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This was the certificate I received for crossing the equator on April 11, 1944 aboard the SS Cape Victory.  The 'salty' sailors who were taking us to sea would always do very mean initiations on us. These initiations were terrible.  For example, they would blindfold us and put us on a plank and walk us out over a big tub of water and make us jump.  Of course we thought we were going overboard.  It wasn't very funny.  We felt like monkeys and they would make us do tricks.  Anyway, this is the certificate they would present to us and once we had this certificate we could keep these initiations from happening the next time we crossed over the equator went.  Of course I am speaking about a time early on in my navy career before I was assigned to the LCI 222.  I received this certificate when I was on a large troop transport ship.  They would give you a wallet version of this to carry with you.  The transport ship would zig zag its way to avoid enemy submarines.  It was a tiresome trip.

certificate of equator crossing