Seasoned With Salt


Seasoned With Salt

"Bad cooking is responsible for more trouble at sea than all other things put together."
Thomas Fleming Day

I just finished re-reading John Rousmaniere's Fastnet Force 10, a recounting of the adventures and tragedies of the 1979 Fastnet Race, and was struck by a number of quotations about food, mentioned in the book, and in other tales of the sea.

"The sea drives truth into a man like salt. A coward cannot long pretend to be brave at sea, nor a fool to be wise, nor a prig to be a good companion, and any venture connected with the sea is full of venture and can pretend to be nothing more."
Hilaire Belloc

"When the mast was jammed into the trough [of a forty foot wave] we stopped like we had hit a brick wall. Food exploded out of the refrigerator and flew into the navigation station. Cottage cheese had become a lethal weapon."
John Tuttle-Desperado-Fastnet 1979

"During the afternoon we ate some muesli with hot milk and about ten spoons of sugar each, not a very appetizing dish, but this with Mars bars and bananas was all that we could manage in our predicament. The Mars bars were tremendous – we ate forty-eight in three and a half days. Bananas were also good, as they were easy to eat. We even used the skins to make a “floral” arrangement in a mug in an effort to brighten up the cabin!"
Matthew and Frances Power-Autonomy-Fastnet 1979

"No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned... a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company."
Samuel Johnson

And, of course, the Three Stages of Sea-Sickness:
Stage 1 - You think that you are going to die.
Stage 2 - You want to die!
Stage 3 - You are afraid you won't die.

Comments

  1. Tim O'BrienAugust 26, 2016 at 2:17 PM

    And there's always that one guy who eats all the Pringles before you even get the sails up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Drew McCarthyAugust 26, 2016 at 3:35 PM

    Or Bogarts the Cookies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Timothy StreetAugust 27, 2016 at 7:42 AM

    Our cook on the USCGC Point Estero was a piece of (non) work - as soon as the lines were cast off he would hit the bunk claiming to be ill. The 82' patrol boats were infamous for their rolling - but not alongside the dock! At least it provided the opportunity for me to learn the time consuming intricacies of removing and replacing crew members due to medical problems.

    In the meantime, I made the cook stock microwavable foods so we could at least eat something hot while underway - I particularly liked the frozen french bread pizzas. One night I was enjoying a meal hot out of the oven - I commonly ate alone when sees were rough - and the 2nd class machinist mate was aroused by the aroma enough to heat himself a pizza. Shortly after, I was relaxing at the rail with my after dinner smoking pipe, when I heard the snipe in question bounding up the ladder from the messdeck. He didn't quite make it to the side, but it was a gallant effort - his hand locked over his mouth and sliced pepperoni and green peppers bulging out between his fingers. I congratulated my shipmate; telling him that not everyone had the ability to puke in technicolor . . . .

    ReplyDelete

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