John Martin Mecklin, Class of 1939, traveled a lot. A few years after graduating from Dartmouth, he became a correspondent for the Chicago Sun in Europe, sending regular eyewitness accounts of developments in the war. After World War II, he continued as a reporter in Italy. Later he would have posts in Paris and in Saigon but today we're looking at one very specific achievement in world travel. On May 31st 1955, while flying from Singapore to Jakarta, Mecklin crossed the equator.We know Mecklin did this because there's a certificate in his papers to that effect, reading "KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS THAT John Martin Mecklin borne on the wings of the PH-LDG, a Flying Dutchman of KLM, Royal Dutch Airlines, has had the distinction of crossing the Equator." The certificate is illustrated with Aeolus, the ruler of winds in Greek mythology, sending an airplane and a ship on their way.
Documented as early as the 17th century, line-crossing ceremonies are a variety of folk practice surrounding the first time someone, typically a sailor, crosses the equator. They can range from entirely anodyne to outright hazing and assault. This is a funny commercial example from the '50s -- one imagines there couldn't have been much of a ceremony onboard the plane itself, but the airline clearly found it worthwhile to produce and distribute personalized certificates for its eligible passengers.
To see this and other travel souvenirs, request ML-28 Box 2 Folder 10.
