12 
Land & Water 
May 9, 1918 
Economy in the Grand Fleet : By l. r. Freeman, r.n.v.r 
THE wind liad been whistling raw and cold through 
the foretop, from where I had been watching the 
night target practice, and my appetite was 
whetted to a razor edge by the time the game was 
over and the ship was again at anchor. 
"I'm as hungry as a shark, myself," said the gfunnery 
■commander; "but, never mind, we'll have a good snack of 
supper just as soon as we climb down and get out of these 
Arctic togs." 
Five minutes later, the first of a dozen officers who stamped 
in as fast as their duties were over, we were seated at one of 
the ward-room tables. "Would you rather have ham or 
sardine sandwiches?" some one asked. "Both!" I un- 
blushingly replied, 'unless the latter are as large as whales." 
A waiter came hurrying through the door in answer to the 
ring, buttoning his coat as though he had been surprised by 
an unexpected summons. "A couple of plates of ham and 
sardine sandwiches and beer all round," was the laconic but 
comprehensive order. 
The old "Marine" smiled deprecatingly, as one who has 
unpleasant news to imptirt. 
''Sorry, sir," he said, addressing the commander, "but the 
day's bread was finished at dinner, sir, an' the 'am we' ad for 
breakfast was all we can 'ave to-day, sir." 
And then the wonderful thing happened. I had expected 
the howl of a Roman stage mob to greet the disappointing 
announcement ; but it was only the commander's voice that 
was heard, speaking quietly as he rose from the table. 
"Very well," he said; "bring us some hot cocoa in the 
smoking-room. A good hot drink's the best thing for a 
night like this, anyway." Over steaming cups of cocoa the 
commander told me, briefly and casually, something of what 
ha'd been done on his ship (which was thoroughly typical of 
the other units of the Grand Fleet) to cut down the unneces- 
sary consumption of food. 
"The old idea," he said, "that a fighting man ought to be 
stuffed like a prize steer was discredited by experience long 
ago, but it took the war to jar us into putting that experi- 
ence (like so many other things) into practice. Any man 
living a non-sedentary life will make a very brave attempt 
to eat all the food that is put before him, but that by no 
means proves that he needs it. If he is working hard 
enough in the open air, the surplus over his normal require- 
ment does not do him any harm, and so there was not much 
p)oint in keeping it away from him as long as there was food 
to waste all over the world. But when the world's surplus 
began to be turned into a deficit by the war, the opportunity 
arose to kill two birds with one stone — to save food and to 
improve the health of the men. I am glad to saj' that we 
have been able to do both, and with the hearty concur- 
rence of every one concerned, officers and men. 
"Generally speaking," he continued, "we left the Navy 
ration just about as it was before the war, with the exception 
of those staples in which there is the worst shortage — bread, 
meat, and potatoes. Great as the actual food-saving has 
proved, a still more important benefit has been to our 
health. There are several factors contributing to the truth 
that the personnel of the Grand Fleet has incomparably the 
highest standard of health ever maintained in so large a 
body of men, and I am quite positive that by no means the 
least of these is the check that has been put on over-eating 
by our food-saving measures." 
» * • 
This incident occurred on the occasion of my first visit to 
the Grand Fleet in the late autumn of last year ; but it was 
not until my return, nearly two months later, that I had 
opportunity to gather anything further of the details of food 
economy. Then I learned that a strict rationing was only 
the first part of a scheme of which the second was a waste- 
prevention campaign. Bread and meat were both further 
restricted, but to the iiViprovement rather than the detriment 
of the already high health standard of the Fleet. The bread 
now served consists of one-eighth potato, one-sixth barley 
meal, and the remainder— but slightly more than two- 
thirds — of "standard" flour. The Fleet Paymaster of my 
ship, who outlined the scheme to me, said that the idea was 
to reduce waste to a minimum, both "coining" and "going." 
