Battleship Provisioning

By Lt Cdr Lester May RN (rtd)

Message from the Editor

The author investigates the perhaps surprising legacy of early 20th century warship provisioning. While the cornucopia of commodities required to provision a Dreadnought-class battleship is to be expected, the long duration and haphazard nature of the victualing system emphasises historical continuity and institutional ossification in an otherwise transformative era. A 15 minute read.

The caption to the image overleaf states that one month’s provisions are depicted in this drawing, but there are a lot of comestibles missing (see below). Battleships of the time had to return to port or harbour in order to coal ship after six days at sea. Perhaps, food supplies on board, in the immediate years prior to 1914, did not need, therefore, to last much more than for six days as well, perhaps double that to be on the safe side? One might expect that, when coaling ship, every opportunity was taken to replenish victuals at the same time, although the all-pervasive coal dust hardly seem…

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Battleship Provisioning in the age of the Dreadnought: Some answers and clarification