Act of Congress, gives the sailor — if he eats it all — fully 4,000 calories a day. The foods served at all messes aboard ship include all fresh vegetables and fruits, Grade-A milk and dairy products, and only the best meats. A cruiser, which has a complement of about 1,200 men, carries in her food-storage compartment sufficient foods to feed all messes fresh vegetables and fruits, fresh meat and dairy supplies for six weeks at a time. Using emergency rations, she can stay out at sea for three months without revictualing.
The food-storage compartments, refrigerators, the butcher shop, bakeshop, and the galleys all come under the doctor's jurisdiction as the ship's public-health officer. He inspects them from time to time and issues orders relative to keeping these and the heads (toilets) clean. The master-at-arms, who is the ship's chief of police, sees that these orders are carried out.
The orders go into careful housekeeping details. No meat may be chopped and set aside to be cooked and served the next day. Chopped meat may not be kept in the refrigerators in containers deeper than three inches. Hash and ham seem to be two foods which cause a great deal of food poisoning. Therefore, the Navy rules that boiled ham should be served hot. If it is intended to be served cold, it must be placed in the chill box shortly after boiling and kept there until time for it be served to the men. Cream puffs and chocolate eclairs are taboo in the tropics.
Fighting on this front, the medical officers teach the mess cooks and food handlers to watch carefully for spoiled food, some of which can be detected by its appearance and smell. Cans of food which are dented or show bulges or nail holes must be discarded. All meats must be thawed in the chill box. Dish towels must be sterilized and dried on deck in the sun and air.
Few home kitchens are as spotless and sanitary as a ship's galley. It is not unusual to find that the master-at-arms has stationed a guard by the dishwashing machine to see that the water used in it is of the high temperature required by Navy regulations.
Red tape? Not a bit of it! Just preventive housekeeping, which