"We aim to put no more food on the tables of cither the 
officers or men than they will eat up clean. Jack Spratt and 
his wife are our models. But we don't stop there by any 
means. Jack Spratt, so far as we have any information, 
must have thrown away the bones, even if he and the missus 
Copyright in U.S..^. 
did hck the platter. We not only save the bones, but even 
go so far as to skim the grease of^ the dish-water the platter 
is washed in. If you will run over this report here, you'll 
understand the 'fade-away' expression on the faces of the 
gulls that used to fatten on the waste of the Grand Fleet. 
It is merely a tabulated summary of a week's saving of the 
things which used to go down the chutes. 
There were numbers nmning to four and five figures in the 
table, most of them referring to the pounds of various refuse 
which had been collected and shipped for conversion into 
glycerine and other useful and valuable products. Without 
giving figures which might be "useful or heartening to the 
enemy," I will probably be permitted to state that the 
various headings were the following : Dripping, fat meat, 
bones, waste paper, bottles and jars, discarded clothing, 
head seals, mail bags, and tins. Several of the items would 
have run to substantial figures even in tons, and the money 
received for them at even the nominal prices paid by- the 
contractor aggregated many thousands of pounds. 
Variations in Savings 
Glancing quickly through the figures under the headings 
opposite the various ships of our squadron, I noticed at once 
that there were considerable variations in their savings, and, 
knowing that the number of men did not vary materially on 
any of them, I asked the reason why the flagship, for instance, 
with less than half the weight of "bones" to her credit than 
"ourself," was still able to put by something like 50 per 
cent, more dripping. 
"It will probably be because we haven't yet 'standard- 
ised' our methods throughout' the Fleet," repUed the Pay- 
master; "because different ships may have different waj^ 
of going about the job. Of, these particular items you have 
mentioned, perhaps we can find out something by talking 
to Mr. C , the warrant-officer who has charge of the 
collection of by-products." 
Mr. C , who was plainly an enthusiast, launched on to 
the subject with eagerness. 
" I've been intending to explain that matter of dripping 
to you, sir," he said, addressing the Fleet Paymaster, "for 
the figures certainly have the look of not doing us justice. 
Fact is, though, that the only reason we've run behind the 
flagship on this count is because I have been encouraging 
the messes to carry food-saving one stage further by using 
the clean grease — the skimmings from their soup and the 
water their meat is boiled in — instead of margarine. With 
a Uttle pepper and salt, most of them like it better even than 
butter, and, of course, they can use it much more freely. And 
since dripping is worth more for food than it ever can 
be to make up into soap or explosives, I figure I'm on the 
right ttack, even if it does give the Lucifer and the Mephis- 
tofoles a chance to head us in the 'grease' column. I must 
admit, though, sir, that they've both been gaining a few 
pounds of second-quahty stuff by rigging 'traps' — settling 
tubs at the bottom of their chutes — in which they catch any 
grease that has got away from them in the galley. H'll be 
beating them at that game before long, though, for I'm 
putting in setthng tubs at both top and bottom, with a 
strainer in between. 
"As for the 'bones,' " he went on, turning to me, "that's 
largely 'personahty.' 'Boney Joe,' my chief assistant, is 
perhaps more largely responsible than anyone else for the 
fact that we are not only the champion ' bone-collecting ' 
ship of the squadron, but also head the list with ' bottles and 
jars' and 'empty tins.' With 'waste paper' tliere's no use 
competing with the flagship, for they come in for an even 
heavier bombardment of that kind of stuff from the Admiralty 
than, we do; and as for 'discarded clothing,' 1 feel that a 
place at the bottom of the column would be more likely to 
indicate economical management than one at ihe top. But 
the things that represent a sheer saving, the things that 
used to be thrown away right along— they're what it's worth 
while pihng up by every means we can, and they're the ones 
with which I want to keep heading the columns. And, as 
I said before, 'Boney Joe' is the main feature of the show on 
this score. If you like, I will arrange it so that you can do 
his morning round with him to-morrow." 
I accepted the offer with alacrity, for I had heard of "Boney 
Joe" frequently. The first time was when, in order to avoid 
a howlmg blizzard which was sweeping the decks, I endea- 
voured to make my way forward to the ladder leading up 
to my cabm under the bridge by threading the mazes of the 
