A Steward’s Responsibilities

Well, once I was a steward I was feeding engineers in the officer and then the mess boys would feed the crew and then you’d wash the dishes and clean up the tables and then on Norwegian ships there’s always two coffee breaks, one at ten and one at three, and Norwegian is one of the best ships that you ever get for food. Wow. During convoys we were eating Virginia ham and turkeys and beef, nothing was short. A good, good menu so there was plenty of food. And every time in the steward department you had 15 cold cuts. That was 15 different cold meat that you had on a platter. That was like an entree before you had the meal so that was a pretty good living on a Norwegian ship as far as food goes. When we used to tie up sometimes with a Greek or British ships. They were very tight on their food and they use to trade and barter with us for a tin of ham or something like that and we’d get something else in return.