Jake Norry here,

As the trip wraps up, there was one more auxiliary to do left for the night's watch. Last night or early this morning, (it has become impossible to keep track of at this point) greenhorns of the night's watch partook in a time-honored tradition: The Salp Sucker Society. Like many traditions, its origin has been lost to time. Some say it started when Neptune challenged the Roman sailors to prove their devotion to the sea in return for safe passage. The initiation consists of the imbibing of a salp. For those who are curious, a salp is a gelatinous marine organism belonging to a primitive group called tunicates. They are early invertebrate cousins to all vertebrates. As an elective of our cruise, the night's watch gathered around our catch of salps, as is tradition, and inducted Aaron Aunins, Cassidy Bell, Emmanuelle Cook, Jacob Norry, and Katelyn Castler. It was a great day for the night's watch, and therefore the rest of the world. We have one more night shift to go, and then we return to land, forever members of the Salp Sucker Society.