WWII Navy Rations, a Commentary

[Subdeacon Joe]

"Joined the Navy for the food my Grandfather always said. While the Japanese bunked on rice paper mats and had barely any food, our larger capital ships had not one but two ice cream parlors.

 

The food served on US Navy ships during World War II was designed to sustain sailors during long voyages at sea while also being practical to store and prepare in often cramped conditions. Meals typically consisted of a combination of canned goods, such as meats, fruits, and vegetables, along with dried or preserved items like beans, rice, and bread. Fresh produce was limited and often supplemented with dehydrated or powdered alternatives.

 

Breakfast might include oatmeal, eggs, bacon, or pancakes, while lunch and dinner commonly featured dishes like stews, soups, sandwiches, and casseroles made from canned ingredients. Bread was a staple, usually served in the form of hardtack or biscuits, which could withstand long storage periods without spoiling.

 

Despite the challenges of wartime rationing, efforts were made to provide balanced nutrition, and sailors received regular servings of fruits and vegetables when available. Additionally, the Navy encouraged innovation in cooking methods to improve morale, with creative cooks sometimes adding variety to meals by incorporating fresh catches from fishing or using surplus items from supply deliveries."

 

[Pat Riot]

I know on my ship we ate a lot of canned goods.  Especially 3 days and afterwards out of port. 

Breakfast :

Powdered eggs, canned potatoes - fried, canned roast beef, toast. 
 

Lunch:

Cannned roast beef in some fashion, rice, canned veggies. 
 

Dinner:

Canned roast beef in some fashion, canned veggies, rice or potatoes in some fashion. 
 

At times it seemed pretty tedious. The cooks made do with what they had to work with. Overall they did a good job. 

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

What about the daily ration of Grog?

[Barry Sloe]

12 minutes ago, Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933 said:

What about the daily ration of Grog?

Wrong Navy.  Gotta go with the Aussies or English for that.

 

BS

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Quote

On 17 December 1969 the Admiralty, concerned that a lunchtime slug of rum would hinder sailors' ability to operate increasingly complex weapons systems and navigational tools, decided to stop the rum ration altogether. Six months later, on 31 July 1970, the Royal Navy's official love affair with rum ended.

 

[Pat Riot]

1 hour ago, Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933 said:

What about the daily ration of Grog?

In Medical they had Purser’s Rum. It was for medicinal use only, though no one knew what ailment would get you a shot. 
It used to be that if your ship was at sea for 120 days straight without a port call each person aboard could receive 2 beers. 
We all got our 2 beers in the IO during Carter’s folly. The Iranian hostage fiasco. 
 

I hear that today that time period is now 45 days. Pansies.  

[Alpo]

Could you sell your beer?

 

I don't like beer, so I wouldn't want to drink beer. But if everybody is authorized two beers, then damn it I want my two beers. Then I get together with Dave or Pat and see what kind of deal I can make for a extra beer.

[J.D. Daily]

2 hours ago, Pat Riot said:

I know on my ship we ate a lot of canned goods.  Especially 3 days and afterwards out of port. 

Breakfast :

Powdered eggs, canned potatoes - fried, canned roast beef, toast. 
 

Lunch:

Cannned roast beef in some fashion, rice, canned veggies. 
 

Dinner:

Canned roast beef in some fashion, canned veggies, rice or potatoes in some fashion. 
 

At times it seemed pretty tedious. The cooks made do with what they had to work with. Overall they did a good job. 

With all that roast beef did you like me dislike roast beef after the Navy.  In 1970 & 1971 VN it was roast beef for lunch and dinner.  I doubt the official menu was pot roast for 2 meals a day because when I was a member of a Signal Company squad that ran a MARS station and 25th Div's pirate radio station we got steak, chicken, spam and fresh veggies from the S4 Sargent that ran supply at Dau Tang base camp.  The E6 who was in charge of the MARS station had a deal with the S4 Sargent that the MARS station would attempt to put a call to the S4 Sargent's wife once a week.  When the connection was made the S4 Sargent was called.  Everybody else had to wait in the MARS station waiting room.  

