Comfortable Quarters For U.S .Antarctic Men

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28979, 21 August 1959, Page 11

Comfortable Quarters For U.S .Antarctic Men

Cauldron-shaped pots big enough for a man to take a bath in actually looking very like the cannibal pots in cartoons-will be used for steamcooking food for United States Antarctic expedition forces quartered at Harewood.

They are gleaming pieces of stainless steel • eq rh!?ci.V nd i,^ ere TT ai^ ong many items manufactured tn ™ in f th^Mar 0 Un l ted States Navy specifications Sfh Jp J h io a i? gall , ey ’ whose ar ea combined pth mess hall and dishwashing room is 7953 square

The enormous pots, costing more than £4OO each, will be able to cook 20 gallons of soup, Stew or vegetables at a time. Other equipment includes spring-loaded automatic dispensers for soup bowls, plates, cutlery and cups. The dispensers are all mobile and will be wheeled to and from the dishwashing room to the servery and back again. Stainless steel canopies cover the cooking areas and even the refrigerator is entirely stainless steel. “This galley will probably be the best in this country and one of the best anywhere in the world. It is the last word in convenience and practically everything in it is New Zealandmade,” the senior American officer in Christchurch (Lieu-tenant-Commander J. E. Lynch, jun.) said yesterday during ani inspection. The mess hall is 172 feet long.' Painters at work, scattered equipment and a welder working on copper pipe gave the appearance of occupation being a good way ahead, but Commander Lynch said he expected the first meal to be served from the galley at noon on Monday, August 28, Seating For 196 The mess hall will bg able to seat 196 men at one time and it is intended to partition part of it off for an enlisted men’s lounge. Officers will later have their own messing facilities. In the meantime, contractors are working at speed to prepare as many as possible of the Americans’ 10 buildings at Harewood before the arrival of the main forces in the next month. The headquarters building has been occupied for some time and some sleeping accommodation is ready but for ,the finishing touches such as second coats of paint on radiators, connecting electricity and fitting lightbulbs. The old transit camp buildings look just as bad as they ever did from the outside, but nothing is being done to improve their exterior appearance until inside work is completed. A tour of work already done by contractors to the United States Navy’s specifications is an eye-opening experience and an example of what New' Zealand labour can do with unpromising material to reconstruct if given the opportunity. The buildings, although not lavishly finished, have been transformed to colour-

ful. comfortable dwellings centrally heated throughout and with more convenience and privacy than could be expected of Commonwealth service establishments. Eight-bed Dormitories Enlisted men will sleep in eightbed dormitories, 160 to each of two barracks. Individual lights in contemporary style are over each bedhead, walls have been relined and painted in a variety of pastel hues, heavy linoleum of many patterns has been laid and both wall heaters and ceiling fans connected to hot water pipes convect and blast warm air throughout the building, including the toilet sections. The sleeping accommodation, which includes rooms with spacious security lockers that each man will be given for his possessions (and a personal key), needs only bunks and bedding to I be moved in when it is unloaded from a freighter due at Lyttelton at the week-end. Officers will sleep in 48 single rooms in each of two separate buildings. Their accommodation is to a pattern of three-room suites. Two small bedrooms are placed either side of a central room with shower, lavatory, and wash basin to make up the suite w’hich has connecting doors. There are also wardrobes, bedside lights (red painted contemporary models) and mirrors in each room with tubular lights over them. In these quarters, too, a wide variety of colouring has been used on wall and ceiling surfaces and on floor coverings. Corridors, bedrooms and toilet rooms are all separately heated. The standard of accommodation was about equal to new buildings in naval shore establishments in the United States, but much better than that built during World War 11, Commander Lynch said. New buildings would have bedrooms slightly bigger than at Harewood where design was limited to the width of buildings already erected. The galley had been scientifically designed by a special navy department after much time and motion and other study, he said. Cooks wolud not have to take one step more than absolutely necessary to carry out their tasks in a planned order to prepare meals. They would also have the best equipment available (114 separate items in the galley) and typical pieces were an electric

band saw for cutting meat, a bulk pressure cooker for fast, freshlycooked meals containing full nutriment, and a stainless steel refrigerator. “Everything is stainless steel because it will last for Eternity and a day and because it is much more hygienic,” Commander Lynch said. ‘‘Because of the design it will be possible to man the galley with fewer people.”

The mess hall windows will have Venetian blinds and drapes.