Page:My 1102 days of wwii.djvu/11

 no one dares cross his path. The majority of us not having crossed the Equator before were known as Polliwogs. As Polliwogs we had to go through the initiation ceremony performed by the more experienced voyagers, known as Shellbacks, that had been through this initiation before. Going through this ordeal we were well aware that you had officially become a Shellback.

On 5-12-43, a Tuesday, we went to bed and surprisingly the next morning when we arose, it was Thursday. Going west we had crossed the International Date Line during the night, which caused us to lose a day.

For the long and lonely two weeks we were traveling at about 22 knottsknots [sic], and our speed was our only defense against submarines. Sitting on deck at night we could tell by the position of the stars that we were on a zig-zag course, to keep from being tracked by enemy submarines. During this time we saw only two other ships, (friendly). Water, water, water.