It is with some hesitation that I respond to suggestions favoring the expression of ideas on the subject of the administration of a general mess, based on an experience of more than two years and a half on the battleship Missouri. I assume that there will be differences of opinion as to some of the views advanced and that some of the statements necessary to show things in their proper relation may be considered trite; but the Missouri has furnished a striking example of what active and cordial co-operation between the commanding, executive, and commissary officers can do toward improving mess conditions. This cooperation successfully culminated in inciting the pride of the men themselves to the point of aiding, a result vitally necessary in any general mess. Though of course it is not claimed that anything like perfection has been reached, it is believed that the Missouri's experience, at least, can form the basis of a profitable discussion as to certain details of practice upon which there is now all too little unanimity of opinion, considering the importance of the subject to the general welfare of a ship's personnel, and hence to her military efficiency.
The practical administration of a general mess naturally divides itself into three separate though interdependent parts: namely, the procurement of food, its preparation, and its service. Concretely illustrated: every one knows that when poor eggs are bought, all possible skill in cooking and art in serving cannot remedy the original fault in purchase; that the best dish may be ruined in the cooking; or that food meant to be warm but which reaches the tables cold, or is otherwise poorly served, is sure to be far from satisfactory.
The service of food, reaching to the farthest corner of the decks, and involving messmen doing other ship's work, must necessarily be under the supervision of the executive officer. Yet food service forms such an important link to his work that the pay officer must take great interest in it. This interest will be well repaid, for no part of the work of a general mess requires such constant and minute attention. Toothsome dishes left standing about the decks until the grease, the man-o'-war's man likes so well hot, has become clammy, or food served in soiled, chipped ware, will invariably reflect upon the galley. With the right given him to bring directly to the commanding officer's attention any matter affecting his department the pay officer can exercise enough influence over food service for his needs. It is hard to conceive any matter more directly affecting him than the possible ruin of the food he is responsible for. On his side, the executive, desiring a happy ship and realizing the importance of a satisfactory mess in attaining that end, will be glad to have the suggestions and aid of the commissary officer, while reserving the right to decide on questions involving changes in methods outside the galley and affecting other parts of the ship's organization. The result will be that the pay officer will keep in close touch with the methods of food service and will constantly be consulted about them. It cannot be too strongly insisted upon here that it is the details of this service that count most, and that too much attention can hardly be given them.
By taking up the subject of food service before that of preparation or procurement, our discussion can be made more clear.
FOOD SERVICE.
One of the reasons why this branch of the work demands special attention is that its smallest details being under the daily observation of the entire ship's company, its perfections and faults are peculiarly subject to remark, and tend strongly toward creating or hindering that feeling of pride in the mess which is such a factor in its success. If the men are proud of their mess they will uphold it and pardon accidents in a general spirit of contentment. Nothing so thoroughly impresses them with its efficiency as the evidences of daily attention to food service.
The material equipment of the mess is necessarily the first thing to be looked after. Most of this falls under the cognizance of the bureau of equipment, and it may be here stated as my experience that the bureau has met all suggestions with an "open mind" to a degree unusual either in naval or business life. No one could foresee, however, all the improvements which the establishment of the general mess system would bring in its train. Many have had to be worked out experimentally, at navy yards and on individual ships, before being officially approved.
For instance, simple as it now seems, it took actual experience to show that the benefits flowing from the formation of the general mess were due to the fact that work was simplified and diminished by centralization. The purchase and preparation of food was centralized, but the same principle was not applied to its service. This was left to persist under the traditions of the individual mess system. At the present time the fiction of individual ownership and care of mess gear remains, each man being required to supply his own. On most ships one may still see about the decks the open mess-lockers of the old system, wherein are freely exposed all the table garnishings and equipment.
Experience with the actual workings of the general mess has inevitably suggested the advisability of centralizing the work of food service. Objections to the old system were not far to seek. In the custody of messmen, gear was not really clean, neither could it be expected to be. A man of the lower ratings, too often selected on account of his inability to do anything else, was relied upon to keep it so. His meager allowance of water served out from the galley, was hardly more than lukewarm after carrying it to his mess and putting a few dishes through it. He had then to dry his gear with a towel which, being used for all sorts of odd jobs, cleaning tables and what not, the most strenuous efforts of the master-at-arms could not make him keep clean. Let any one on shipboard where messmen wash their own dishes, take occasion to examine the plates on the table. Most of them will show the concentric rings left upon them by a greasy towel, and scarcely any will look or smell really clean.
Again the washing of dishes at the tables was objectionable. It kept the decks more or less sloppy and untidy for some time after each meal. Why could not this be done as in hotels, or in passenger ships, in one compartment especially adapted, thus letting- decks be cleared and tables up as soon as the men finished eating ?
