Of personal note, it paid off to become friends with the night baker. All bread and pastries were prepared by the night baker for the following day. If you were working late and you knew the night baker, you could get yourself some fresh bread or the like. Our night baker was a huge sports fan, so as a communicator, I could get all of the latest ball scores and trade them for cinnamon rolls.
Thats pretty good advice anywhere you go. After high school I worked at a large supermarket in the Dairy. our first delivery was around 3 AM. The bakers started around 4. Worth being friendly with them, not much better than hot doughnuts or fresh cheesebread after you've been working in a freezer for a couple of hours. wasn't an official thing, and one middle manager tried to stop it. Didnt last very long as a policy, the owner quickly approved the practice. turns out hot bread is excellent for moral. and he would normally get some doughnuts for his afternoon coffee to, and didnt think we should go without either. just had to keep it on the down-low, so the day staff didnt get in on it. was a pretty good boss ;-)
Are we just going to ignore the stand mixer that's about as tall as Ryan? One of the small details that fascinated me about WWII is the bakery ships (USS Abatan) and the ice cream barge that followed the Pacific fleet to Ulithi.
I used to work at a pizza shop that had one like that, maybe only 6-12" shorter. It had a huge stainless bowl that we made our own pizza dough and sauce in.
This was a really nice one. Seeing the galley though it raises more questions than it answers as far as the layout (and the smaller steam kettle). And yeah, that lone refrigerator near the counter (what am I saying, it's ALL counters). I don't think it would have held enough Jell-O™ for 2000 sailors. This is one of the areas I would have loved to see you accompanied by someone who used to work in that space because I'm sure that galley was laid out for efficient operation. I know money is always tight and I emphasize you did a great job but I would have liked to see a recently retired US Navy Culinary specialist (like from an Aircraft Carrier) walk through there with you and compare the layout and equipment with what they're familiar with.
When I mess cranked I worked that beverage bar that he briefly pointed out. Bug juice was 5 gallons of water, 5lbs of sugar, 1 pack of concentrated powder flavoring(Boatswain mates would ask for packets and soak the lifeline turnbuckles to clean them)
I wonder if that acidic beverage mixture (bug juice) was the inspiration for the various "green" cleaning solvents such as Simple Orange and Simple Green?
my best guess on why the galley is not allowed to be activated is because of the fire hazard that any galley poses to a ship. on a ship that is still active its not a problem because the damage control crew is always at hand to deal with it but on a museum ship there is no damage control and your local fire department is not trained to fight fires on a battleship.
@@ytcensorhack1876 we just had a fire today on a Stena line passenger ship here on the Baltic sea caused by a freezer container on the car deck. And it knocked the power out and engine room. And the only way the ship survived was becuse the DC crew was able to put the fire out.
@@michaelcoachtechvp2846 But, as Our Curator said, if the ship were to be reactivated, they'd replace all the galley equipment. But, of course, it will never be reactivated.
During my time in the Navy, the food was one of the best perks. Especially loved mid-rats, short order cook would make just about anything you wanted. I felt sorry for the ground pounders, Jar-heads and fly- boys (Army, Marine Corps and Airforce). Of all the bases I've been to, we always had the best food.
Lucky you. Our mid-rats in port were a paper sack containing a minimal sandwich (2 slices of deli ham, 1 slice of almost-cheese) wrapped in waxed paper, a mustard packet, a mayo packet, 1 hoard-boiled egg, an apple or orange, and a little boxed orange juice...all lovingly prepared by the Duty MS and staff, who had no watches or other duties until breakfast prep, and were very fond of their TV/rack time which started as soon as the evening meal cleanup was done and the mid-rats were prepped. The saving grace was that our chief could authorize our junior man on duty section to leave the ship...and he appreciated a good pizza as much as the next man. Underway was a bit better. The bagged sandwiches became loaves of bread next to a "Sandwich Bar"...ham, almost-cheese (Kraft slices), lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, mayo, mustard. Apples and oranges went in a bowl, as did the hard-boiled eggs. Once in a while you might even find single-serve bags of chips. Huge bowls of saltine crackers were generally available 24X7 for the convenience of new crew who turned interesting colors at the thought of actually eating food. If what you wanted was HOT food since you missed chow due to being on watch, you learned to like canned ravioli in huge pans on the steam table. Saddest part is that I was on a Replenishment Oiler, so it wasn't that we didn't have the storage space for fresh food. It was strictly an issue of our shipmates wishing to expend as little time/energy as possible. Our refrigerated/frozen food storage capacity included potential cargo capacity as well, and totaled about 200 TONS, all optimized to be stocked by forklifts in pallet quantities.
I got pulled out of an area twice by marines, the only time this Army Combat Engineer got to be on a boat other than for making bridges and water skiing after. I agree the food was great on both of the ships. Both times we got stuck in with the chiefs. Now one mess sergent we had, went to a cooking school and OMG. His was the best in the military. I've been to Marine and Naval base mess halls, but on the ship and when we had that one mess sergent those were the times I had the best food. He also came from the pentagon.
I spent a night in the USS Hornet with my kids with their Boy Scout troop. Must have been 16-17 years ago. I don't remember what exactly we ate but there was a lot of left-over corn.
In my 20+ years in the Navy, I served on many types of ships. Every ship had at least one extended deployment of six months or more. Seeing your “coppers” (kettles) brought back many fond memories.
@@4evaavfc Ahhhhhh those treasured memories. In Great Lakes boot camp (1971), I, only once, slept through reveille and was awaked by cold water, while still in my rack!!
I spent the night on the Lexington when I was 8 or 9. Then when I was 28 I spent a whole bunch of nights on the Carl Vinson. I'll let you guess which one I enjoyed more.
