Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 203, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 September 1917 — Cooks on Uncle Sam’s Big Battleships Nowadays Must Be Electrical Experts Also [ARTICLE]

Cooks on Uncle Sam’s Big Battleships Nowadays Must Be Electrical Experts Also

Naturally, with this busy day of drills and recreations and the tang of salt air, the men of the battleship’s crew eat heartily. The mess attendants for the officers are Filipino boys. Nowadays, on ships like the dreadnaught Nevada, the cook of the ship, always an Important and well-paid post, is a trained electrician, writes F. E. Evans in St. Nicholas. Every bit of W’ork in the Nevada’s galley is done by electricity. The cook turns a switch, and along the line of electric ovens the appetizing meats, the potatoes —that are peeled by electricity — the soups and the vegetables begin to steam and fizzle. Electric hoists carry the pans and pots with their steaming foods to the dqpks below and the cleaning and scouring of the ironware dishes is done by an electric dishwasher. The navy feeds its men from the pick of the market, because its paymasters, buying dally for so many men, get the best at wholesale prices. The mess tables, scrubbed until they are white, are slipg in racks above the deck when not in use, and as soon as the meals are served, all signs of them are removed in ship-shape manner. Because every bit of space

aboard ship is precious, each man has his mess table, hammock, sea bag and gun all in the same casemate. To help out the sweet tooth of the crew, which is a big one, the paymaster also carries a large stock of candy and other tidbits that are sold at low prices. And twice a week, he serves chicken and Ice cream to his big family. The days of hardtack and of the old “shellback” sailorman are gone. The modern sailorman can no longer “pass the weather earing,” but he is a handier, better-cared-for and more useful man to his country than the old tar.