The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-13
COLOSSAL
IS BUSINESS OF CATERING FOR A MOD- ERIN LINER.
Mountains of Provisions Required for . Trip s--1,000 Plumbers and 2,000 Plates Bro
 ken on . Round Trip.

| Few people have an idea. said lead | ing official of one of our great transat
 iantic steamship companies. what colos
 sal business 1t is to cater for a modern liner
 which 1t is no exasgeration to describe a' l a floating town"
 The Celtic, for instance, has accomrno' dations for no fewer than 2,s5s passengers | to say nothing of her crew, numbering 335. | a total population of 3.1s1 souls The Kron- pritz Wilhelm carry 2.171 people, o1 whom 1,651 are passengers. whie the Ocean ic has ample room for 1925 passengers and a crew of 450. These numbers will in them
 selves suggest something of the scale on
 which it is necessary to provide food for
 a double journey across the Atlantic. Leaving alone the stupendous figures re-
 presented by the Celtic larder, will give you in brief outline some idea of the mountains of provisions you would have to lay in for the voyage to New York ana
 back of a vessel carrying couple of thousand people on board. To begin with let us see to the meat supply. Of meat you should allow thirty thousand pounds, and of mutton from twelve thousand to
 fifteen thousand pounds. the equivalent of about sixty bullocks and taking the lar ger quantity of mutton, @ drove of 260 sheep. Thus we make a substantial start, though our supply is not pound too much to be
 on the safe side: but in addition to our
 beef and mutton, we shall want at least ten
 thousand pounds of lamb and a couple of thousand pounds of pork and veal
 We shall have to enlist the services of fifty pigs to supply us with five thousand
 pounds of ham and bacon, and to accomo-
 date our breakfast rashers, will appro-
 priate part of the twenty-four thousand eggs required for the ships larder. Let us now proceed to stock poultry larder l with five thousand birds of one kind or
 another. of which half will be fowls, while the balance will be made up of ducks, gos- | iings, pigeons. turkeys, pheasants, squabs, l quais and on. the squabs and quails alone numbering at least 1900.
 We cannot get along without fish. and of fresh fish of different kinds must l purchase about a quarter, or 2.s0o pounds; I of salt fish, two thousand pounds, and about twelve thousand herrings, or, say, twenty four barrels. Oysters will be a favor. we
 may be sure, and of these we cannot do
 with fewer than sixteen thousand-twenty thousand would be a safer figure-while of
 clans, half the number will suffice, eand
 to these may add four hundred or five
 hundred tins of sardines.
 Our spacious larders deep down in the hold of the ship being rapidly
 filled but many very important contribut-
 ions to come. The bulkiest of them all
 and the most important are first about elBnteen tons or Ilour, the equivalent, 1T II
 were all made into bread. of more than
 f2,50o four-pound loaves and second. fifty
 tons of potatoes As you see. we shall not
 starve now if we stop our catering but there are still many items to add. Of sugar to
 sweeten the voyage we shall want four and
 a half tons, of tea about thirteen hundred
 pounds and of coffee at least ton. The
 milk alone for double voyage would
 weigh eight thousand pounds. and the hams and marmalade will turn the scale at two tons
 I have not by any means included every thing we ought to supply. but I hope I have
 given you some idea of the principal con-
 tents of our larder. and on a vessel equip
 ed on this scale you may safely take re-
 turn ticket for New York, assured that
 neither you nor any of your fellow passen-
 ger will be in danger of starvation.
 After grasping these figures you will
 scarcely be surprised to learn that your
 vessel will carry at least one thousand table, cloths, fourteen thousand serviettes four thousand knives, five thousand forks and
 roughly six thousand spoons; or that dur ing the twelve days you are at sea one thou l sand tumblers and couple of thousand plates will probably be broken.-Tidbits.