And so the voyage went on placidly with the usual drills and daily ceremonies until Cape Frio, some sixty miles east of Rio, was sighted and then there came the journey along the coast, the entrance into the magnificent harbor, the splash of the mud hooks and the feeling that one-third of the voyage to San Francisco was over, and the fleet was shaking itself down into a smooth working condition better and better with every day at sea.
[CHAPTER IV]
NEPTUNE AHOY!
Weird Nautical Doings on Crossing the Line—Officers, Sailors and Newspaper Man Pass Traditional Initiation—Ocean Monarch and His Gay Spouse Amphitrite Pick the Ship President Roosevelt Once Sailed on for Their Visit—Rest of the Fleet Only Thought He Was on Board—Court Physicians and Ducking Bears—Paternal Messages From the Flagship—Sons of Admiral Evans and Capt. Osterhaus Made Real Sailormen—A Great Sight.
On Board U.S.S. Louisiana, U. S. Battle Fleet,
Rio Janeiro, Jan. 14.
NEPTUNUS Rex! Long live the King!
Neptune, the only king who never dies, had the biggest job of his career on Monday, January 6, in the year of our Lord 1908 and the year of 4,000 or 5,000 and something since Noah set up a sea calendar and headed for Mount Ararat. More than 14,000 officers and men of the United States Navy, practically one-half of its membership, crossed the equator at longitude 37° 11' W., and of those fully 12,500 had to be initiated into the "solemn mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep." Like the man who tried the rheumatism cures, every one of the landlubbers, pollywogs and sea lawyers was "done good."
It was the proudest day that Neptunus Rex ever experienced. He said so himself, and he put on great airs and strutted about with the dignity and pomp that befit his majestic rule as he declared that he was the only king, by all the mermaids, sea serpents, whales, sharks, dolphins, skates, eels, suckers, lobsters, crabs, pollywogs and jellyfish, who could ever take possession of the United States Navy. And by the selfsame creatures of the deep he swore solemnly that none but he and Uncle Sam should ever have the right to boss that navy. Whereat the duly initiated members of his royal domain cheered him lustily and declared everlasting allegiance.