text: whats a golden shellback? u.s. navy term a person who has crossed the equator at the 180th meridian (the international dateline). i did this when lengths of firehose, folded and taped at one end were used to whack the heck out of wogs. wogs got up at 5 am and wore the wog uniform of the day, which was white t-shirt, and pants inside out and backwards, so the zipper was right on your tailbone. shellbacks could raise their peices of hose (called shillelaghs) at shoulder height to hit wogs, and since the wogs had to be on hands and knees, it was quite a distance.