Informative. I've been aboard a Liberty ship while she was steaming at the dock. They use a coal burning galley not steam as I would have guessed. That was a surprise. I've spent the night on a number of museum ships. All at San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park. Balcutha, C.A. Thayer, and on a number of voyages on Alma, the until recently, still actively sailed Hay Scow. One night I forgot to bring my sleeping bag so I just made a cozy hammock out of the furled foresail. We slept through and earthquake that night. We had no clue because we were on a boat. Would like to sleep on a bigger ship. There are three near me but I don't know if they are doing overnights at this time.
07:44 yeah I know back in the 1960s a fire broke out in the petty officer's mess aboard the HMS Victorious, 1 crew member died and 2 were hospitalised and it used as a reason to retire the carrier even though she was going to retire in 1970 as she was getting to the end of her service life
Two things. I would love to see you walk through the galley of Alabama/Massachusetts/North Carolina and compare the WWII US Galley design to the modern one you have on New Jersey. Second, Have you thought of petitioning the Navy for an addendum to let you use more of the Galley since the Iowas have been pulled from all the "must maintain in reactivatable conditions" clauses? When they were first pulled it made sense to preserve everything since the ships had been reactivated many times before, but now reactivation seems a far distant possibility.
My scout troop was Not happy when they found out they had to help serve dinner. But when they finished up they talked about it for hours. Thanks so much to the staff that made it such a great experience for the boys both times that we have been there. And I didn’t even notice that the barbet was in the kitchen. I love these videos for little things like that you don’t notice when you are there and have so much to look at.
I have never spent over night on a ship but I have spent many nights in an underground nuclear command and control facility and the galley is very similar to a ship's mess.
Very good coverage and explanation, thank you. Had the opportunity to sleep over with a Cub Scout Den on Silverside, when she was at Navy Pier in Chicago. I even was the "cook' for Breakfast and used the onboard stove and other equipment. The kids were tasked with the "cleanup", which was supervised by the onboard caretaker. This was in the '80s and was winter time. Cold night on Lake Michigan !!!
I made fantastic ginger potroast when I cooked on ships. In my last ship, the crew wouldn't eat when the other watch cooked because my cooking was so much better. I actually cared about how the crew liked the food. Often times I ate cup o noodles when I was off. When I was night baker, I also prepared midrats. Some one the crew would get up at night just to eat the soups I made for midrats depending who cooked during the day.
Underway, our MS staff would drag their complaining asses out of their racks for midrats long enough to toss sandwich makings out on the salad bar and get at least one large insert of canned ravioli in the oven to reheat. As far as the general menu went, we once ended up with a Suppo and most of the MS staff all originating from a particular Pacific Island. Things changed rapidly after the CO made a surprise run through the Enlisted Chow Line for breakfast due to an overflowing complaint box and found the Eggs-To-Order section was indeed replaced by rice, fish, and a rice/fish mixed dish. EVERY meal included fish and rice, and the "normal" menu items showed where the care was NOT being taken to ensure quality...but the fish was always perfect. Amazing how quickly a pissed CO can make demographic and menu changes happen. Daily rice and fish went over with the sliders and hot dogs, and new guys appeared who treated recipe cards as suggestions rather than some sort of Bible, and actually understood that pink in the middle of a steak didn't mean that it was uncooked. In related news, a lot of the goodies in the Ship's Store were replaced by items with labels printed in the English language.
I've spent many nights on the New Jersey with the scouts and I have great memories. I want to come back and just crawl all over the ship you've got my dream job Ryan!
I was an assistant scout master for troop 76 in Sea Isle City. We did several overnights aboard the ship in my time. The kids always seemed to love it.
WESTPAC '85. On board USS OGDEN LPD-5 for about 11 months. I do miss navy chow especially morning chow. I dearly miss powdered eggs! Had regular eggs on weekends. Also had excellent "steel beach" days on missions of steaks n lobsters. Ah memories😎
I spend the night on New Jersey about 15 years ago now as a boy scout. I also remember getting picked to serve food from that very galley. LOL, and i also remember that huge mixer.
The B&W video from the ship's early years showing the chow line without the sneeze guard and the sailors sitting down eating was a nice touch. People tend to forget that when the Iowas were designed they were designed to hold up to 5,000 sailors, so space was at a premium. As the ship was modernized it took less crew to serve it, so the size of the crew shrunk and not as much space was needed for areas like berthing and eating. I am curious, though - how did they get those big ovens below deck like that? And how did they get the old ones out? No way they fit them through the crew hatches.
Another possible reason for not reactivating the galley is local health codes. To serve people, you'd have to have an inspected commercial kitchen. That means the ventilation system has to be up to snuff. The navy may have wanted to avoid getting caught up in that, especially since the museum aspect would have limited what mods they could do.
Maybe not health codes but OSHA would likely have a field day if they reactivated the equipment in the current layout. The military has always seen OSHA as more of a nuisance than an actual regulatory agency
I spent the night on the NJ as a cub scout some 15 years ago, its amazing how much more of the ship is available and restored now. If I'm ever back up that way I may just have to stop by.
