How Do You Become A Bluenose?
Learn what it takes to become a United States Navy Bluenose and more!
Mamas Don’t Let Your Sailors Grown Up To Be Bluenoses! Why? It’s not easy, you are colder than the 15th viewing of Disney’s Frozen, you never can remember to bring your orange golf balls to work, you will never eat another popsicle as long as you live, reminds me of the D I got in high school chemistry, you didn’t pack enough long underwear, you acquire permanent teeth chatter, ice fishing stories become legendary and one quickly realizes that 15,000 miles from the nearest civilization might after all be a good thing.
It’s Cold As Hell!
Without question travelling by horse, car, or submarine to the Arctic Circle does engage the senses when it comes to temperatures, right before things shrivel up, turn blue and whither away. Some say the Arctic Circle is cold as Hell.
Average January temperatures range from about −34 °C to 0 °C (−40 to +32 °F), and winter temperatures can drop below −50 °C (−58 °F) over large parts of the Arctic. Average July temperatures range from about −10 to +10 °C (14 to 50 °F), with some land areas occasionally exceeding 30 °C (86 °F) in summer. (Wikipedia)
Is It Easy To Become A Bluenose?
Not even close. The right conditions, ship, orders and a Captain that volunteers at every turn and is on the fast track to make Admiral all have to line up properly. This is no small feat in the nautical and US Navy world.
Not As Many Dolphins In The US Navy Become Bluenoses Like You Might Think.
A Blue Nose is a someone who has crossed the Artic Circle. There aren’t too many Blue Noses in the Submarine Force, since submarines go up under the ice infrequently – every few years, 2 or 3 subs will go under the polar ice cap to shoot torpedoes, or submarines will transit under the polar ice cap if they’re doing an inter-fleet transfer and the decision is made to send them under the ice rather than through the Panama Canal or through the Suez Canal.
Blue Nose rituals will involve the pre-Blue Nose somehow getting really cold and getting a blue nose. (Source – http://rickcampbellauthor.com/styled/index.html)
Undocumented responses to US Navy Sailors seeing the Arctic Circle for the first time.
“Where the fuck did all that ice come from?!”
“Port Side Polar Bear Sighted!”
The glow, brilliance, polar bears, walruses, cracking ice, freezing temperatures, winds that can flash freeze a person in seconds are all the common experiences of the US Navy Bluenose.
A Bluenose Certificate: As Diverse As It Gets!
Every Sailors that has traveled to the Arctic Circle has had common experiences but when it comes to their certificate the words often change. We asked around and found a wide variety of Bluenose Certificate’s wording. One examples reads:
“All Sailors, wherever ye and whoever ye may be, Greetings.
Know all ye by these presents that Jack Tickler did on the 19 July 1971, appear in the northernmost reaches of my realm, bound for the dark and frosty wastes of the land of the midnight sun and did with our royal consent enter this dread region by crossing the arctic circle by virtue whereof i, neptunus rex, ruler of the raging main do hereby declare him to be a loyal and trusty salt-lined and brine-encrusted bluenose and do call upon all Icebergs, Sea Lions. Narwhals, Polar Bears, Whales, Mermaides and other creatures of the Frigid North to show him due deference and respect.
Disobey under pain of Our Royal Displeasure
Neptunus Rex (Ruler Of The Main)
Aurora Borealis (Queen Of His Pallid Polar Regions)”
On or around June 28th, 2017 the USS Ross on a rare occasion set for the Arctic Circle and acquired one of the most difficult certificates found n the US Navy having been to the Northern Domain of the Polar Bear. “The Blue Nose heralds our cold bodied Sailors — those that have proven their selves worthy of the cold arctic winds and ice as they cross into the Arctic Circle,” a post on the Ross’s Facebook page states.
What Does Your Bluenose Certificate Look Like?
All different, all unique, all displaying the flora and fauna of the top of the world and each gives its own story about how a US Navy Sailor traveled to the region where Queen Aurora Borealis rules.
