The Crossing the Line ceremony was (and still is) held anytime a ship crosses the Equator. In the case of the Calvert, the ship crossed both the Equator (Shellback ceremony) and the International Dateline (Golden Dragon ceremony) on November 15th, 1943 while en route to Makin Island to participate in the Gilberts Campaign. This was the Calvert’s first crossing and was cause for a monumental ceremony, even in the midst of her voyage to her first invasion in the Pacific and under threat from enemy planes and submarines.

The “How The U.S.S. Calvert First Crossed The Line“ (.pdf document) document was produced onboard the ship with a hand-drawn cover. My grandfather, Sterling Funck, received this original copy of the document with his participation in the Crossing the Line ceremony .

The written document itself was compiled by Lt. (jg) Abe Weinberg, ship’s secretary and War Correspondent Harold P. Smith of the Chicago Tribune. These soldiers were members of the US Army’s 165th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division.

The cover (left) of the booklet was designed by Private Peter Metzger of Fresno California, assisted by Sergeants John  Gonzales and Joseph Martel of New York City.

 

 

 

Here are several additional photographs and certificates from my grandfather’s collection:

 BLANK LINE ……….

The following hand-drawn chart shows the fleet’s position at the time of the crossing. This diagram was sketched by Walter “Fred” Cox while he was on duty as a radarman at the time of the crossing and the ceremony.