A vital objection to the 'old method lay in the keeping of the table garnishings, such as butter, molasses, vinegar, and catsup, constantly in the neighborhood of the tables, usually in open lockers with the knives, forks, and dishes. Until recently these condiments had to be kept in open cups or bowls, no special covered vessels being furnished for them. When the objections to exposing these articles in such surroundings were pointed out, the bureau of equipment promptly approved requisitions for covered receptacles, and soon after issued generally a standard set for condiments. It is a striking evidence of the callousness induced by long-established custom that determined opposition to this practice had not before been raised. Uncovered butter, molasses, and catsup in confined apartments where men work, fire guns, lounge, smoke, undress, and sleep, should not be tolerated either from a sanitary or a cleanly point of view; yet for many decades this has been the practice aboard ship.
These objections to the old system found answer in the idea of centralization. Once defined and connected with the other parts of the general mess system, development became rapid. A "pantry" was needed where all dishes could be received, washed by modern methods under undivided supervision, and kept in their own compartment until needed. The deck mess-lockers being thus cleared of the bulk of their contents, the next step was to arrange for the removal of the remainder—the condiments—and thus altogether do away with mess-lockers and the presence of food on the main deck, except during the progress of meals.
A place being found for the dishes, the acquisition of a machine for washing them naturally presented itself. Scarcely a large hotel or restaurant in the country but has one, as do most of transatlantic passenger ships. Imagine any one of these, or any of our officers' messes for that matter, having no pantry, but relying on a system of crockery for each table, which the waiter concerned is charged with washing and keeping constantly in the mess room. Though this may be said to be a reduction to absurdity, it points the case.
The operation of a dishwashing machine is based upon very simple principles. The soiled ware, in wide-meshed wire baskets, is passed through two waters, which for different reasons the hands could not bear. The first water, which is kept in violent agitation, is made so "strong" with lye-soap or other compound that the grease is cut from the ware as it is immersed by the scouring action of the water. The second water is kept at boiling heat, and, in rinsing, dissolves any remaining dirt, besides heating the ware so that when taken from the water it quickly dries itself through evaporation. The boiling of the gear, thus rendering it antiseptically clean, the avoidance of the use of dish towels, and the labor-saving character of such a machine constitute its virtues.
After examining a number of machines in operation a "dishwasher" was duly installed in the Missouri in February, 1904, shortly after commissioning. It was put in for trial at the manufacturers' risk, the bureau of equipment being naturally unwilling to purchase it without thorough test. This was made under very difficult circumstances, as the ship, like all others, was then fitted with individual mess-lockers, and in her compact design had no proper place for a "ship's pantry." At first dishes were washed in the open, on the upper deck, for the waiting line of messmen, and returned by them to the lockers. Later the machine was removed to a drum room on the main deck where racks were put up and, after the delivery of soiled gear, the door shuton the men at the machine, leaving them to work methodically until serving-out time for the following meal. This was a great step, but, as may be imagined, the space in the trunk about the stack is very cramped and markedly inferior to the spacious "pantrys" on ships of later design.
It was early discovered that the machine was not "fool-proof," though built to stand rough usage. It would not wash dishes automatically. Some slight degree of care and intelligence was necessary to produce results. There were days when despair was perilously near victory, and nights when I scarcely expected to find it whole at daylight, such was the force of conservative prejudice against it among the men. It was damned by the ship's cooks who had to manage it, and the messmen who had to wait; by the captain of the part of the ship, and by those who lost the use of hot water through it. But convinced that the washing of the gear should be done in one place, even if entirely by hand, instead of all about the decks, the cordial efforts of all officers concerned overcame the various forces of opposition, and now, after two years and over of continuous operation, its presence is accepted as a matter of course.
Another difficulty encountered was that agateware, through losing its heat quicker, is more difficult to dry than china; and, standing rougher usage, it becomes battered when the chinaware punishes too severe handling by breaking outright. So the necessity for another forward step became apparent. It was no less than the substitution of china for agateware. Incidentally this was done at a cost of twenty-three cents per set, for plate, cup and bowl, as compared with a dollar and fifteen cents, the price per set of agateware at that time. What this change means to the men may readily be imagined. It makes their tables look like those of a restaurant. It is not too much to say that the introduction of china has been the greatest single thing done on the Missouri towards raising the tone of the mess amongst the men.
Another difficulty was that navy standard knives-, forks, and spoons of bare steel and German silver would not get bone dry by themselves. More particularly the knives, after being exposed to strong water, if left wet for any length of time, would stain badly with rust. So thereafter all steel ware was dried with dish towels, after coming from the machine, but under the eye of the man in charge who was enjoined to use clean boiled towels each meal.
