AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 141 of 237 The ship was stopped at the Equator and the first to appear before Lord Varuna, Queen and his courtwas the ship’s Captain. This was preceded by a beauty contest of sailors dressed up as women. One of the assistants of Lord Varuna (his Chitragupt) announced the names of all those who were to cross the Equator for the first time. Since the list was exhaustive, they were either given a dip in a salt water bath in front of the court or sprayed with salt water. Since the ship had embarked the Naval Band, drum rolls, fanfare and other instrumental music enlivened the proceedings. Some crew were pronounced villains. Their charge sheet was read out. They were dragged by the Jallad (Executioner). Some were "interrogated" by Lord Varuna and his entourage, and the ‘truth serum’ (Saltwater mix) administered for them to confess their guilt. During the ceremony, a number of them underwent embarrassing ordeals (wearing clothing inside out and backwards; crawling on hands and knees on nonskid-coated decks; being swatted with short lengths of fire-hose etc. as ordained by Lord Varuna. There were always nice guys and their names were also called out and their good deeds elaborated. They escaped being bathed and sprayed. The Queen bestowed a kiss to the one Lord pronounced as the nicest to show that Lord Varuna ‘kush hua’.