Battleship Provisioning

Battleship Provisioning

26 Oct 23
Posted by: Lt Cdr Lester May RN (rtd)
28 minutes, 44 seconds read
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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 emphasizes historical continuity and institutional ossification in an otherwise transformative era. A 30 minute read.

The battleship depicted is almost certainly HMS Neptune (1911). It was the eighth Dreadnought-type to be completed since 1906, built by Portsmouth Dockyard and the only one of its class. With a displacement of 19,900-22,000 tons, the battleship had a ten 12” gun main armament and a complement of 813-900 men. Neptune saw service throughout the First World War, including at the Battle of Jutland, and was placed in Reserve in 1919 before being sold in 1921 for scrap.[1] The caption to the image above states that one month’s provisions are depicted in this drawing, but there are a lot of comestibl…

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