It was also found that all pieces were not invariably cleaned by the machine. A certain small percentage had to be rewashed, and sticky substances, such as oatmeal, eggs, etc., required extra work and precaution. But the point is that in washing some forty-three hundred pieces after each meal, much labor is saved through the use of a machine, even if from one to two hundred have to be gone over, and especially if all the rest come from the machine aseptically clean. This lack of perfection in the product of the dishwasher requires, however, that a close inspection of the gear be made as it is washed, and insistent care be taken that no soiled gear shall slip through and be delivered to the messmen. The man in charge of the machine should be made absolutely responsible for serving out only clean gear. On the Missouri a few trips to the mast made this generally understood, and defined the right of messmen to refuse to receive soiled pieces, and the duty of the master-at-arms to report any messman found serving food into any but perfectly clean ware.
In any routine where the messman is relieved of the custody of his gear, and particularly where it is all turned in to the pantry, to be piled indiscriminately on shelves between meals, as is necessary on the Missouri, through lack of proper space, a system must be established for placing blame for loss or breakage where it belongs. Undoubtedly the best plan, where room permits, would be to furnish each mess with a set of mesh baskets with interiors so arranged that the soiled gear, when scraped and stowed in them for return to the pantry, is ready to put into the machine. Much handling would thus be saved as well as much counting, for a glance at each basket would show any vacant places. With such an arrangement the messmen would have to make more trips to and from the pantry in carrying the loosely packed baskets, but much time would be saved at the pantry itself and the chance for breakage would be greatly reduced.
Disposition for this cannot be made on some of the older ships, however, where it is necessary to count the gear whenever it changes hands in order to prevent the steady leakage found to occur the moment responsibility for it becomes divided. With such a number of pieces there is difficulty in doing this accurately, but practice renders the dishwashers very deft. A certain amount of loss is to be expected and must be excused. Counting fixes the blame in most cases, exposes any unusual catastrophe, and impresses all concerned with the necessity for carefulness.
The average loss is reduced to a very reasonable figure if the dishwasher is required to report after each meal the messes that are short, and if the commissary steward takes a weekly inventory as a check on the dishwasher. It is well to keep a certain amount of plates, cups, steelware, etc., in-tock in the ship's store, for sale at cost (about ten cents each) to such as prefer to replace careless breakages rather than go on the report. Very few men are unwilling to make good their shortages when pay-day comes.
It is desirable to have on board a certain amount of agateware and a number of ordinary dish-pans for use with landing parties. China is too heavy for this purpose. The dish-pans are desirable for the rare occasions when the dishwashing machine is shut down for painting, repairs, etc., and the dishes are washed by hand in the pantry.
Below is a set of orders which will indicate some of the details of the work in the pantry:
ORDERS FOR PANTRYMEN. Refuse to accept any gear not well scraped with bread. Count gear turned in from each mess and report in book at pay office after each meal. Wash steelware first; baskets to be not more than one-third full. Wipe steelware at once after washing; using clean, boiled towels after each meal. Keep three full baskets drying on deck during washing, and handle gear on shelves with clean hands. Wash mess- and galley-pans after washing mess-gear. Keep grease constantly skimmed off water in tanks during washing; keep water in rinsing-tank boiling hot. Serve out no gear earlier than forty-five minutes before meal is piped. Serve out CLEAN gear only. Replace any soiled or greasy gear turned in with clean gear. You are RESPONSIBLE for condition of gear served out. Wash out machine with clean water after each meal. Under way, secure dishes with screens over racks. Keep house shipped over the motor. These orders shall not be varied without specific authority. |
The above leads us to a change that is desirable and practicable in the current methods regarding mess-gear. Under present regulations and practice, each man is supposed to bring his mess-gear with him to the ship, and, if he has not a full set, to complete it by purchase from small stores. This is turned over to his messman who keeps it with those of others in the mess-locker. Theoretically, losses are to be replaced through purchase by the one responsible for them. As a matter of fact the gear gradually diminishes in amount until it reaches the minimum with which the mess can get along by sharing the use of spoons and knives, and using bowls, cups, and plates indiscriminately. In contrast, a ship's pantry, regulated as above described, keeps constant track of all gear, so that shortages may be replaced as they occur. With this pantry even the theory of individual responsibility must of course be abandoned. One must either hold the messman strictly responsible for losses, and give him opportunity to re place them, or replace them for him by using funds provided from the profits of the ship's store. In strict justice, neither of these methods should have to be depended upon, because there is a certain percentage of loss and deterioration in messgear, as with everything else on shipboard, which is unavoidable and incident to the service. This principle is recognized in the practice of allowing officers' messes a yearly percentage of loss on the ware issued to them.
The proper procedure, and the one we must come to, is to treat the general mess in the same way, issuing it a full set on commissioning, and allowing a certain reasonable yearly percentage to cover loss by breakage.