My perspective includes eight months of overnight stays on the LPH-10/USS Tripoli and land based dining facilities during my 27-year military career (due to taking a break for school and to be an overseas contractor, this took 35 years). Part of my "real-world" experience included using mess halls that dated back to the 19th Century but updated. As a member of the Army National Guard in the early 21st Century some of the places I stayed for various schools dated from the First World War and even with updates there were placards warning "don't eat the lead based paint chips." I think that the curator covered the many reasons why the mess deck equipment couldn't be reactivated. Safety is a biggie--during the Seventies asbestos removal began, some of the chemicals used on the ship are now prohibited, and some of the equipment used high temperature steam at pressure--are those fittings and pipes still safe to use at high temperatures and high pressures? That reminds me--I'll have to find someone who is authorized to tell me if secondary steam off of nuclear-powered warships such as CVN-65/USS Enterprise was used in the galley. When that nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was commissioned, there were different radiation safety standards, and even though secondary steam shouldn't be a radiation hazard, I'm not fully read on with the current nuclear safety standards. That brings up engineering and the need to run the oil-fired boilers on BB-62/USS New Jersey in order to run some of the equipment. Not only would there be a problem with those 80-year-old boilers and the bunker oil used, but there'd be EPA issues with burning bunker oil, with spills while transferring oil into the fuel bunkers, with the fact that sea water was used in the fuel bunkers, and then we can get back into the safety issue with running the engineering plant. Oil-fired steam ships used to run at least one boiler even with shore power due to the use of their on-board equipment requiring both electricity and live steam. Finally there's food sanitation standards. Some military museums have old field kitchens dating back more than 100 years. I've had experience with field kitchens up through the first decade of the 21st Century (not a cook or baker!) through being on mess duty, eating at field messes, NCO duties to maintain sanitation and safety in field kitchens, and I spent a decade working as a logistician (National Guard day job, lucky me--my M-Day unit was communications). I got to see old equipment dating from as far back as World War Two (still current when I joined the Corps in 1974) to the 21st Century mobile field kitchens rated to feed 800 people three meals per day. In the National Guard, those field kitchens form part of their state's disaster relief stores and if deployed (along with a LOT of canvas and folding tables and chairs) those field kitchens would have been very welcome. The presenter said that the New Jersey enlisted galleys fed 2000 men per day during World War Two and a smaller crew during Vietnam and the Gulf War. Warships never sleep. The enlisted galley would have provided at least four meals per day--mid rats, breakfast lunch (or dinner) and dinner (or supper) and would have had someone on duty around the clock. If at battle stations when it wasn't practical to run regular chow--or when riding out hurricanes--the mess crew would have prepared sandwiches with soup or coffee so that the crew could still eat--sometimes at their battle station. Note that due to a very hard limit on crew size (the people you left the dock with was all you had during General Quarters) many ship's services personnel such as barbers and tailors and laundry and cooks and bakers would have had a damage control assignment, possibly a battle station, and would have been required to wear something other than their mess duty uniform at General Quarters. Where did the mess crew go during General Quarters? Speaking of battle stations, that would be a good video if there isn't already one or two--being at battle stations changes everything. Sometimes the crew could be authorized to have some sleep time while at general quarters, I just mentioned feeding the crew while at general quarters, moving around at Condition X-Ray inside the ship would have been difficult because of the need to get authorization before opening the water-tight hatches, and personnel accountability would have been tight--tighter than in elementary schools were the kids have to ask permission to take a bathroom break during class. The crew would have been wearing whatever their battle station equipment was.
I remember staying overnight on New Jersey YEARS ago with the Boy Scouts. I wish I could remember more of the trip since I became obsessed with American warships about a year ago lol
Having worked in commercial kitchens, one of the things that jumps out at me is the lack of (visible) fire suppression nozzles. Probably another contributing factor for the galley being inactive. Also the sheer amount of man-hours that go into keeping a kitchen (properly) clean is staggering.
I had the opportunity to eat in the galley of the Kitty Hawk when I was in the USCG Bicentennial Marching Band. We played at a citizenship ceremony for several of their crew. The food was decent. I remember how wild it was to have so many food choices. We didn’t even have that at the USCG TRACEN Cape May where we were stationed! Great video as always!
The steam jacketed kettles are “coppers” in navy parlance. What call ranges are actually griddles. In my day navy CSs began their career as a grill cook, the worker their way up to the oven king, then the copper king.
On an LST the galley was on the main deck at the aft end of the superstructure. After getting our food we had to go down a ladder to get to the mess deck one level below. The food was very good usually. That may have been because the officers' meals came from the same galley. I am sure they some extras in the ward room, but the stewards got the food for meals from the galley. They also had china instead of stainless steel trays.
Ryan, have you ever done a video about fancywork around the ship? I noticed the rope closing off the galley door was a pretty involved piece of work...
Could you possibly do a video on what the crewing requirements were? Something like "this many people per 5" battery, this many in communications, this many in medical" and so on? It would be interesting to see how that changes over the years as her equipment changed.
Man...fryers seem like a really bad idea on a ship...lol And, yea...to bring the galley up to code, you'd have to install dividers between/around the fryers, install three-compartment sinks...all kinds of modern code type stuff like that that we have now that probably didn't exist back in the 80s. It'd be a TON of work.
Hearing you talk about the meals of the day and different options got be wondering about the menus on board. Does the museum have a set of menus from the ship? A cookbook of Navy recipes from throughout the ship's commissioning periods could make a great souvenir to sell, too!
I did an overnight in 2019 with my son's boy scout troop it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the chow line experience. I believe If I remember correctly that you guys had an old meal schedule on the wall that stated that stewed prunes were going to be served as a meal (I could be wrong). But I can't imagine that being a popular dish.
I was lucky enough to be on the adults only overnight on July 16-17, 2022 and eat from the chow line as well as touring around the ship and checking out the bunks. It was a great experience and I’d highly recommend it for any fan of the battleship!
Ryan, off topic but I just watched a Korean War Movie "Retreat Hell". At the 26 minute of the film, it showed the complete loading operation and firing of the 16" mounts. Great in-depth camera work and just might be a segment that could be used on the ship for the visitors who see the mounts and want to know just how they work. Only about a minute long, but information wise, one could see it over and over and never see it all.
One of biggest restaurant fires occur in the exhaust duct vents above the fire, if you were to use the fryers , you would have to have them cleaned at least once a year, it’s not an hotel kitchen that’s easier to do
The galley on Massachusetts includes menus of the time, like special Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. The amount of provisions it took to feed a crew of over two thousand is staggering.
Spent years of overnighters on the USS Dixie AD-14 and a couple weeks worth on the USS Meyercord FF 1058 while on TAD. The Dixie was nice after the yards in 1978-79, all new metal racks only 3 high instead of those canvas ones we had before.
When you were transitioning from the ovens to the sink area at 5:48, what were the row of knobs mounted to the overhead over the prep table on the other side of the HVAC duct? Looked like control dials.
