A meal fit for a king- brown sauce to the rescue !

[Roger Dyer]

Hi shipmates........Most of you old deck crowd wallahs will remember the 'Board of Trade' Salad that the galley staff left out for the benefit of hungry sailors, who, having had their dinner earlier in the evening, would be ready for a sandwich and a cup of tea, coffee or cocoa before they settled down for the night. Most of you lads in the engine-room would have had similar delights left in your own mess. Now, for the day-workers, this was a fine arrangement, but if you were a watch-keeper you were at a distinct disadvantage. The day-worker, with some degree of confidence, would totter along to the mess-room, poke his way around the tray, pick out the good bits and then make himself a nice big sandwich full to the brim with the choicest slices of meat and cheese on offer, plus the tomato, lettuce, beetroot and onion etc. thus creating a culinary delight that invariably needed 'shifting boards' before he could convey same safely back to his cabin. For the watch-keeper it was a different story. How many of us can remember coming down from the bridge, having just finished a 'trick' on the wheel at about 2.00am., going to the messroom for a cuppa and hopefully, something to eat. The tray was still there, but all it held ( if you were lucky) was a slice or two of something no longer identifiable which was curling up round the edges. It would be garnished with one or two slices of beetroot accompanied by some very sad looking shreds of lettuce and perhaps the solitary round thing that resembled an onion ring.........On 'Port Boats, God bless 'em, which weren't bad feeders, the usual array of condiments was limited to salt, pepper, vinegar, mustard, tomato sauce and a large jar of suspicious looking pickles, On short-sea traders (namely UBC, G.S.N.C. and MacAndrews, which were all very good feeders) where I spent most of my sea-going career, the condiments on offer were very much better. The basic essentials were supplemented by a much larger array of pickles (including Branston's and even chutney!, as well as tomato sauce (of course) and a variety of brown sauces, H.P, Crosse & Blackwell, and my favourite - wait for it - A.1 Sauce. If the blurb on the white label was to be believed, it was made from a very old recipe and had been sampled by one of England's old monarchs who declared it to be 'A.1'. I don't know if the story was true, but if so, this old King new a thing or two about brown sauce - I loved the stuff. On many occasions, I can recall staggering back on board at some ungodly hour, after a night of heavy 'bevy' in one of the many 'fleshpots' of the European coast ( Hamburg, Antwerp, Oporto, Lisbon, Genoa, you name it). Feeling famished, I would try and navigate my way to the mess-room (don't ask me how), hoping that there'd be something left to eat. After perusing the tray I would, invariably, discover that I had run last again, meat, cheese, even the bl---y lettuce, all gone. In desperation I would search through the cupboards and there it would be - the A.1. Sauce ( 7th Cavalry of many a messroom). I would then get two slices of bread, spread them with butter/marge and then liberally lay on the A.1. Saved once more from temporary starvation. In 1992, on a visit back to England with my wife, I searched through Sainsbury's etc., but alas was not able to find any A.1. One of life's great delights was no more, and what made it worse, nobody seemed to care. Well mates I just wonder if any of you can recall the object of my affection and know why they stopped making the stuff?. Perhaps you have favourites of your own that are no longer available?, if you do or if you have a story about B.O.T. Salads I'd love to hear from you...........best regards, Roger.

[Pete Leonard (Bruno)]

Hi.Roger,
Yes I remember A1 sauce. I believe that the company was taken over by HP, when Imperial Tobacco was diversifying into food. I suffered the same fate when working for Epicure pickles. We were taken over by HP via Imps. My favourite was OK sauce. I was brought up on it during the war in London because the decision was taken by the government to regionalize brands in order to cut down on transport. I think the division was Birmingham, So it was North HP and south OK. In the 50's when the Suez Canal was closed we obviously went round the Cape route to Oz and the far east. I went ashore in Capetown one afternoon and got talking to an old Londoner in a bar. He had been living out there for some years, and I asked him in conversation what it was he missed most about the old country. Without hesitation he said"HP Sauce". So I asked him to meet me that evening and I would bring him some. So I went back to the ship and relieved the saloon locker of two bottles of the stuff. I put one in each pocket and went down the gangway only to be stopped by a security guard who had spotted the bulge. He opened a bottle, sniffed it and asked what it was and why I was taking it ashore. I told him the truth and he let me go with a puzzled look on his face. Anyway I did meet up with the old boy and he was all over me like a tent. The look on his face made it all worth while. Little did I know that I would finish up working for the company.
Cheers
Pete