Apart from the ware from which food is eaten there still remains that for the condiments, as well as other mess furnishings, to be looked after. These include vessels for butter, syrup, vinegar, and catsup; also salt-cellars, pepper-shakers, mustard pots, bread-knives, ladles, can-openers, bread-boards, etc. All condiments should be kept off the mess deck to protect them from dirt. On the Missouri a place in the general mess issuing-room was found in which to put all this gear if it could be properly packed, and finally a "mess-box" was devised which proved most successful. It is of light galvanized iron with the mess bread-board used as a sliding cover. Its interior is fitted very simply with clips for the pitchers and rings to fit the bottoms of the butter dishes so that its contents will stand any ordinary handling without capsizing. Each box contains a full set of accessories for two tables and has room for a jar or so of preserves, canteen mustard, or milk, in case the mess wishes to indulge from the ship's store. It can be carried easily and is plainly numbered outside.
The boxes are provided in the general mess issuing-room, the compartment in which all broken packages of provisions are kept, and which is the commissary steward's headquarters. They are served out before each meal and returned just after; inspected each time they are brought back, and if not absolutely clean, refused admittance. As the masters-at-arms are instructed to allow no mess-boxes about the decks between meals, except for a short while after breakfast, while they are being furbished up for the day, it is distinctly "up" to the messmen to keep them tidy.
Incidental to the benefits to be derived from the use of these boxes, and their systematic inspection in one place, is the ability to serve butter cold for each meal, and to mix mustard evenly for all hands, details which have heretofore received practically no attention.
Of course mess-box gear is subject to accidents similar to those of the dishwashing compartment, but the method of controlling and replenishing losses, in the latter will apply equally well to the former. For this purpose it is well to carry in the ship's store a small stock of the articles found in the mess boxes.
The accompanying illustration will show better than any description the character of a mess-box and its set of accessories for two tables. It is from a photograph taken of one in daily use on the Missouri, each piece of which has been tried out by experience. On the left is shown a typical dishwasher basket piled with crockery ready for the machine.
ORDERS FOR MESS-BOXES. Inspect as turned in after each meal; refuse to accept any not in clean condition and ready for inspection; report any undue delay in turning in. Keep daily record, for report, of losses from boxes, and who is responsible for them. Provide all boxes in the general mess issuing-room. Allow nothing but perfectly fresh, clean material in boxes; in the case of butter be careful to have it hard when boxes are served out. Serve out no boxes earlier than forty-five minutes before meals are piped. |
Before taking leave of the question of mess-boxes, it may be well to add that the set of table accessories now furnished by the bureau of equipment is in need of modification. The vessels to hold condiments are not adapted to the boxes, having been designed to stow in the more spacious mess-lockers. The syrup and catsup-jugs seem to have been given their awkward shape to avoid danger of being capsized. Their broad bases and high narrow necks make them hard to clean and awkward to handle at table. On board the larger ships, at least, there is rarely motion enough to affect the stability of pitchers or jugs of the conventional coffee-pot shape, especially on swinging tables. In the boxes they are kept from disaster by clips and close stowage. I have found that pitchers having a capacity of a little over a pint, with covers without springs, simply but firmly hinged upon them, serve best. Vinegar should be kept in glass, preferably with a "squirt" top, as it corrodes metal and is used only in small quantities. Pepper and salt should also be in glass shakers. With the usage they get, glass serves as well as metal and looks very much better. The standard mustard-pots,—small butter dishes,—take up too much room for their relative importance in a mess-box. An ordinary china mustard-pot serves perfectly. The standard covered butter dishes now furnished are excellent.
The bureau of equipment also issues tureens and platters to carry food from the galley to the tables, and to be placed on the tables. These are naturally designed to contain in most cases food enough for one table only. Where this is true, it results in increasing the number of trips to and from the galley and adding to the time required to serve a meal after food once begins to leave the heaters. Time just at this point is most valuable as we shall see later. Further, these tureens and platters are of agateware. They are attractive in appearance when new but rapidly chip and become unsightly with the hard usage they receive. For the rough service between the galley and the messes, block tin ware is much better, and can be kept scrupulously clean no matter how battered it becomes.
Personally I believe it is not advisable to put food on the table in central dishes and let the men help themselves. It takes but a couple of minutes to serve the portions into the plates, saves much wrangling, keeps the table more clean and unincumbered, and, most important of all, saves waste of food. The messmen soon get expert in serving individual portions satisfactorily.
The foregoing description of conditions on a particular ship may serve to show what may be done without a proper ship's pantry. Also, how much these conditions could be improved if the designs of all future ships included a pantry of proper shape and size. This need not be very large, though it is probable that no other equal space would contribute so much to cleanliness, comfort, and contentment. Such a pantry Should be a tiled compartment amidships on the main deck with doors to starboard and port. A line of messmen could deliver the gear in baskets, ready packed for washing, at one door, to receive it at the next meal-time from the other, after it had passed through the machine and been carefully inspected. A communicating door could lead to the issue-room in which are kept the mess-boxes in racks and the stores with which they are replenished. Its equipment should also include a cold-box for butter or anything else it might be advisable to keep chilled. In such a pantry all the work of keeping table-gear in shape, washing, polishing, and providing, would be done behind closed doors, with the maximum of cleanliness, and the main deck would be entirely free of all such routine.
