While doing some book research, I happened upon an article from the Railway and Marine News, Vol. XIX, No. 4, April 1921. It describes the task of feeding passengers aboard the RMS Olympic, sister ship of the Titanic.
THREE tons of meat are eaten in a single day, and every day on a voyage, on board a giant steamship in the busy season on the Atlantic ferry. The ship then carries 3,500 persons on each trip across the ocean.
Including her crew of 878, and long experience has shown her chief steward that a proper daily allowance of meat per person is about a pound and three-quarters. At that rate, the average total of meat taken from the refrigerators and cut up for cooking In various ways is 6,000 pounds a day.
This does not reflect the consumption of chickens, which averages 500 a day, nor ducks, geese, and turkeys, or 1,000 game birds consumed on each voyage, nor of fish, the latter averaging 3,000 pounds a day.
In addition to these staples, the people on board manage to dispose of 4,000 eggs daily and 480 quarts of milk every 24 hours. Passengers and crew consume butter at the rate of 200 pounds a day, and 2,700 jars of jam and 1,900 jars of marmalade disappear on the voyage like dew before the morning sun, the figures being for one of the world’s largest liners - the White Star Liner Olympic.
Fresh vegetables are an Important feature of every bill of fare. For each round trip, 25 tons of potatoes are taken aboard. They are consumed at the rate of about two tons a day while the ship is at sea-of these 600 pounds are mashed, and in proportion, while she is in port, for her crew are hearty eaters.
Three tons of carrots, three tons of turnips and 2,500 heads of cabbage, weighing about five tons, are also taken aboard for every voyage. A hundred crates of lettuce, a ton of Bermuda onions, or a similar quantity of Brussels sprouts are ordinary items in the ship’s victualling list.
When apples are ordered, 250 boxes are none too many for a voyage. Grape fruit comes aboard 100 boxes at a time and oranges In 200-box lots.
Included in the meat item of provisions for the voyage are 8,000 pounds of bacon and 2,500 pounds of hams, which are the primary salt meats carried. Lamb and mutton figure largely in the fresh meat supply, about 200 carcasses being taken on board for each voyage.
There's more at the link.
I compare those to the average meal on board an airliner today, whether short- or long-haul, and feel like crying. Gone are the days when passengers were well treated - and well fed! On the other hand, I daresay cruise liners must be at least close to the Olympic in the quantities of food taken aboard and served to passengers. I've never taken a cruise, so I can't comment, but perhaps readers who have can share their experiences with us.
Peter
9 comments:
The recipe book should make for amusing reading......take a herd and 3/4 of beef (dehorned-skinned-gutted-deboned for second class and above), two trainloads of taters, 1 1/2 barges (L) greens, two swimming pools of olive oil & vinegar...
Washing up under the supervision of Peety Officer Sysiphus, a diligent man of Greek extraction.
If you go hungry on a cruise, it's your fault.
My wife and I once took a river cruise on the Rhine River, a 7-day trip from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland. Every morning and evening the dining room served up some extremely well-cooked and delicious meals. I'm sure they restocked the kitchen at every stop along the way, not something an ocean liner can do. But the kitchen and wait staff were perfect, and breakfast could be from a buffet line, or eggs cooked to order by a chef, or something ordered from the kitchen. We were never disappointed by the food. One day we would like to take a cruise on the Danube. The European rivers are not large enough to accommodate big ships, so each river cruise ship only holds about 125 to 200 passengers.
You can eat well on a plane. Just not in the West and not in Economy. Have a look on YouTube for Alan Whicker’s 1982 QE2 cruise documentary.
You can eat well on a cruise - quantity as well as quality - although they have started charging if you order more than 3 entrees at dinner. The one thing Americans have to learn is that the servings on a cruise are real servings, not US servings, but the buffet is open late, so you can top off there.
Longest cruise I've taken was 6 days, so until I win the Mega Millions I can't tell you if the quality or quantity suffer on the longer cruises.
My wife and I have done one big ship (~3,000 passenger) and one small ship (~100 pax) cruises, both fed us very well. The thing I took away from the article was the sheer amount of meat (beef, chicken, fish) that was consumed every day. Was every dinner a 7 course meal in 1st class?
There's actually a medieval/early renaissance cookbook titled "Take a Thousand Eggs or More." Which, well, is all about feeding a herd of feasters.
I can imagine that modern era (steam ship or later) cookbooks are very much similar.
There is a great U-tube video of refueling and re victualing Queen Mary II at each port. They move an amazing amount of stuff in a very short period of time.
Not related to food, but does anyone remember who the first captain of the Olympic was? Captain E. J. Smith of Titanic fame. There was an issue on the Olympic when leaving port where the suction from the propellers pulled a warship away from it's berth. The ships collided, causing damage to both. In spite of Smith's more well-known problems he did learn from that experience and avoided a near repeat with the Titanic. Just an odd bit of history. I read about it from a newspaper clipping from 1911 that contained another article about my ex-wife's uncle.
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