I’m guessing the reason for not wanting the equipment reactivated is liability. Imagine if someone gets hurt by equipment provided by the Navy. Lawyers go after whomever has the most money.
Very interesting to see the galley from the other side of the serving line. I recently did a tour of the USS Iowa (BB-61) in Los Angeles. They've got a display in the galley with mannequins serving fake food. It's a little creepy when you walk in because you see these figures standing there and suddenly realize they're fake.
Was the red-doored unit a refrigerator or a hot box? The sinks look like prep sinks for washing veggies before prepping and cooking them. There would be a separate area for pot wash.
My first thought looking at how much food would be prepared during a mess service is this: what did they do with the leftovers? I presume there must be some amount of leftover food. Was this kept and reserved later, or was it thrown out? If the latter, how was it disposed of?
One of the big reasons for having stuff other than the "real food" was so watchstanders could grab a burger or some other portable meal and stuff it into their faces in their machine space or wherever they had watch. I know I ate plenty of meals down in aux1, which is so conveniently located right under the enlisted mess.
Two of the worst dishes served while I was on board my ship was baked lemon fish and seagull aka cornish hens...lol..still love some beanie weenies now and then...
From personal experiance, it must of been a bugger to keep clean especially in high seas. At the end of serving it must have taken hours to wash all the pots/containers etc.
Isn't that what the capstans at the stern are for? Tie your cookware to a line, throw them overboard and use the sea, prop wash, and waves to your advantage of course. 😁
They just pass all the dirty pots and pans on to the scullery and let them run everything through the dragon. That was a hot, wet nasty job but nobody messed with you in there so it wasn't a bad job to have when you were mess cooking.
I ate in a cruise ship back in 2010 on our 25th wedding anniversary on route to Bermuda. Excellent food on board. Then I found the soft serve ice cream machine. I visited that a lot on the cruise.
"Then I found the soft serve ice cream machine." A favorite of us Sailors too! This may only be a submariner term, but we used to call the soft serve ice cream machine "Auto Dog". I think you can figure out why! Ha!
I wonder what it would cost to outfit a ship's galley like that? It doesn't look like any expense was spared to ensure everything needed was at hand. Very impressive!
I deployed on a lot of ships and you simply went to the mess decks when you could get away from work. Of course, that had to be during the hours the mess decks were open. I very rarely ever ran into problems with lines etc. Everyone always talks about the chow on subs, but I have to say the best I ever had was on USS America when I was on board back around 1983.
I wonder what it was like eating or cooking on the ship during action. Noisy and rocking of the boat. Plus knowing you're under fire may affect your appetite.
This galley is like 6 times the size of a DDG's galley. At the same time, being a cook in this galley would be a very daunting duty, let alone, being the watch captain.
Hopefully the food is better than the last time we were on the battleship. we had frozen stuffed shells. It Would have been better to get cheese steaks.
"The hot dog roller, that's not original equipment." I can imagine one of those wouldn't work spectacularly well in rough sea conditions. Then again, I wouldn't want to try operating a Fryolator on a rough day either.
Of personal note, it paid off to become friends with the night baker. All bread and pastries were prepared by the night baker for the following day. If you were working late and you knew the night baker, you could get yourself some fresh bread or the like. Our night baker was a huge sports fan, so as a communicator, I could get all of the latest ball scores and trade them for cinnamon rolls.
Thats pretty good advice anywhere you go. After high school I worked at a large supermarket in the Dairy. our first delivery was around 3 AM. The bakers started around 4. Worth being friendly with them, not much better than hot doughnuts or fresh cheesebread after you've been working in a freezer for a couple of hours. wasn't an official thing, and one middle manager tried to stop it. Didnt last very long as a policy, the owner quickly approved the practice. turns out hot bread is excellent for moral. and he would normally get some doughnuts for his afternoon coffee to, and didnt think we should go without either. just had to keep it on the down-low, so the day staff didnt get in on it. was a pretty good boss ;-)
Thanks for sharing!
Are we just going to ignore the stand mixer that's about as tall as Ryan? One of the small details that fascinated me about WWII is the bakery ships (USS Abatan) and the ice cream barge that followed the Pacific fleet to Ulithi.
I used to work at a pizza shop that had one like that, maybe only 6-12" shorter. It had a huge stainless bowl that we made our own pizza dough and sauce in.
Bakery ships? I heard often about ice cream ones but never a bakery purpose ship?
I would like to serve on the ice cream barge. Tin Roof Sundae is my favorite. No sane person would torpedo the ice cream barge.
Its called a “Hobart”. Brand name but universally known as such.
@@rogersmith7396 that comment won the internet today 🤣 or 4 months ago when you posted it
This was a really nice one. Seeing the galley though it raises more questions than it answers as far as the layout (and the smaller steam kettle). And yeah, that lone refrigerator near the counter (what am I saying, it's ALL counters). I don't think it would have held enough Jell-O™ for 2000 sailors. This is one of the areas I would have loved to see you accompanied by someone who used to work in that space because I'm sure that galley was laid out for efficient operation. I know money is always tight and I emphasize you did a great job but I would have liked to see a recently retired US Navy Culinary specialist (like from an Aircraft Carrier) walk through there with you and compare the layout and equipment with what they're familiar with.
That's a great idea.
@@ald1144 Now if only Ryan would think so 🙂
When I mess cranked I worked that beverage bar that he briefly pointed out. Bug juice was 5 gallons of water, 5lbs of sugar, 1 pack of concentrated powder flavoring(Boatswain mates would ask for packets and soak the lifeline turnbuckles to clean them)
It also cleaned the hell out of the deck plates in the Boiler room
Bug juice was great to clean the drains…
Bug juice was better than Windex on Stainless, hard to believe we drank the stuff.
deck plates, fire plugs etc. bug juice was some nasty stuff.