P.S. I couldn't eat roast beef, prime rib or pot roast for 20 years. 

[Pat Riot]

3 hours ago, J.D. Daily said:

With all that roast beef did you like me dislike roast beef after the Navy.  In 1970 & 1971 VN it was roast beef for lunch and dinner.  I doubt the official menu was pot roast for 2 meals a day because when I was a member of a Signal Company squad that ran a MARS station and 25th Div's pirate radio station we got steak, chicken, spam and fresh veggies from the S4 Sargent that ran supply at Dau Tang base camp.  The E6 who was in charge of the MARS station had a deal with the S4 Sargent that the MARS station would attempt to put a call to the S4 Sargent's wife once a week.  When the connection was made the S4 Sargent was called.  Everybody else had to wait in the MARS station waiting room.  

P.S. I couldn't eat roast beef, prime rib or pot roast for 20 years. 

Yep. Actually it was 18 years for me. 

Canned roast beef was all sliced and suspended in some kind of solution. The cans were like silver ammo cans. 18” tall and 9”x9” squared at the ends. 
We had so much because the port side reefer unit went bad soon after I went aboard. There was a fire and a coolant line rupture. Instant phosgene gas.

Anyway, we only had the starboard side refrigeration unit so food was somewhat limited in variety. 

Edited May 12 by Pat Riot

[Subdeacon Joe]

Thanks for the personal experiences.  That's one of the reasons I post things like this - to get those comments.

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

Buddy of mine said coffee was worse than two terribles.

Chief cook made it with salt water, and he refused to clean the coffee maker.

A new fellow came in and got his backside chewed for starting to scour the coffee maker.

Chief went on shore leave, the new guy scoured the coffee maker bright and made coffee with FRESH water.

The Old Man himself came down to inquire why the coffee was suddenly so much better.

Chief was ... transferred.

Another instance (under the Old Chief's administration) when the Old Man came to the galley was when they had burgers.

In order to make 'em faster, the heat was turned up hotter and the wire chain link endless belt they rode on, was cranked faster up as well.

Burgers were burnt on the outside and raw in the middle.

My buddy didn't know what the Old Man said.

He did say no voices were raised, but burgers no longer wore incinerated jackets with a cold interior.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Going back one War and across the aisle.
 

 

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

We had a locally produced tv show called "Patrol Boat" and it concerned a smallish Naval vessel of the type that our Navy uses as, of all things, a boat to patrol our watery boundaries. 

 In one episode the ships cook, known as "cans" because his main cooking utensil was a can opener, was a bit upset at something someone had said about his culinary skills and complained to the Captain.

Ships Company was assembled and addressed, in the sternest way, and demanded " who called the cook a ba574rd ?"

 .... an uttered voice from within the ranks was heard ... ".. who called the ba574rd a cook?" ...  

 

[Sedalia Dave]

3 hours ago, Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 said:

We had a locally produced tv show called "Patrol Boat" and it concerned a smallish Naval vessel of the type that our Navy uses as, of all things, a boat to patrol our watery boundaries. 

 In one episode the ships cook, known as "cans" because his main cooking utensil was a can opener, was a bit upset at something someone had said about his culinary skills and complained to the Captain.

Ships Company was assembled and addressed, in the sternest way, and demanded " who called the cook a ba574rd ?"

 .... an uttered voice from within the ranks was heard ... ".. who called the ba574rd a cook?" ...  

 

 

[Barry Sloe]

On 5/11/2024 at 2:46 PM, Pat Riot said:

In Medical they had Purser’s Rum. It was for medicinal use only, though no one knew what ailment would get you a shot. 
It used to be that if your ship was at sea for 120 days straight without a port call each person aboard could receive 2 beers. 
We all got our 2 beers in the IO during Carter’s folly. The Iranian hostage fiasco. 
 