Next after cleanliness, achieved as outlined above, comes celerity in service. Every one realizes that the times for meals should not be changed when it can be avoided, but it is also important that no more time than is absolutely necessary should elapse in getting food from the galley to the table. The whole organization of messmen and the routine for serving out to them, should center about this point. All preparations should be made at the tables before the messmen go to draw their rations, and the serving out should be arranged so that the most essential parts of the meal leave the heaters last. All serving out should be held off until the last moment possible to allow just time and no more to get the food on the tables before the meal is piped. With a conveniently arranged galley, the cooked part of an ordinary meal for seven hundred men can be served in four minutes, as is demonstrated every day on board the Missouri, where two minutes are allowed for the last man served to get below and ready. Where mess strikers are not available to draw the tea or coffee at the same time the messmen are drawing the solid food, it is advisable to serve out the coffee or tea before the other, as it keeps its heat in mess pots long enough to make little difference. Indeed served out at boiling heat any time less than twenty minutes before the meal, it is found to retain its heat sufficiently, except in very cold weather.
Of course even the most efficient routine governing the movements of messmen for three-quarters of an hour before each meal would be of no avail if the food in the galley was cooked ahead of time and held, growing stale till the appointed moment for serving out. It is here that food service and food preparation touch.
FOOD PREPARATION.
In the galley, as on the mess deck, the essential requirement is attention to details. More preliminary work has to be done in the galley, however, to prepare for a modern organization. Much long-established usage has to be broken down and many changes in arrangement of equipment made before a proper routine can be started.
Even before the material has been altered to produce the greatest uniformity, cleanliness, and rapidity in cooking, the personnel of the galley and bake-shop needs taking in hand. Strange as it may seem, much actual instruction in cooking is necessary. Many slack methods must be condemned, and much has to be done to break up the traditional idea that the first law in the galley is the cook's convenience. Appreciation of the fact that food must not be ready till time to serve is one of the final lessons.
It must not be forgotten that, as a comparative innovation, the general mess inherits from the old regime many of the navy cooks in whom years of practical independence in their own work have bred much carelessness. Sometimes disciplinary measures are necessary to correct lazy methods. Examples are, the practice of cooking an entire meal in time to serve early messes and then allowing the food to dry and go stale by the time the regular meal hour comes, and that of serving thick slices or chunks of corned beef which has been removed from the ice-box so long as to become soggy. Ice-cold, tinned corned beef, sliced thin, is delicious, and a very different dish from the "canned willy" which deserves so many of the jokes leveled against it.
The watch-word in the galley should be "Serve warm dishes HOT, and cold ones COLD," and "No STALE food." On these hang all the galley laws. Meals timed to the minute, and steaming on the tables are no more an impossibility in the navy than elsewhere.
The material equipment of the galley and bake-shop usually has to be considerably altered to insure the maximum thoroughness in methods of preparation and celerity in serving out. The galley must do its part toward saving time between range and tables. The first step, and a long one, is to establish a freely moving serving line for the messmen, and if possible to banish them from the cook's enclosure by arranging to have them served outside the galley. This leaves the cooks the unrestricted use of their compartment, and gives no excuse for not keeping it clean at all times. Where possible, messmen should be formed in line outside and served through windows and doors by the cooks standing inside. On the Missouri, the solid food is passed either from or over the copper kettles, through the galley bulkhead, to the messmen lined up on the upper deck, while a pipe ending in a pair of serving faucets is led from the coffee urn through the bulkhead. These simple changes make it possible to delay serving out a meal until six minutes before it is piped. This, with all it implies, has only to be compared with the usual practice to give a realizing sense of what can be accomplished by systematic food-service applied to the general mess idea.
The ship's cook has always kept a clean galley and been neat in his person, so he will not give much trouble on the score of general neatness. But often he does not really care as to such matters as whether he is serving tea into pots containing more than the dregs of morning coffee, or if the mashed potatoes are filled with blue lumps that the old-fashioned pounder has failed to reduce. So he has to be given a routine which requires all pots to be inverted before going under the faucet; and he needs to be furnished with a patent potato-mashing device whose operation requires a plunger to force all potatoes through eighth-inch perforations in a galvanized cylinder.
It is hardly necessary to state that rigid inspection of all vessels into which food is served is of primary importance. If not presented by a messman in scrupulously clean condition he should be turned down without appeal, thus losing his place in line, and several of the precious minutes he has to husband so carefully. With mess-boxes served out forty-five minutes before the meal, mess gear, say, at thirty-five, coffee at twenty, down tables at fifteen ("mess gear"), and food at six minutes before, the messman hasn't much time to rectify mistakes.
