AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 7 – Panorama CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 270 of 332 This line “likely to affect morale” considered as taboo created a flutter within the corridors of power as they scurried around harbour and actually went around at that unearthly hour to other ships stationed on jetties nearby and collected fresh vegetables supplied to the fleet ships the previous day. This exercise took a few hours but soon I had 300 kg of assorted vegetables on deck. Quickly, I cast off and sailed off on my assigned mission. Later, upon entry to harbour, I learned that an enquiry was held and the officer responsible for supply of fresh rations to submarines was given a bottling by the Commander-in-Chief himself personally. Such is the importance that food occupies in the lives of men who risk it living in such confined spaces. Innovativeness in making dessert for the officers is indeed an art and a science. Some of our stewards took on magical roles when they innovated making puddings for the officers. Typically at the beginning of the voyage, it would start with the standard recipes from the Naval Cookery Manual like caramel custard, fruit custard, trunk of tree, diplomat pudding, tipsy pudding etc. As the days went by this would degenerate to condensed milk based sweet concoctions like bread butter pudding, tutti-frutti bread bake and towards the end of the voyage, say the last 10 days, our standard pudding would be just crushed glucose biscuits on sweetened condensed milk. I remember one enthusiastic steward John who inevitably came up with something most unexpected every time, particularly on the last day when the submarine was entering harbour. Whenever he sailed on my crew, I used to look forward to his innovation of “Orange Bomb”. Wherein, he would serve a whole orange with skin intact but insides