A Bluenose Certificate From Torpedo Squadron 4
A Bluenose Certificate from 1946
Top 10 Things About The Arctic Circle You Might Not Know
1. BIRD POOP HELPS KEEP THE AREA COOL.
Bird guano. Yes you might have guessed this one but the birds have to take one once in a while and all that poop makes for gases and those gases creates cloud cover and cloud cover means reduced temperatures. Also don’t park your freshly washed car anywhere in the region for obvious reasons.
2. THE ARCTIC COMES TO LIFE DURING WINTER.
According to a recent study in Current Biology, “Biodiversity, abundance, growth, and reproduction in habitats studied were at similar or higher levels than in warmer months.” Plankton, crustaceans, cod and haddock come out in the Winter and the feeding frenzy begins. More food. More parties for the whole family.
3. IT’S HOME TO THE WORLD’S BIGGEST, MOST SECURE SEED STORAGE FACILITY.
800 miles beyond the Arctic Circle lies the Svalbard Global Seed Vault operated by the Norwegian government. Why is there there and what does it do? Built into the permafrost, it holds seeds for more than 4000 plant species—including life-sustaining food crops—keeping them safe in the event of natural or manmade disasters.
4. THE FIRST MAN TO REACH THE NORTH POLE WAS OVERLOOKED FOR DECADES.
Robert Peary (1856-1920) claimed to have been the first man to reach the geographic North Pole, in 1909. Today, however, experts believe that it was his assistant, an African-American man by the name of Matthew Henson (1866-1955), who actually deserves the distinction. By the time Peary and Henson neared their destination, Peary was struggling with a bad case of frostbite, leaving him unable to walk. (He had to be pulled along on a sled instead.) As they got closer to the North Pole, Henson and two guides went ahead on foot, but accidentally overshot their destination—which meant that Henson technically reached the Pole about 45 minutes before Peary did. (Source – http://mentalfloss.com)
5. LOTS OF PEOPLE LIVE THERE.
More than 4 million people live in the region called the Arctic Circle comprised of parts o the US, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Greenland and Norway. The combined economy is 230 billion roughly or equal to combining the economies of Portugal and Ireland.
6. THERE’S AN INTERGOVERNMENTAL ARCTIC FORUM.
It’s called the Arctic Council. “is the only circumpolar forum for political discussions on Arctic issues, involving all the Arctic states, and with the active participation of its Indigenous Peoples.”
7. THE WORD ARCTIC IS DERIVED FROM THE GREEK, ARKTOS.
Arktos means “bear,” and refers not to the region’s native polar bears, but to the constellation containing the North Star, Ursa Minor. (Ursa is Latin for “bear.”)
8. THE ARCTIC OCEAN IS THE WORLD’S SMALLEST.
It comprises 5.4 million square miles. By comparison, the Atlantic Ocean covers 41.1 million square miles, and the Pacific 62.46 million square miles.
9. THE NORTH POLE IS MUCH WARMER THAN THE SOUTH POLE.
The Arctic is largely ocean surrounded by land whereby Antarctica is land surrounded by ocean for comparative purposes. Different indeed. So while significant portions of both are covered in sheets of ice, the water underneath the Arctic ice cap (which sits only about a foot above the water) can trap heat and help warm the surrounding air. In Antarctica, as Scientific American put it, “the surface of the ice sheet at the South Pole is more than 9000 feet in elevation—more than a mile and a half above sea level.” (Higher elevations, of course, result in colder temps.) The average summer temperature at the North Pole is 32°F. At the South Pole, it’s -18°F.
10. SANTA’S NORTH POLE HOME WAS DREAMED UP BY A 19TH CENTURY CARTOONIST.
The famous political cartoonist Mr. Thomas Nast started drawing illustrations of the famous Santa Claus as part of an advertising campaign for the publication Harper’s Weekly in the 1860s. In a few of Mr Nast’s drawings, he made reference to the fact that Santa’s mailing address was the North Pole—a place that had already captured the world’s imagination, as they watched a number of explorers attempt to reach the barren and frigid destination. As for the real St. Nicholas? He was born in what is now Turkey. Now how about that?