Scran at sea

[James Curry]

Some times things are not what they say. But yes normally the food was good. Like all things it depended how good the cook was, some great cooks and some awful cooks. I will never forget one we called stir fry George for obvious reasons.

Menu.jpg. Just imagine what you would pay in a restaurant if you had a starter , main course , dessert coffee cheese & biscuits.
Is it just me but did all ships have a typewriter with a misaligned CAP letter?
That was soon resolved with the introduction of computers and word processors

[Keith Tindell]

I never complained about the food i got when i was at sea, but in the seamen mess we didn't get a nice menu like that, most of the ships i was on it was conny ony for milk, tough if you didn't take sugar in you tea, you could water it down IF, cereal was available, fresh milk only in port. i suppose after my time came long life milk. but as said i fed well at sea, steak and chips every friday night, unheard of at home, and Mum fed us well.i was always amazed what went in the Rosie at the end of the day, maybe i was just a gannet.

[Michael Black]

Only had 1 bad cook, the first thing all hands did when arriving in Auckland from the U.K. was go ashore and have a decent meal. Best was a guy called Eddie from North Shields, there was 3 of us geordies on-board and he would make a leek pudding just for us, the rest of the crew wouldn't even try it. Stottie loaf was a favourite as well.
Regards Michael

[cappy]

On a coaster i was on ......she was classed as a weekly boat .......we paid so much to the cook and the company paid the rest ......the cook was a scruffy off white apron etc .......he twice went ashore got on the beer and didnt come back.... as we only sailed from shields to the tees daily to bunker the foriegn goers he was on the quay next day .....the old man never sacked him......he used to stand outside the galley and... sing yes sir thats my baby ...no sir dont mean maybe....then lift his apron up and his flies would be open...... showing his works .......whereupon we all hooted with laughter .......looking back it was a strange world but humerous to say the least R683532

[Ivan Cloherty]

If you'd lived through the war, going to sea in a decade afterwards foodwise was a heaven, Sunday dinner every day and Christmas dinner once a week, we had enough to keep us lean, mean working machines

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..... showing his works .......whereupon we all hooted with laughter .......looking back it was a strange world but humerous to say the least R683532

Brings a whole new meaning to Michael's leek pudding!

[John Arton]

I was only one one ship with a useless cook and that was when C.P experimented with an all mainland Chinese crew, this was a deal to try and get landing rights for C.P air into Beijing. Absolute nightmare, none of the catering department had any idea of western food and eating utensils. First day in the saloon all the cutlery was just dumped in a pile in the middle of the table and when you asked for a boiled egg you got a egg in a soup bowl covered in hot water from the water boiler in the pantry. Rather than washing dishes after use they would just smash them on the deck if they couldn't be bothered to wash them. Everything had to go through their commissar and on deck the crowd would only work the Chinese way which was basically working by discussion of what was needed, how long it was going to take and how much overtime they would get. Even the Chinese didn't think much of the cook as when we eventually docked in Immingham the seaman's mission seemed to be feeding them all.
Could write a book on working with them. Enough to say that it was a daily nightmare.
Rgds
J.A

[cappy]

We had one of the best cooks i ever knew ......his curry was the best ever but he got on the penfolds in oz ......and chucked every bit of gear out the galley over the wall ....come seven bells nothing oven range not on .......we in the catering loved the shock horror on the various faces .....some folk laughed some folk swore ......there was a shortage of all pans skillets etc .......the old man got the chief steward and said it was all his fault ......me and my mate took the opportunity to go on the beer .......the old man said after we sailed .....he would not black his book if he kept his nose clean .....after a few months round oz and kiwi we went to capetown .........the cook did it all again ......some 30 years later i was in the winter gardens bar in laygate in south shields and there was the cook ....what a laugh we had ........he was then working making wooden pallets .......sadly i called him a couple of years later but he had passed away ........i can see him now they were the characters after the war which made us even laugh at any situation .......jeez who would want to go sea these days cappy R683532

[Ivan Cloherty]

Time for my diet again, have given up the Rum and Raisin ice cream and have gone back to cooking my rum and raisin stewed apples with custard, cheaper and more substantial.

Never really went short of food at sea, yes some wasn't going to be well made or cooked, but on the whole we didn't fare too bad, even on our self feeding coasters, and they also had good cook/stewards and did well with your money.

[Tony Taylor]

Only had 1 bad cook, the first thing all hands did when arriving in Auckland from the U.K. was go ashore and have a decent meal. Best was a guy called Eddie from North Shields, there was 3 of us geordies on-board and he would make a leek pudding just for us, the rest of the crew wouldn't even try it. Stottie loaf was a favourite as well.
Regards Michael

ha ha once sailed with a good cook from Sunderland, would make me boiled ham and pease pudding and stotties.

[Donald Young]

You were really lucky--i lost a ton of weight on an east indian crewed ship
living on curry and creamed vegies while the chief steward go fat on kickbacks
on the aussie coast the saviour was crayfish not the curried old sheep.

As kids my twin bro and i filled our hollow legs with leek pudding and stottie
we could not get enough on war time rations.

Every trip back to geordie land--leek pudding-- stottie and gregs cutard tart
cheers --don.