What are US Navy ocean crossing certificates?

Answer 1

Navy Ocean Crossing Certificates (Unofficial, of course) are many and wide. I'm a Bluenose (twice), but there are many, many others that have ceremonies and certificates that are documented by the Naval Historical Center in Washington (See URL link below). Some other examples are:

Order of Magellan - Global Circumnavigation

Order of the Rock - Transiting the Straits of Gibraltar (Inchop - Outchop)

Order of the Ditch - Transiting the Panama Canal

Shellback - Crossing the Equator at any point

Golden Dragon - Crossing the International Date Line (180th Meridian)

Golden Shellback - Crossing the Equator at the 180th Meridian

Emerald Shellback - Crossing the Equator at the Prime Meridian (Greenwich)

Order of the Red Nose - Crossing the Antarctic Circle

Order of the Spanish Main - Cruising the Caribbean

Most are variations on the Golden Dragon or Shellback tradition, the 2 oldest, but each has their own unique ceremony. For example, Blue and Red Nose ceremonies are a "bit colder" than those of the Golden Shellback. Though unofficial, some events are noted in the crewmember's service record, in particular if it coincides with a historic event. Examples are the first cruise of the Nautilus, and the first multi-submarine surfacing at the Geographic North Pole, of which I was privileged to be a part of. Some are just notes that the member participated, as evidence of fact so that the person doesn't have to go through it again. Though not officially required, the decision to not participate in a crew event involving a Navy tradition isn't well received by those who do, and as such most of the crew will go through the ceremony.

In some cases where Latitude and Longitude coordinates are entered on the certificate, one may be omitted if the specific crossing location and date is classified. This was the case on both of my Bluenose certificates, where the Latitude was entered (66° 33′ 44″ N), but the Longitude (point where we crossed the Arctic Circle) was purposely omitted since it was classified.

Sometimes ceremonies aren't performed at all. I've also been through the Straits of Gibraltar and have been through the Caribbean more times than I can count, but we never did a ceremony for any of them.