19th November, the James Clark Ross (JCR) crossed the Equator. Remarkably, we hit the 0° parallel of latitude only 13 days after leaving Harwich. According to the rules at sea, each new member crossing the Equator for the first time must be trialled in Neptune's court as a right of passage- but this is no ordinary proceeding. Over the last week, charge boxes have been gradually filling up in the bar as people report sins that others have committed whilst on board the ship. As you can imagine, this was an excellent team bonding exercise...

                                    

                              Neptune's court, note the mop used as a wig. Photo Credit: Derren Fox

The morning was spent installing the court and preparing costumes. Flags were draped around the ship and props ranging from fake turtles to a throne were proudly installed. The pollywogs (aka. those due to be charged) were allotted a generous 10 minutes to hide from the police (those who have already crossed the Equator, comprising mostly of crew!) This would have been easy if our playground was not restricted to the outside areas of the ship.... "If you open a door, you've gone too far", the ships first officer announced. In our attempt to hide, we grabbed tarpaulins and squeezed between shipping containers. The police embarked on a search party with weapons (cardboard truncheons and luminescent vests). They looked quite the part. I hid with two other pollywogs on top of a shipping container and in-between piles of wood winched onto the lid. Unfortunately, the police woman who detected us was the seal biologist, Claire, who is very sharp at detecting any sort of movement- within minutes our hiding place had been revealed and we were escorted with handcuffs to the tribunal. 

The police - Photo credit: Derren Fox

 We were instructed to line up on our hands and knees and if we rebelled, we were silenced with a jet of water. Those who had already been trailed before us were hosed down, splashing residual food slops over the unfortunate victims in the queue. Each individual had their sins read out to them from a scroll and we had to answer with 'guilty' or 'not guilty'. Either way, we were christened with food slops which had been basking in the sun for 5 days- the vegetarian slops were almost certainly the worst as they had been fermenting in the sun for longer with a delightful mix of gasses that erupted as the lid was removed. Each charge was met with a ladle of slops- it paid to have only a few charges to your name!

One of our five-a-day. Photo Credit: Derren Fox

Charges ranged from wearing socks and sandals, to being a terrible dart loser, to asking too many questions, and to being a 'pastie muncher' (the charge for being Cornish).



Photo of my charges (you can click to enlarge!)

The closing ceremony was fortunately much more civilised. We were each issued with a certificate for crossing the Equator from the Captain and a round of applause. With a BBQ underway, everyone gathered on the aft (back) deck and the night blossomed into karaoke and dancing under the stars. 


Our certificate for crossing the line 



Though, it look at least five showers to evict the residual food smell - especially for those with long hair!

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