Atlantic baptism – by Carlotta

First I want to introduce myself: I am Neptun, the king of the seas, lakes, rivers and of every  body of water in the world. All fish, every animal, plant and organism that live under water are my subjects. They are under my command. I rule the endless wide oceans and they have to follow me. It is fun to frighten my subjects.
A few hundred years ago land living creatures started to pass my kingdom. I do not like it when ships are crossing my peaceful area. As I realized that I can not expulse those creatures I started to create a possibility for those people to cross my territory.
So I introduced them to the equator baptism.
But also with this baptism there was a problem because many landborns were not crossing the equator, that means for me it was time to establish a new ritual, the Atlantic baptism.
I always celebrate this ritual on tall ships, especially the Thor Heyerdahl when they have crossed the middle of the Atlantic. This compromise is why I allow the dust-born land people to stay on my waters and enjoy my assistance. I am probably lucky if we can baptize some inexperienced, they always suffer, which is very funny. I always observe the ships where my next baptisms take place.
At November, 25 it was time for the next baptism on the Thor Heyerdahl. That is why I sent a letter in a bottle to that ship. My letter was not noticed by anyone except David.
Suddenly as I spied on that ship again a bell started to ring. I was confused – Does that bell has anything to do with my mysterious letter for the young seamen? All of the crew went down into the mess room and David read out the message: ‚You already have passed the 40th meridian, the middle of your Atlantic crossing. It is time for your baptism, you dust-born air breather. Tomorrow, one hour after the sun has reached the highest point, I will visit you and you will become real seamen.‘ They all seemed very excited but some also seemed very nervous. For that day I had spied enough on the Thor and went back into the depths of my endless wide sea to prepare myself for the baptism the next day.
The night went by and in the morning I stood up and went out of my castle. I looked into my timetable and saw that there was a baptism to do.  One of my subjects came to announce me at midday, it was a whale that swam around the ship for half an hour. The captain of the Thor knows my standards and what punctuality means. He started preparing the ship one hour before I said I wanted to come. For my baptisms I always choose the biggest places on a ship, because the space is needed. The tables which would stand in my way were tidied up by the captain and his crew. A net was hung up and many small fish were put in. The Barbados flag was also hung up which really made me happy. The people worked and worked and if you had looked into their faces you would have seen that they got more and more nervous.
I was amazed to have my next baptism on that ship. The Thor is not an unknown place for me to baptize landborns. Every year around this time new young people come with this ship over the Atlantic and sail into the old new world. So at one o’clock in the afternoon every member who never had crossed the Atlantic before went down into the mess room and waited for the signal. In the moment I came out the water an applause with pots and pans was made by my helpers. I started the baptism the moment I sat down on my throne on the deck. But all of the baptized must swear that they won’t say a word about my ritual. Never will come a word over my lips about what happened exactly, and if I hear someone talk about it, he will be punished.
I just can say there was much to clean afterwards.
But I went back into the deep ocean and will come back the next time to baptise the next landborn airbreathers on the Thor Heyerdahl.