I wonder if that acidic beverage mixture (bug juice) was the inspiration for the various "green" cleaning solvents such as Simple Orange and Simple Green?
my best guess on why the galley is not allowed to be activated is because of the fire hazard that any galley poses to a ship. on a ship that is still active its not a problem because the damage control crew is always at hand to deal with it but on a museum ship there is no damage control and your local fire department is not trained to fight fires on a battleship.
That could be it, look how quickly the fire on bonhomme richards got out of hand.
@@ytcensorhack1876 we just had a fire today on a Stena line passenger ship here on the Baltic sea caused by a freezer container on the car deck. And it knocked the power out and engine room. And the only way the ship survived was becuse the DC crew was able to put the fire out.
Wrong , its so its not worn out in case of need for reactivation
@@michaelcoachtechvp2846 But, as Our Curator said, if the ship were to be reactivated, they'd replace all the galley equipment. But, of course, it will never be reactivated.
@@michaelcoachtechvp2846 you’re wrong
During my time in the Navy, the food was one of the best perks. Especially loved mid-rats, short order cook would make just about anything you wanted. I felt sorry for the ground pounders, Jar-heads and fly- boys (Army, Marine Corps and Airforce). Of all the bases I've been to, we always had the best food.
Lucky you. Our mid-rats in port were a paper sack containing a minimal sandwich (2 slices of deli ham, 1 slice of almost-cheese) wrapped in waxed paper, a mustard packet, a mayo packet, 1 hoard-boiled egg, an apple or orange, and a little boxed orange juice...all lovingly prepared by the Duty MS and staff, who had no watches or other duties until breakfast prep, and were very fond of their TV/rack time which started as soon as the evening meal cleanup was done and the mid-rats were prepped. The saving grace was that our chief could authorize our junior man on duty section to leave the ship...and he appreciated a good pizza as much as the next man.
Underway was a bit better. The bagged sandwiches became loaves of bread next to a "Sandwich Bar"...ham, almost-cheese (Kraft slices), lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, mayo, mustard. Apples and oranges went in a bowl, as did the hard-boiled eggs. Once in a while you might even find single-serve bags of chips. Huge bowls of saltine crackers were generally available 24X7 for the convenience of new crew who turned interesting colors at the thought of actually eating food. If what you wanted was HOT food since you missed chow due to being on watch, you learned to like canned ravioli in huge pans on the steam table.
Saddest part is that I was on a Replenishment Oiler, so it wasn't that we didn't have the storage space for fresh food. It was strictly an issue of our shipmates wishing to expend as little time/energy as possible. Our refrigerated/frozen food storage capacity included potential cargo capacity as well, and totaled about 200 TONS, all optimized to be stocked by forklifts in pallet quantities.
But yet only the Navy had mutinys.
Don't feel sorry for us Zoomies. We had awesome dining facilities, run and staffed by civilians.
I got pulled out of an area twice by marines, the only time this Army Combat Engineer got to be on a boat other than for making bridges and water skiing after. I agree the food was great on both of the ships. Both times we got stuck in with the chiefs. Now one mess sergent we had, went to a cooking school and OMG. His was the best in the military. I've been to Marine and Naval base mess halls, but on the ship and when we had that one mess sergent those were the times I had the best food. He also came from the pentagon.
I spent a night in the USS Hornet with my kids with their Boy Scout troop. Must have been 16-17 years ago. I don't remember what exactly we ate but there was a lot of left-over corn.
If you chew that doesn't happen.
SOS.
As I told my son, the Navy gave you two choices at every meal. You could either eat what they gave you or you could not eat it.
ah, just like mom used to make.
@UCfzTrxTZwy62jGdiUukrkeA I was on a tin can. We had none of that.
Or you could get your food from the gedunk.
Unless you did'nt eat enough then you were ordered to eat.
@@rogersmith7396 Never saw that happen in 20 years.
In my 20+ years in the Navy, I served on many types of ships. Every ship had at least one extended deployment of six months or more.
Seeing your “coppers” (kettles) brought back many fond memories.
I remember being dumped in one full of cold water on my 18th B-Day.
@@4evaavfc Ahhhhhh those treasured memories. In Great Lakes boot camp (1971), I, only once, slept through reveille and was awaked by cold water, while still in my rack!!
I spent the night on the Lexington when I was 8 or 9. Then when I was 28 I spent a whole bunch of nights on the Carl Vinson. I'll let you guess which one I enjoyed more.
I'm a plank owner from the Carl Vinson 80-84 V-1 Div.
Informative. I've been aboard a Liberty ship while she was steaming at the dock. They use a coal burning galley not steam as I would have guessed. That was a surprise. I've spent the night on a number of museum ships. All at San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park. Balcutha, C.A. Thayer, and on a number of voyages on Alma, the until recently, still actively sailed Hay Scow. One night I forgot to bring my sleeping bag so I just made a cozy hammock out of the furled foresail. We slept through and earthquake that night. We had no clue because we were on a boat. Would like to sleep on a bigger ship. There are three near me but I don't know if they are doing overnights at this time.
07:44 yeah I know back in the 1960s a fire broke out in the petty officer's mess aboard the HMS Victorious, 1 crew member died and 2 were hospitalised and it used as a reason to retire the carrier even though she was going to retire in 1970 as she was getting to the end of her service life
Two things. I would love to see you walk through the galley of Alabama/Massachusetts/North Carolina and compare the WWII US Galley design to the modern one you have on New Jersey.
Second, Have you thought of petitioning the Navy for an addendum to let you use more of the Galley since the Iowas have been pulled from all the "must maintain in reactivatable conditions" clauses? When they were first pulled it made sense to preserve everything since the ships had been reactivated many times before, but now reactivation seems a far distant possibility.
I agreed. Too bad you couldn't have a "BB-62 NEW JERSEY CAFE"
My scout troop was Not happy when they found out they had to help serve dinner. But when they finished up they talked about it for hours. Thanks so much to the staff that made it such a great experience for the boys both times that we have been there. And I didn’t even notice that the barbet was in the kitchen. I love these videos for little things like that you don’t notice when you are there and have so much to look at.
