Maritime ‘Baptism’: Chaos and Ceremony in the Early Atlantic

Early modern ocean narratives frequently describe the ceremony of the baptême, a riotous collective practice which took place at the crossing of the Tropic of Cancer or the equator. Passengers and crew disguised themselves, imitated religious and mythological practices and gestures, swore to perpetuate the practice, and might even receive a new name. This maritime baptism sheds light on four aspects of early modern ceremony. Its practices cannot be readily assimilated to other popular festivities or ceremonial forms. It illustrates the value and limitations of critical paradigms of rite and ritual. There is also a tension between structural analytical models and the fluidity of maritime practices; these practices were further structured by a textual corpus. Ocean baptism, this article contends, was a ceremony that responded to the most fundamental upheavals in time and space, and may even have inspired a form of transcendence.