I hear that today that time period is now 45 days. Pansies.  

The beer was Budwieser, which I didn't like, and it contained formaldehyde as a preservative. This was in the IO and you had to swim out to the Captain's gig to get your beer.

I'm not a great swimmer, don't like Budwieser, and then there was the shark watch that was posted with rifles. No beer for me.

 

BS

[Sedalia Dave]

[Pat Riot]

3 hours ago, Barry Sloe said:

The beer was Budwieser, which I didn't like, and it contained formaldehyde as a preservative. This was in the IO and you had to swim out to the Captain's gig to get your beer.

I'm not a great swimmer, don't like Budwieser, and then there was the shark watch that was posted with rifles. No beer for me.

 

BS

Holy Crap! Swimming in the IO? Was your command freakin’ stupid or just incompetent?

The IO is home to every man eating ocean creature in the Pacific including venomous sea snakes, jelly fish and other fish. 
I love beer, but I wouldn’t have swam for it. 
 

We had formaldehyde Bud and Colt 45 malt liquor. I took one of each. Colt 45 with formaldehyde is quite awful, but it resembled beer, so I drank it. I actually drank 6 beers that day. A couple of Pals didn’t want theirs. 
Six 16 ounce beers and I was hammered.

Hammered enough to think it was a good idea to steal a case of Bud and hide it in the cooling system of the aft missile launcher. 

I got away with it. There was a ship wide search for it. I even escorted the MAA’s down into the launcher magazine so they could search. They didn’t find it. But my Chief did. He only took half though. 

[Barry Sloe]

3 hours ago, Pat Riot said:

Holy Crap! Swimming in the IO? Was your command freakin’ stupid or just incompetent?

The IO is home to every man eating ocean creature in the Pacific including venomous sea snakes, jelly fish and other fish. 
I love beer, but I wouldn’t have swam for it. 

The shark watch was for both sharks and sea snakes.

The good old days!!

 

BS

[Pat Riot]

6 hours ago, Barry Sloe said:

The shark watch was for both sharks and sea snakes.

The good old days!!

 

BS

Ha! 7.62x51 loses all it’s power within 3-4’ of water. Sea snakes don’t swim on top of the water. Yep, your command was screwy. 
One of my main duties underway was manning the motor whaleboat for Flight Quarters and personnel in the water. When they very first assigned this to me I was like “Cool! I get to shoot sharks and man eating monsters!” Then the Gunnery Chief said “Listen Boot Camp. You don’t shoot the sharks. You shoot to distract the sharks so they leave the people in the water alone.” Then he handed me this ComNavBlinkFat document and said “Read this. It’ll tell you what to do.”

My first thought after reading it was “Those poor bastards in the water are screwed!” And I vowed never to end up in said water. 
 

 

 

edited to fix “see snakes”.

Edited May 14 by Pat Riot

[watab kid]

i will say this , my father in law served a full term in subs , he took advantage of every available thing to feed his family of six , my wife says if shge ever sees another navy ration - particularly the obsolete WWI stuff they grew up on again she may start shootin - there were still rations in his garage back in the late 80s when i met him , i guess they were well p[packaged and still good depending on your apatite , 

[Rip Snorter]

I do know the feeling.  When Dad came out of the Navy after WWII and finished his education, there wasn't a lot of money,  We ate a whole lot of "Free" Spam his Dad's store wasn't selling with rationing gone.  I can't stand the smell of it to this day 70 some years on.

Edited May 14 by Rip Snorter

[watab kid]

yup the camander was a real interesting sort - liked to turn off the heat in a lot of the house in the winter when i met him , he and the wife lived in the basement - kinda cozy but at the same time cave like , maybe it reminded him of the subs , hard to say he has been gone for a bit now , i do miss him a lot ,