One of the stranger items on my bucket list is that I've always wanted to make soup in one of those giant kettles.
I have never spent over night on a ship but I have spent many nights in an underground nuclear command and control facility and the galley is very similar to a ship's mess.
Very good coverage and explanation, thank you. Had the opportunity to sleep over with a Cub Scout Den on Silverside, when she was at Navy Pier in Chicago. I even was the "cook' for Breakfast and used the onboard stove and other equipment. The kids were tasked with the "cleanup", which was supervised by the onboard caretaker. This was in the '80s and was winter time. Cold night on Lake Michigan !!!
I made fantastic ginger potroast when I cooked on ships. In my last ship, the crew wouldn't eat when the other watch cooked because my cooking was so much better. I actually cared about how the crew liked the food. Often times I ate cup o noodles when I was off. When I was night baker, I also prepared midrats. Some one the crew would get up at night just to eat the soups I made for midrats depending who cooked during the day.
Underway, our MS staff would drag their complaining asses out of their racks for midrats long enough to toss sandwich makings out on the salad bar and get at least one large insert of canned ravioli in the oven to reheat.
As far as the general menu went, we once ended up with a Suppo and most of the MS staff all originating from a particular Pacific Island. Things changed rapidly after the CO made a surprise run through the Enlisted Chow Line for breakfast due to an overflowing complaint box and found the Eggs-To-Order section was indeed replaced by rice, fish, and a rice/fish mixed dish. EVERY meal included fish and rice, and the "normal" menu items showed where the care was NOT being taken to ensure quality...but the fish was always perfect.
Amazing how quickly a pissed CO can make demographic and menu changes happen. Daily rice and fish went over with the sliders and hot dogs, and new guys appeared who treated recipe cards as suggestions rather than some sort of Bible, and actually understood that pink in the middle of a steak didn't mean that it was uncooked. In related news, a lot of the goodies in the Ship's Store were replaced by items with labels printed in the English language.
I've spent many nights on the New Jersey with the scouts and I have great memories. I want to come back and just crawl all over the ship you've got my dream job Ryan!
Actually i have stayed on the battleship Massachusetts 3 times when i was in boy scouts. Those where fun times as a kid!
I was an assistant scout master for troop 76 in Sea Isle City. We did several overnights aboard the ship in my time. The kids always seemed to love it.
WESTPAC '85. On board USS OGDEN LPD-5 for about 11 months. I do miss navy chow especially morning chow. I dearly miss powdered eggs! Had regular eggs on weekends. Also had excellent "steel beach" days on missions of steaks n lobsters.
Ah memories😎
I spend the night on New Jersey about 15 years ago now as a boy scout. I also remember getting picked to serve food from that very galley. LOL, and i also remember that huge mixer.
The B&W video from the ship's early years showing the chow line without the sneeze guard and the sailors sitting down eating was a nice touch. People tend to forget that when the Iowas were designed they were designed to hold up to 5,000 sailors, so space was at a premium. As the ship was modernized it took less crew to serve it, so the size of the crew shrunk and not as much space was needed for areas like berthing and eating.
I am curious, though - how did they get those big ovens below deck like that? And how did they get the old ones out? No way they fit them through the crew hatches.
on our carriers there is a fwd galley which was used for quick meals and mid rats the aft galley which was used for normal meals
Now I know where the design of my elementary school cafeteria came from. I had flashbacks when you showed the serving line. Thanks
Another possible reason for not reactivating the galley is local health codes. To serve people, you'd have to have an inspected commercial kitchen. That means the ventilation system has to be up to snuff. The navy may have wanted to avoid getting caught up in that, especially since the museum aspect would have limited what mods they could do.
Maybe not health codes but OSHA would likely have a field day if they reactivated the equipment in the current layout. The military has always seen OSHA as more of a nuisance than an actual regulatory agency
As always. Thanks Ryan. I enjoy your tours and videos. I always learn something.
I spent the night on the NJ as a cub scout some 15 years ago, its amazing how much more of the ship is available and restored now. If I'm ever back up that way I may just have to stop by.
As a Machinist Mate "A Gang" I used to maintain all of this equipment back in the 80's.
My perspective includes eight months of overnight stays on the LPH-10/USS Tripoli and land based dining facilities during my 27-year military career (due to taking a break for school and to be an overseas contractor, this took 35 years). Part of my "real-world" experience included using mess halls that dated back to the 19th Century but updated. As a member of the Army National Guard in the early 21st Century some of the places I stayed for various schools dated from the First World War and even with updates there were placards warning "don't eat the lead based paint chips."
I think that the curator covered the many reasons why the mess deck equipment couldn't be reactivated. Safety is a biggie--during the Seventies asbestos removal began, some of the chemicals used on the ship are now prohibited, and some of the equipment used high temperature steam at pressure--are those fittings and pipes still safe to use at high temperatures and high pressures? That reminds me--I'll have to find someone who is authorized to tell me if secondary steam off of nuclear-powered warships such as CVN-65/USS Enterprise was used in the galley. When that nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was commissioned, there were different radiation safety standards, and even though secondary steam shouldn't be a radiation hazard, I'm not fully read on with the current nuclear safety standards. That brings up engineering and the need to run the oil-fired boilers on BB-62/USS New Jersey in order to run some of the equipment. Not only would there be a problem with those 80-year-old boilers and the bunker oil used, but there'd be EPA issues with burning bunker oil, with spills while transferring oil into the fuel bunkers, with the fact that sea water was used in the fuel bunkers, and then we can get back into the safety issue with running the engineering plant. Oil-fired steam ships used to run at least one boiler even with shore power due to the use of their on-board equipment requiring both electricity and live steam. Finally there's food sanitation standards. Some military museums have old field kitchens dating back more than 100 years. I've had experience with field kitchens up through the first decade of the 21st Century (not a cook or baker!) through being on mess duty, eating at field messes, NCO duties to maintain sanitation and safety in field kitchens, and I spent a decade working as a logistician (National Guard day job, lucky me--my M-Day unit was communications). I got to see old equipment dating from as far back as World War Two (still current when I joined the Corps in 1974) to the 21st Century mobile field kitchens rated to feed 800 people three meals per day. In the National Guard, those field kitchens form part of their state's disaster relief stores and if deployed (along with a LOT of canvas and folding tables and chairs) those field kitchens would have been very welcome. The presenter said that the New Jersey enlisted galleys fed 2000 men per day during World War Two and a smaller crew during Vietnam and the Gulf War. Warships never sleep. The enlisted galley would have provided at least four meals per day--mid rats, breakfast lunch (or dinner) and dinner (or supper) and would have had someone on duty around the clock. If at battle stations when it wasn't practical to run regular chow--or when riding out hurricanes--the mess crew would have prepared sandwiches with soup or coffee so that the crew could still eat--sometimes at their battle station. Note that due to a very hard limit on crew size (the people you left the dock with was all you had during General Quarters) many ship's services personnel such as barbers and tailors and laundry and cooks and bakers would have had a damage control assignment, possibly a battle station, and would have been required to wear something other than their mess duty uniform at General Quarters. Where did the mess crew go during General Quarters?