Besides the potato-masher referred to there are several devices which may be used to insure proper and rapid methods of preparation on the part of the cooks. It is difficult to get several hundred pounds of meat sliced evenly at a time,—in fact it is next to impossible of accomplishment by hand, though the most experienced and reliable men are employed. Two years ago we tried to improve the process by connecting a grindstone to the small motor of the meat-grinding machine (now in general use), to make it easy to keep the knives sharp; but it was not until after obtaining an automatic meat-slicer that really satisfactory results were obtained. This little device works to perfection for all slicing of boned meat and removes the personal errors of the cook altogether.
A potato peeling machine, well known in the merchant marine, has recently furnished means for effecting a decided saving in the loss in peeling potatoes, and made the process of handling them much more cleanly.
The meat-grinder is a very useful and compact appliance. In addition to saving labor, being motor driven, it permits the introduction into the bill-of-fare of such dishes as Hamburg steak and pressed beef, which is often very helpful in ports where meat is of inferior quality.
The appearance in the bake-shop of an electrically driven dough-mixer, (like most of the devices named, including the dishwasher, used on the Missouri before any of our cruising ships), revolutionized the character of the bread baked on board. Instead of being subject to the vagaries of careless handling, the dough is evenly mixed by an iron dasher revolving in a mixing trough of the same material. The advance gained in cleanliness is even more than in uniform mixing. Any one who carries in his mind a picture of 'tween decks in the tropics, and the bakers stripped to the waist working over the dough trough, will appreciate the advantages of a mechanical dough-mixer.
A forty-quart power ice-cream freezer proved perhaps the most popular of the Missouri's innovations. For that reason alone, it justified its installation. In adding ice-cream, or waterice, to the fare, at sea or in port, on tropical cruises, it gave the men something tangible to boast of in their mess, and helped on materially that spirit of belief in the earnestness of its administration, which has been referred to as so important an element of success. More directly, the freezer furnishes a means of adding greatly to the variety of the food at small cost. Waterice may be given many flavors, and it is inexpensive to make. The ice-cream made on board is fully as good as much of that obtainable ashore for the simple reason that (though it is not generally known), both are made of the same perfectly disguised base,—condensed milk.
Some may smile at the association of sailors and ice-cream, but, fortunately for the navy, the day of the salt-horse, roughliving tar has passed. His place has been taken by clear-eyed, intelligent, American youths who are of the metal to endure hardship if necessary, but who know what clean living and good fare are; and they have the usual American notion of the festive nature of ice-cream. At all events, seven hundred such men on the Missouri regplarly consume from one hundred and sixty to two hundred quarts of it at a time in spite of smiles and musty traditions.
Of course the application of mechanical devices to galley. Work has decided limits. The very bulk of the articles that must be prepared at the same time excludes many dishes and methods of preparation. Egg-boilers for twenty-one hundred eggs, or a peeler and corer for a like number of apples would seem impracticable. But when they can be employed they also help to teach the cooks pride in careful methods and raise the standard of all work in the galley.
There is, however, a further improvement which I firmly believe can be introduced with great advantage. This is the doing away with the time-honored coal range and "Charlie Noble" and putting in its place electrical cooking appliances. The principal manufacturers of such devices in this country being overwhelmed with business, have not been able to work out, in detail, the requirements of this new field. Obvidusly, if this manner of cooking is practicable, as evidenced by the steady growth in the use of electrical utensils ashore, nowhere would it be more so than on a ship, where a power installation already exists and where ample reserve of power is constantly kept for an emergency. The first impulse is to dismiss the idea of electrical cooking as being too expensive. That is the current notion, and it may be true for the average citizen who pays the maximum charge,—not the cost,—to the power company for his electricity. But even under such adverse conditions, these utensils are steadily making their way into private houses. In many cases they have advantages which outweigh the question of expense, but in some localities, under favorable conditions, they are even found to be economical. Certainly they do not have to meet rigid competition. It is difficult to conceive a more wasteful appliance than the ordinary range. Besides the loss in preliminary heating and in cooling after use, in operation only the merest fraction of the heat produced by it is applied in cooking. In electric cooking the heat is applied or removed at will and at precisely the points desired. Practically none is lost through radiation or in preparation.
Such a plant in a ship's galley would have great advantages. It would improve the cleanliness of all the processes of cooking. It would eliminate the dust arising from the bituminous coal now used. The great heat too common in the confined spaces of many of our galleys, a heat which actually bleaches out the men in warm weather, would be obviated. It is even possible that such a galley would require a steam coil on occasions in winter. Lastly a decided saving in space could be effected, the estimate being that electric appliances would not occupy more than half the area of the present type of range. This would mean much to a small galley.
It is not proposed to substitute any devices for the steam cookers and kettles now in use. They are excellently clean and serviceable, being better for all boiling purposes than any others. Their presence is required also as ,an alternative means of cooking in case of accident and temporary repairs to dynamos, circuits or electric cookers. A sufficiently varied bill-of-fare for several days can, if necessary, be turned out with the kettles alone.
In recapitulation of this branch of the subject, a set of standing orders for the galley may as well be added.
