History – Neptune pays a visit

Albertlander Henry Brett, aboard the Hanover, awoke to a mountainous sea. He wrote with excitement, “Rose and beheld for the first time in my life one of those seas so often spoken of as ‘running mountains high.’ Truly it was an awe-inspiring sight. At one time we appeared to be rushing into a fathomless abyss of waters, and the next we rose majestically on the seething crest of the billows. And yet the sea was with us, and not against us, we were said to be in no danger” (The Albertlanders, 1927).

Later, in calmer waters came a wave of excitement and anticipation as it was time to transition across the equator and with it, a visit from Neptune and his entourage. Neptune ceremonies date back hundreds of years. Boats are transformed into the carnival-esque replete with upheaval and the reverse of social norms; cross dressing, masks, role playing, tarring and dunking. ‘Landlubbers’ or ‘polliwogs’ (those who have never crossed the equator) are initiated by the ‘seafarers’ or ‘shellbacks’ (those who have previously crossed the line) and must present themselves to King Neptune to be taken through a ritual death, rebirth and a fair dose of humiliation (from R. Kearns 2019, Crossing the Line: All at sea with King Neptune mid-Pacific).

Henry Brett writes in his diary, “Neptune paid us a visit on July 9”. A cast of characters joined Neptune, his wife, Mrs Neptune, his Barber, the Clerk, Jack Tar, and the Doctor. Brett follows with a long recount of this strange rite de passage. He ends with the “Barber” attending to the initiate with a razor.

“A piece of tin, half a yard long, and having lathered his customer with tar and grease, he dexterously performed the first part of the operation, the barber every now and then filling the man’s mouth with the tar and grease mixture. The victim then tipped over in his seat into a sail filled with water, his baptism and purification being assisted by two men jumping in with him to keep him under water. He was then taken out and declared a ‘son of Neptune!”

An equator crossing never to be forgotten. A transition from past homes in England to the South Pacific and a reorientating of future selves.

Henry Brett, a young man with a writer’s touch, also spoke of tropical birds, a royal albatross and a moment when “came a graceful flying fish”. He went on to become a writer, journalist, newspaper proprietor, publisher and Mayor of Auckland from 1877-1878.