TRAINING "SEA BAKERS"

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 153, 26 December 1918, Page 6

TRAINING "SEA BAKERS"

The training of ■ bakers for service at sea is a novelty in the merchant service (says the New York Times)., It originated in the great demand for skilled breadmakers on the hundreds of new ships being built by the Shipping BoarU for the Government. Fundamentally it ', was* prompted by the requirements of the modern sailor's diet, which is vastly, better ,thaii his seagoing ancestors ever dreamed iof having.

' In' grandfather's day a ship took on hei? supplyj of. bread for a voyage in casks before leaving, home.* This supply had to last until the end-of the voyage, though that might'be .a year or two. The bread was in the form of hard> biscuits. It kept fairly well when dry,■■bat often it got damp and mouldy, or wormy. ; '■■ The old-time American sailor's ideal of dietary luxury, therefore, was plenty of "soft," fresh tread.- Coupled with that he had daily visions, of pies ;and puddings _ such as mother made .back;in Nantuckefc,' or New London, or Ndw 'Bedford; but; these he tasted while: at'sea in fancy only, for his sole dessert, after his meal' of hard bread 'and salt pork or beef, or of "sconse" or "salt-horse" hash, was a' portion once a week or so of duff, which one sailor author of eighty years ago described as "nothing more than flour boiled with water and eaten with molasses."

All that was done away with years ago, Since the introduction of steam; which shortened voyages, Jack's diet h*s steadily improved. Now a sailor lives ass well as most -working men ashore, and better than many. He has "soft" bread; daily, and both puddings and pies mtheir place. To provide for the needs of the crew in bread and pastry, each large American merchant ship carries a bakeshop and a . baker The bakeshop is equipped with ; the latest type of oven for baking bread and pastry m quantity. The baker is skilled not only in his trade, but m working under seagping conditions—and that, means ability to *eep a steady stomach, in rough weather, and while at work un-, consciously to change his balance from; one foot to the other as the ship rolls; from side to side, or pitches in- a strong^ head sea.