The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-08
COOKING FOr MEN. UP IN ARCTIC E NERVE-TRYING JOB
MacMiIIan Equipped To For ward Radio Messages To
 The Age-HeraId

NAiANAl IS val 4IlE lJi. lDDlldl-A 4hA Ma Milan and his party into the Arctic for fifteen months or more-aud radio, too, with which MacMillan will act as special Artic cores spondent of The Age e-Herald.
 Bill Lewis has been fixing salt and such for fore mast hands fer the last thirty-five years, but never in all the seas has he done his job at a tinier galley than the Bowdoin's. He's happy. though-Bill says it's worth while if he can hear the latest Jazz and thH baseball scores and SD forth over the raido, and for a fol- lower of the sea Bill has keen ear fer Jazz. Three other cooks backed out before he signed for the voyage.
 He's big man, is Bill Lewis. There's 200 pounds of him, distri- buted athwart as well as fore and aft That's a lot of cook to carry on a little ship which is to be iced in for months on end, far from a grocery store. The Bowdoin, by the way, Is carrying an ice box into the Arctic.
 But Bill is an object lesson in eff ciency worth the study of any house. wife. He has waste motions worked cut to a finer point than any in dustrial expert ever dreamt of. Maybe that's one reason for part of his 200 pounds. His efficiency will come in handy on the Bowdoin. for she has a galley that Is really noth- ing but stove and little else set in the middle of the forecastle. which Itself Is so small a fair sized man has to stCop or bump his head
 The biggest thing In the fore castle is Bill and the next biggest Is the mast which is stepped right through between the hunks. After that in size, comes the galley equip ment.
 Chef A Prestidigtator.
 It's lucky Bill has learned to be dextrous and agile since he first set out from Lynn, Mass. to be a sailor man. Gle insists he is, even if your real cold salt would scoff at such a claim from a cotk.)
 The chef aboard such a polar schooner as the Bowdoin needs a variety of qualifications He must be something of magician, bit of an acrobat. a thorough seaman, have an even disposition and be an all- round cook, equally capable of fix ing polar bear and tasty apple pie
 The laboratory of William A. Lewis would be the despair of the housewife whose first requisite Is room in the kitchen.
 It really is galley, in name only for It consists of cookstove, a small for 1t consists of a small cookstove, a small sink and an equally small china closet, all occupying about six square feet in the other part of the forecastle.
 That's where the ability as a magician and as an acrobat comes in. Apparently from nowhere the cook must produce meal for eight husky appetites Gncluding his own). To do 1t in his close quarters, his act makes pulling rabbits out of a hat and doing a back flip look simple.
 With a good sea, tossing the ves- sel about, he has to be speedy to reach for the sugar without coming up with the coal scuttle. Incidental ly, his coal for the stove Is all slowed far under the flooring and 'he, has to get 1t out through an ap- erature of two square feet. His lee box is lashed on deck because there wasn't room for it in the hold.
 His Is An Important Job.
 However. he has one advantage. He can reach. out of his bunk and put his hand on almost everything In his kingdom.
 Despite his size. Lewis has given every indication of qualifying In every direction. He is a soon of a sea cook In name only for even the noisy hum of the radio generator. breaking into his well-deserved sleep, failed to ruffle his good temper. He sets a splendid example for the irritable housewife whose temper Is easily mislaid among the 4 pots and pans.
 The position of cook on an Arctic expedition is far from lowly. It is of the utmost psychological importance. s.1 1. 11,r, roast on a tired man, is a matter of common knowledge. This effect is nagnfied in geometrical ratio by each degree of northward progress, and poor cook could do such havoc to the morale of an expedition that the whole party might conceivably end in a general free-for-a all mas sacre, with the rest of the gang dis posing of the cook first, by common consent.
 But Dr. MacMillan has said therell 0e nothing like that with Bill Lewis around.
 One Womanly Touch.
 A woman's thoughtfulness added to the last touch of the outfitting of the schooner Bowdoin. The wom- an is the explorers sister, Mrs. Lett tia Fogg Of Freeport.
 When. to the masculine eye, all was complete on the Bowdoin, Mrs. Fogg took look at the cramped fore castle, which members of the crew share with the galley and with radio equipment.
 - "All huukydory, eh?" said Dr. Mac Milan proudly to his sister. ,\ She nodded-pyt before the Bow doin weighed anchor she had gone quietly to the forecastle by herself and when the men slowed in their dunnage in their quarters each found a curtain strung across his bunk. It's dlrnitory. at best, such a forecastie Ss this, but what wom- an could. with needle and draw string, had been done.
 There are thousands of radio amateurs throughout America on tip toe for the messages Dr. MacM!ilan will send from the Arctic. but none Is keener about the wireless than Mrs. Fogg.
 ir When he was youngster. Dr. MacMillan went to live with his sis ter, and when he was lad working his way through college, she helped him as far as she could. They are old pals. this brother and sister.
 "What do l think of Donald's can tell you this. It'll be mighty fine to be able to say hello to him : now and then while he's up there, and mighty fine to get word from him, too. Sometimes I think the ( Arctic night that they talk SC much of is harder on the folks at home than on the men who so through it though heaven knows they need courage to go U- theFe.'
 Mrs. Fogg's curtains are the only friH to be found in the BowdCin, ', lya fp no NV