ps. i note your location and wondered if you were anywhere near Five Dock. I had afew friends there in the 50's


Cheers
Pete

[Captain Kong]

Looks like you were on some good feeders there Roger, on most ships I was on we got nothing but abuse.
On some ships we couldnt sleep for the hunger pains.
A typical trip on a Fyffes Skin boat was load stores in Garston, then at Las Palmas carry it down the gangway onto a lorry, the Chief Steward and the old man got a wad of notes and we got nothing, just our pound and pint if we were lucky. , We had Bananas, fried bananas, baked bananas, boiled bananas, stewed bananas, grilled bananas, frappy bananas, Mashed bananas, we were going bananas.
One night we got a bowl of Irish stew made with bananas instead iof potatos, nothing else, that was `dinner`, I was voted in to kick to the Skipper, `Mighty Joe Young` a giant of a man, When I knocked on his door, he towered above me , `What do you want`, I said the crowd were complaing about the Irish Stew, What is wrong with that he says, I forgetting he was Irish, said, Its all right if your Irish, but.............`
His fist hit me full on the nose, I did a double somersault and flew head first down the ladder onto the boat deck. I crawled down aft covered in blood. All hands laughed. My `dinner`, the bowl of `stew` had disapeared somewhere over the boat deck. I went hungry for another night.
On most ships we became very competant burglars, creeping into the Cooks cabin, getting the Galley keys and robbing the galley, maybe a tray of eggs, we would put the eggs into a sweat rag and hang it in the Officers Geezer and boil them then make tea for the 2nd Mate during the 12 to 4.
Happy days , many tales like that.

[Roger Dyer]

Hi Pete.............Good story mate, thanks for the info' on A.1. Sauce. Yes, of course, thanks to your prompting I now remember the good old O.K. The bottle was slightly shorter than H.P. and A.I. and I think had a predominantly green label. It was another delicious British sauce, slightly fruitier than A.I. and H.P., but still another favourite of mine. I thought that it was a product of Crosse and Blackwell and it was the sauce I had in mind when I mentioned their name before. I think the pair of us would make fine ambassadors for the promotion of British sauce-making, if such a craft still exists. We Brits have a poor international reputation when it comes to tasty foodstuffs, but I always thought that our bottled sauces and pickles, and the quality of our better confectionery (boiled sweets, etc) was as good as it gets. I'm talking of 50 years ago, of course, things may be different now, I don't really know. Our brother seamen will probably understand our waffle about something so, mundane, but anyone else would probably think we were a couple of 'nutters'. That wouldn't be right though - would it? In answer to your query Pete, I live about 30 miles further out west, but do know it of course. Many years ago I worked in Strathfield which is only about 2 miles from F.D...............cheers mate, Roger.

[Roger Dyer]

Hi Brian.(Captain Kong).......Love your stories of bygone days, mate. Am still chuckling about your experiences on the Banana boat, the Irish Stew a la' banana, not the punch on the nose you received - how did some of those skippers get away with it? Some of them really screwed us if they could, didn't they? I never sailed with a Captain given to violence, although I knew of a Baltic Boat skipper with a penchant for hitting things like lock-gates, wharves, etc, but that doesn't count does it ? In the good old days, the practises of some Masters, Chief Stewards and even Shipping Companies was criminal. I very much doubt that in the present day they would get away with it quite so easily, or would they? As you rightly point out Brian, I was lucky in my choice of shipping companies with whom I was employed. I did complete one period under contract ( established), but needn't have bothered really, I never had any trouble getting a berth with any of the companies I mentioned. Yes indeed, they were excellent feeders and dare I say it, but generally they seemed to attract good crews. Strange isn't it, how some companies could be so generous regarding the victualling of their ships, whilst others were so damn miserly. Collectively, we seaman were/are a hardy bunch ( you're proof of that) and thank God we were. Thanks for the post mate, Roger.