GALLEY ORDERS. No one but ship's cooks to be allowed in galley while cooking and serving meals. No Stale Food.—Time all cooking to be ready at time for serving out, not before; cook food for early messes separately. No Cold Food.—Serve out all warm dishes hot; and not till six to ten minutes (depending on meal) before meal is piped. Take every precaution to keep iced dishes as cold as possible after coming from ice-box. Do not serve out coffee, tea, or cocoa till twenty minutes before meal is piped; a cook with a bucket to be stationed at the outlet while serving out. Invert all pots over bucket before filling. Inspect coffee pots and mess pans, and refuse to serve into any but scrupulously clean ones. No variation of these orders to be permitted without specific authority. |
We have now arrived at the more technical part of the subject which relates to food procurement, purposely placed at the end of this article on account of the less general interest of its matter. It forms, however, an integral part of the subject and an important one.
THE PROCUREMENT OF FOOD.
Most of the food consumed on board ship is furnished as part of the ration. Obtained at navy yards, principally New York, and under careful inspection, it is almost always of excellent quality. The same restrictions in the methods of purchase imposed by law, which so often delay the delivery of stores secured for other bureaus, on other than emergency requisitions, attend the procurement of provisions, especially at the smaller yards. General storekeepers at such stations are not justified in keeping a larger stock of perishable articles than will supply foreseen demands, and it is one of the inherent difficulties of the service that the time and place of the demand for stores for cruising ships cannot always be anticipated. It would be well if specified standard brands of provisions could be immediately procured locally by general storekeepers on telegraphic authority to meet hurry calls.
The ration is excellent. Experience with it shows that it might be amended in minor particulars, but practice varies strangely on different ships. I am not, however, a believer in the present system of issuing the ration. The law and regulations permitting the commutation of rations do not fit the general mess system as well as the earlier scheme of individual messes for which they were designed. Any plan like present commutation, based on an arbitrary value of the ration, and bearing as little real relation to the issues, will tend towards carelessness and waste.
The present practice is to commute up to one-fourth of the total number of rations allowed. Of the three-fourths remaining, issued in kind, in the case of some articles, the amount is ample to meet the total demand therefor. In one or two cases it is largely in. excess of all needs. A large part of the fund arising from commutation is, however, used in the purchase of the excess required over issues in kind of staple articles, like fresh meats, vegetables, flour, etc., leaving a comparatively small part of the fund available for the purchase of spices for the galley, fruit, eggs, fish, and various other articles outside the ration. The possible existence of accumulations over all needs which can be legally charged off the books, and the paying out of government funds to the general mess, only to pay back again, constitute the basic objections to the present system. To put it specifically, if a mess is entitled to hundreds of pounds of macaroni over all needs, and has difficulty in coming out even on the allowance of some other article, it is hard to inculcate the idea in stewards and cooks that issues of macaroni must be rigidly limited to actual needs, as in the case where they have to do their best to come out square. Further, without dishonest intent, but solely for the advancement of the mess, the idea in such a case is apt to present itself of some sort of bookkeeping trade by which excess allowances may be balanced against shortages.
Again in illustration, suppose in adjusting a month's business the allowance of meat for issues in kind is found to be overdrawn. Some of it must be paid for from commutation money. Which, the cheaper or the more costly? No regulation could be framed to fit the facts justly in all cases; and yet it is clearly evident that if all the expensive varieties be considered as issues in kind, and all the cheaper be paid for, the general mess will be the gainer by many dollars to spend on the "extras" that count so much towards its reputation. Proper as this result may be, it is not within the spirit of the law.
It is not possible to find any point in the scale of commutation which will fit the needs of the mess exactly, and reconcile all differences between the demand and supply, for the reason that each item in the ration presents its own situation varying from month to month. They cannot all be made to fit where arbitrary commutation and a fixed quantity for rations both exist. One or the other of these elements must be made flexible, and should he so related that the amount available to spend for extras shall depend wholly on the exertions made to keep down the issues.
The solution has been suggested of abolishing commutation altogether, and forcing the men to live on the ration "straight." Possibly with this in view, the subject of an expanded ration is now before Congress. The present ration as designed did not contemplate it. Some articles like spices, necessarily used in cooking, were left out, the idea being that these could be bought as needed. So were many others of wholesome nature which give the present wide variety to the men's fare and the use of which it would be most unwise to prevent. These include such articles as fresh fish and shell fish, fresh fruit, and berries, fresh and dessicated eggs, fresh milk, potato chips, tapioca, fruit syrup, etc., of incontestable importance.