Speaking of battle stations, that would be a good video if there isn't already one or two--being at battle stations changes everything. Sometimes the crew could be authorized to have some sleep time while at general quarters, I just mentioned feeding the crew while at general quarters, moving around at Condition X-Ray inside the ship would have been difficult because of the need to get authorization before opening the water-tight hatches, and personnel accountability would have been tight--tighter than in elementary schools were the kids have to ask permission to take a bathroom break during class. The crew would have been wearing whatever their battle station equipment was.
I remember staying overnight on New Jersey YEARS ago with the Boy Scouts. I wish I could remember more of the trip since I became obsessed with American warships about a year ago lol
Having worked in commercial kitchens, one of the things that jumps out at me is the lack of (visible) fire suppression nozzles. Probably another contributing factor for the galley being inactive. Also the sheer amount of man-hours that go into keeping a kitchen (properly) clean is staggering.
I had the opportunity to eat in the galley of the Kitty Hawk when I was in the USCG Bicentennial Marching Band. We played at a citizenship ceremony for several of their crew. The food was decent. I remember how wild it was to have so many food choices. We didn’t even have that at the USCG TRACEN Cape May where we were stationed! Great video as always!
Hey Ryan At 7:44 it looks like a couple of the missing ventalition covers you walked by are on top of that large duct overhead the deep fryers.
Nice catch, I wonder if they were ever found yet...
The steam jacketed kettles are “coppers” in navy parlance. What call ranges are actually griddles. In my day navy CSs began their career as a grill cook, the worker their way up to the oven king, then the copper king.
Yep, we called them coppers.
On an LST the galley was on the main deck at the aft end of the superstructure. After getting our food we had to go down a ladder to get to the mess deck one level below. The food was very good usually. That may have been because the officers' meals came from the same galley. I am sure they some extras in the ward room, but the stewards got the food for meals from the galley. They also had china instead of stainless steel trays.
Ryan, have you ever done a video about fancywork around the ship? I noticed the rope closing off the galley door was a pretty involved piece of work...
Could you possibly do a video on what the crewing requirements were? Something like "this many people per 5" battery, this many in communications, this many in medical" and so on? It would be interesting to see how that changes over the years as her equipment changed.
Man...fryers seem like a really bad idea on a ship...lol
And, yea...to bring the galley up to code, you'd have to install dividers between/around the fryers, install three-compartment sinks...all kinds of modern code type stuff like that that we have now that probably didn't exist back in the 80s. It'd be a TON of work.
Hearing you talk about the meals of the day and different options got be wondering about the menus on board. Does the museum have a set of menus from the ship? A cookbook of Navy recipes from throughout the ship's commissioning periods could make a great souvenir to sell, too!
I did an overnight in 2019 with my son's boy scout troop it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the chow line experience. I believe If I remember correctly that you guys had an old meal schedule on the wall that stated that stewed prunes were going to be served as a meal (I could be wrong). But I can't imagine that being a popular dish.
I was lucky enough to be on the adults only overnight on July 16-17, 2022 and eat from the chow line as well as touring around the ship and checking out the bunks. It was a great experience and I’d highly recommend it for any fan of the battleship!
Yes, I have spent many nights on a few ships. On 2 heavy cruisers.
More needed on this, this was a fascinating video.
Another great video from the battleship. Thanks
Ryan, off topic but I just watched a Korean War Movie "Retreat Hell". At the 26 minute of the film, it showed the complete loading operation and firing of the 16" mounts. Great in-depth camera work and just might be a segment that could be used on the ship for the visitors who see the mounts and want to know just how they work. Only about a minute long, but information wise, one could see it over and over and never see it all.
One of biggest restaurant fires occur in the exhaust duct vents above the fire, if you were to use the fryers , you would have to have them cleaned at least once a year, it’s not an hotel kitchen that’s easier to do
The galley on Massachusetts includes menus of the time, like special Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. The amount of provisions it took to feed a crew of over two thousand is staggering.
I think they had weekly replenishment at sea did'nt they?
I would like to learn about what the average sailor ate during the different eras of the ships service, please.
Good video, thank you.
Spent years of overnighters on the USS Dixie AD-14 and a couple weeks worth on the USS Meyercord FF 1058 while on TAD. The Dixie was nice after the yards in 1978-79, all new metal racks only 3 high instead of those canvas ones we had before.
When you were transitioning from the ovens to the sink area at 5:48, what were the row of knobs mounted to the overhead over the prep table on the other side of the HVAC duct? Looked like control dials.
That blue mixer is a beauty
I’m guessing the reason for not wanting the equipment reactivated is liability. Imagine if someone gets hurt by equipment provided by the Navy. Lawyers go after whomever has the most money.