[Captain Kong]

Hi Roger, I got my own back later.
We had a night ashore in Tiko in the Cameroons, large amounts of Tombo were consumed.
To get to and from the village through the jungle and Banana plantations was on the banana train, a narrow guage railway, the carriage was a long fore and aft seat and sitting back to back facing outboard.
On the way back travelling through the darkness of the jungle I could hear Mighty Joe Youngs voice booming away behind me. I was full of Tombo and my nose was still buzzing like a fire alarm, I turned around and saw the back of his head, I thumped him as hard as I could. He dived off the train and straight down the monsoon ditch. The screams were terrible. The driver stopped the train, I could hear his footsteps crunching on the gravel as he walked down my side of the train.
I closed my eyes and waited for death.
His footsteps stopped and he said ` Its you you bast*ard`, and he grabbed the Cadet who was sat next to me, he flung him down the monsoon ditch and dived in after him.He battered the poor Cadet and then dragged him out and flung him back into his seat. `Dont ever do that again` , he said. Then the train carried on back to the ship. They were both covered in stinking slimy mud
Thank you Mr "Ding Dong" Bell. I will always be in your debt.
The Captain had always given Mr Bell a hard time, it was his first trip to sea and he said later it was his last.

I later got my tickets, if you cant beat them , then join them.

[robpage]

Gulf Oil was not a good feeding company , so we took the asbestos bonnet off the main stop valve , brushed the asbestos dust off with a wire brush , applied a little cooking oil , which smoked off straight away , then when checking the fridge temperatures , sliced off a chop or two , or a steak , placed it on the stop valve lid and ate it with a jacket potato , cooked on the boiler fan casing in a biscuit tin . It was the best food on the ship , we expanded into corned beef stovies in a saucepan with an air tight lid , curry and rice , Scouse , and on the 8- 12 used to do enough to feed the 12-4 when they came on watch .. I wonder how much asbestos dust we ate ? . Certainly beat the Galley for taste , it wasn't the cook it was the Chief Steward , who had sold off the stores and was feeding inferior crap to the crew , Two engineers and an engine room PO , we were cooking 6 dinners a night for the two watches . If the Chief Steward was a thief then the Skipper certainly must have taken a cut of the income . Clan Line was brilliant in comparison to Gulf Oil .

[Colin Hawken]

Suppers? You Guys had it good didn't you. I don't remember such luxuries back in the 1950's. Not even in Esso ships which were usually pretty good feeders.

[Pete Leonard (Bruno)]

Hi Roger
I just hope that our other contributors appreciated the input from a couple of connoisseurs. Incidentally Crosse & Blackwell had their own brown sauce in those days, OK was the brand name of Masons. As mentioned I worked as an Area Sales Manager for HP back in the 70's and we also made Daddies sauce. This was a cheaper brand and the sales volume was higher than HP itself. I think they have all sunk without trace now. Even HP Is made in Spain now since they demolished the old plant at Aston Cross. Heigh Ho.
Cheers
Pete

[Jim Brady]

Do any of you remember reading the story on the bottle of how the sauce came into being and what went into making it.You read the story and each time you came across a word begining with the letter S you put in the word S**t.When ever anyone read this it caused great laughter,different ships and different guys putting thei own accent and slant on it.I cant remember the full story but for instance"they gathered the most exotic fruits and spices from around the world and made it into this nice thick brown Sauce" Do you get it two S's in that sentence.
I've been trying to get the full wording on line,you can buy full framed pictures of the front of the bottle also various recipes how to make it but no luck on the story.
Regards.
Jim.B.