Very Rare 1925 United States Navy Sailor’s Whimsical Certificate for “The Domaine Neptunes Rex”

Very Rare 1925 United States Navy Sailor’s Whimsical Certificate for “The Domaine Neptunes Rex” admitting sailor Allen Smith as a “Shellback” aboard the USS RELIEF.

Sailors from many (if not most) cultures have long had the custom of celebrating a greenhorn’s first crossing of the equator. The observation could vary from a mere extra ration of grog to an elaborate pageant that could include rather harsh hazing of the sailor. All hinged on the idea that King Neptune had to give his permission for a green hand to sail on his domain… with the implied threat that Neptune might refuse his leave and take the hapless tar to his death down in the depths. If accepted by Neptune the sailor was welcomed by all as now “a shellback” – an experienced deep water sailor. The event was normally just a pantomime farce with crew in outlandish costumes made aboard ship having a bit of fun in the middle of the ocean. While the practice was common, I have never seen nor even heard of a certificate being given to commemorate the occasion.

The USS RELIEF was the first ship of the United States Navy designed and built from the keel up as a hospital ship, launched on 23 December 1919. She was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet to provide fleet units on Caribbean maneuvers with all the facilities of a modern shore hospital, and then served from the Virginia Capes to the New England coast. She was dispatched to the Pacific Fleet in 1923, and when this certificate was awarded the ship was en route from Pearl Harbor to the Samoan Islands. She served as a base hospital ship in the South Pacific during World War II, and was attacked but survived the Battle of Okinawa. After an long and illustrious career she was decommissioned in Boston 1946.

The document is in surprisingly good condition for a nonsense bit of paper handed out to a sailor far at at sea a hundred years ago. There is one tear with loss on the left border, a small amount of scattered foxing, a a little bit of wrinkling. Mounted in a custom bird’s eye maple frame.

Measures: 16-3/4 in H x 24-1/8
Framed: 19-1/8 in H x 24-1/8 in W