Haven't done New Jersey but I have spent two nights on Pampanito and one on Balclutha. Never did get to do one on Hornet.
Very interesting to see the galley from the other side of the serving line. I recently did a tour of the USS Iowa (BB-61) in Los Angeles. They've got a display in the galley with mannequins serving fake food. It's a little creepy when you walk in because you see these figures standing there and suddenly realize they're fake.
Quite a galley tour
I slept on the USS Dale CG19 a few times through my former step father's time in the Navy.
I get seasick on ships tied up at dock so never spent the night on a ship, but I did tour a navy ship once
the biggest internal area on the ship fires can easily start
The food warmers for serving are also known as a "Bain Marie" or bain-marie.
Was the red-doored unit a refrigerator or a hot box? The sinks look like prep sinks for washing veggies before prepping and cooking them. There would be a separate area for pot wash.
My dad was R.C.N. ww2, and he only ever mentioned the meal that was always served was "Red Lead" and Bacon ( stewed tomatoes and bacon).
My husband used to work for a company in Everette MA that made 40 gallon kettles used for the navy.
Even on a destroyer escort or fast frigate we had a reefer deck ours was below engineering‘s birthing Compartment
Spent the night on New Jersey with Troop 9 from Upperco Md. Great experience
My first thought looking at how much food would be prepared during a mess service is this: what did they do with the leftovers? I presume there must be some amount of leftover food. Was this kept and reserved later, or was it thrown out? If the latter, how was it disposed of?
Midnight rations. Ships galleys are 24hr operations.
One of the big reasons for having stuff other than the "real food" was so watchstanders could grab a burger or some other portable meal and stuff it into their faces in their machine space or wherever they had watch. I know I ate plenty of meals down in aux1, which is so conveniently located right under the enlisted mess.
I spent 2 years aboard ships in the 1960s
Two of the worst dishes served while I was on board my ship was baked lemon fish and seagull aka cornish hens...lol..still love some beanie weenies now and then...
In the '80's, the meal of the day would have been Adobo. Most of the cooks were Filipino.
MMMMM. Adobo. Yummmmmm!!!!! I have had many adobo in that chow line.
I have eaten more than my fair share of pork adobo.
Now THAT'S a Ladell!!!
From personal experiance, it must of been a bugger to keep clean especially in high seas. At the end of serving it must have taken hours to wash all the pots/containers etc.
Isn't that what the capstans at the stern are for? Tie your cookware to a line, throw them overboard and use the sea, prop wash, and waves to your advantage of course. 😁
They just pass all the dirty pots and pans on to the scullery and let them run everything through the dragon. That was a hot, wet nasty job but nobody messed with you in there so it wasn't a bad job to have when you were mess cooking.
From Under Siege does the chopping station with the “refer” to Steven Segal’s’ left actually exist?
I ate in a cruise ship back in 2010 on our 25th wedding anniversary on route to Bermuda. Excellent food on board. Then I found the soft serve ice cream machine. I visited that a lot on the cruise.
"Then I found the soft serve ice cream machine."
A favorite of us Sailors too! This may only be a submariner term, but we used to call the soft serve ice cream machine "Auto Dog". I think you can figure out why! Ha!
I'm thinking cruise ship food might be a tad better than Navy food. I don't know, I've never had either one.
Lol good video what did you lean against or sit on?
Where did they wash all the trays and silverware?
In the scullery - which was manned by a mess crank...new Sailors had to spend their first 90 days onboard augmenting the mess decks as mess cranks.
How did they wash the warming kettles?
Tight.
Whats with the overexposure?
I wonder what it would cost to outfit a ship's galley like that? It doesn't look like any expense was spared to ensure everything needed was at hand. Very impressive!
Where is the cooler/freezer? have you done a video with that?
how did they handle meal scheduling? Safely assuming the whole ship didn't shut down for chow. was it like machinists 1200, boatswains 1300,and so on?
I deployed on a lot of ships and you simply went to the mess decks when you could get away from work. Of course, that had to be during the hours the mess decks were open. I very rarely ever ran into problems with lines etc. Everyone always talks about the chow on subs, but I have to say the best I ever had was on USS America when I was on board back around 1983.
Mess lines were open for certain periods and it was up to the workcenters to get their people cycled through during that time.
I was on an LSD in the early 60's and watchstanders ate first, while others stood watch for them, then the crew ate.
I stayed overnight on Battleship Massachusetts. I was a great time.
I wonder what it was like eating or cooking on the ship during action.
Noisy and rocking of the boat.
Plus knowing you're under fire may affect your appetite.
If you're in action, the galley would be shut down and all the cooks would be passing ammunition and the like.
Mess decks were cleared during action and would serve as triage stations during mass casualty events.
This galley is like 6 times the size of a DDG's galley. At the same time, being a cook in this galley would be a very daunting duty, let alone, being the watch captain.
Do you still have the deep fryer that can flash-fry a buffalo in 40 seconds, or was it sold to Moe like they did to the Missouri?
What day was this filmed? I want to know how close I was to a cameo when I visited.
Is there an episode on the Officer's galley?
After watching his performance on the deck with an egg I think it’s fairly obvious why the navy won’t let Symanski anywhere near the galley.
So are the fryers & grills electric or steam?
Hopefully the food is better than the last time we were on the battleship. we had frozen stuffed shells. It Would have been better to get cheese steaks.
Spent many nights onboard the USS Independence (CV-62) and USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) while serving active duty `97-`05
Nice pants Rockefeller.
You were actually on the starboard side chow line, not the port side
"The hot dog roller, that's not original equipment." I can imagine one of those wouldn't work spectacularly well in rough sea conditions. Then again, I wouldn't want to try operating a Fryolator on a rough day either.
Mom had a Hobart mixer at work
👍👍👍👊😎
Hot dog machines are now on ships.
True. Also: deep fat fryers have been removed from almost all active ships. DCA appreciates!
If I recall after visiting USS IOWA I think they are using ice cream making machine. They had to get special permission since it only use electricity