Food at Sea
Seafarers today live like kings. They have all the food requirements that you would get in a hotel or a cruise ship. Deep freezes fresh vegetables etc. It was very different in the 1950s and 60s on board a 1920s reciprocating steam engine ship. The primary task of the ship, of course, is to go from A to B, but production of fresh water for the boiler to run the engine's and also for consumption by the crew was very important. But if there was a lack of fresh water it was the crew that suffered. There were no refrigerators. So the production of ice was quite important to maintain not only the beer cool, but the fresh vegetables cool. To combat this we often carried fresh meat in the form of live chickens, goats, sheep, etc. They used to live in boxes aft. So maintaining a healthy diet was quite a task for the purser. We had to order food at every port we arrived at. So leaving the UK, winter or summer, the first port was Port Said at the northern entrance to the Suez Cana...