A proper and convenient solution, which not only removes temptation to extravagances or substitution, but actually supplies an incentive to economy, lies in a system where all rations would be considered as issued, all amounts in excess of needs taken up as gains on issue, and the cash value of such gains would accrue as .a fund for other purchases. Whether this could be arranged without Congressional action would probably have to be determined by the proper judicial officers, but it is a sane exit from the present difficulties. No authority would be necessary to stop commuting rations to the general mess if a way could be found to secure the value of "savings" to it. In any event Congress must be called on to expand the ration to include necessary items in case living on the straight ration is contemplated. The establishment of anything but a "blanket" ration, which will include any article of food, without means of giving it elasticity to meet all sorts of conditions, can only result in restricting the fare.
Under a "spend-your-savings" system every inducement would be held out to limit issues to actual needs in order that more might be gained for the general mess fund. Without going too far into accounting technicalities, this plan would do away with the general mess statement. This, while convenient, is anomalous in our system of accounting for stores and is not a success as an accurate periodic check on the condition of the mess. No audit is so unless it verifies all the assets, stores as well as cash, and not many general mess examinations include an inventory, verified by the board, of stores shown to be on hand. This plan would allow inclusion of mess operations in the provision return where they belong. Since the full value of issue in kind has been expended from the Government's standpoint, simpler vouchers than public bills might be conveniently used for expenditures from "savings." With the addition of a regulation limiting the amount of the total assets over liabilities of the mess as shown by cash due under savings, a certified inventory of all stores on hand to some proper amount per man,—or a fixed amount for receiving ships,—to prevent undue accumulations, and a certified statement concerning outstanding liabilities, the scheme would be complete.
Of the procurement of stores bought from general mess funds there is little to say. With all the will in the world some persons cannot buy as skillfully as others. The rules requiring written bids on large purchases, samples with bids, with insistence of high standards of quality, and always two unconnected bidders on any purchase, are characteristic of any business dealing. Generally, success in buying varies in direct ratio to the amount of "shopping" done. It is very convenient to get into touch with hotel men in any locality in which there is much to be bought; and to avoid as much as possible that most accommodating middleman whose place of business consists of a desk and a telephone with connections to the houses one should deal with direct.
As for the tricks of the trade, these must be learned by bitter experience. After the first delivery of oysters bought by the gallon, under competition, and the discovery that the successful bidder meant "wet" gallon of such dampness that the oysters in the liquor were almost past finding out, one will never again forget to buy his oysters "dry." Then the question of gross and net weight is apt to be most delicate if not settled beforehand. A painfully acquired knowledge of trade discounts is apt to be of great help. Rebates on published tariffs are not wholly peculiar to the railroad business.
In the delivery of general mess stores my experience is that the verification of quantities delivered, provided in the regulations, is not positive enough for the pay officer. The officer of the deck is a very busy man, especially at the time stores are coming aboard in greatest quantities; and he has few men on whom he can lay his hands who possess the requisite knowledge of the weight and quality of mess stores in commercial packages to do the checking. So it often happens that the commissary steward, who, as the man most intimately connected in the procurement of the stores, needs most to be protected in verifying the delivery, is left to check them himself and the deck officer certifies on the steward's say-so.
By far the greater value of stores received on board is not even included in this defective routine. Fresh provisions are bought as parts of the ration. For the verification of these deliveries the regulations do not provide except to indicate in general terms that it shall be done by the overburdened officer of the deck.
Once, the "system superintendent" of one of New York's largest department stores summed up his experience to me substantially as follows: "An ineffective check is worse than no check at all, for it breeds contempt of the system. A one-man check is dangerous and unfair to the man in exposing him to temptation or possible accusation that he cannot refute. Two men to check, if they be from different sides of the business and not always in the same combination, is best practically. Multiplying checks after that increases cost, makes paper work, and does very little good."
On this theory a simple system of checks can be based for all stores received of whatever nature. The most available man at the time amongst the steward and yeomen on a large ship can intelligently check every item coming aboard and certify to the quantity by his initials next the receipt entry in a book (showing (late, quantity, and from whom ordered; price, date, and quantity received). No one is permitted, naturally, to make the check entry in the case of stores with which he is directly connected, though the man interested always does see, for his own protection, that the delivery is complete. Thus a two-man check in varying combinations is successfully obtained. Everyone should understand that his initials stand for a positive personal verification. Occasional personal checking, inspection, and questioning on the part of the commissary officer assure this. On this record all bills can be verified and paid.
On a ship too small to have enough experienced men in the pay force to carry out such a system, the commanding officer might designate by name reliable men to verify all receipts of stores, as called on.
Though there is necessarily some detail in these pages in explanation of its fundamental features, the subject of general mess administration has funds of technical detail not pertinent to an article intended for general service reading, but still important to those most directly interested. There are many advances in knowledge concerning it yet to be made, and much skill in handling it yet to be gained, the readiest way to which should be through the record and interchange of experience. With this idea, I have ventured to break the ice, and what little I can add in experience will be done gladly in case it is desired in direct correspondence.
In the meantime, if this article emphasizes the importance of further systematizing general mess organizations, especially with regard to food service—and results in an inquiry into many present methods, its main point will be gained.