Layout - Lower Decks

The crew enjoyed three meals a day and hot coffee around the clock. The ship had a large galley, butcher shop, bakery, provision room, scullery for washing dishes, and ample cold storage space. Assisting the navy cooks were enlisted men assigned galley duty for three months. Total staff was 100!

The captain, the officers and chief petty officers each had their own dining facility.

The enlisted men stood in one of three "mess lines" which led to one of three "serving tables." Messmen stood behind the serving tables and served the food cafeteria style on stainless steel trays. The messmen were junior crewmembers who had mess duty for three months.

On the ship's tour, you will see two lines like the one is the photograph below. However, as the ship added more anti-aircraft guns, especially the fifteen 40mm mounts with 15-20 men per mount, her crew size increased measurably. Therefore, a third line was added so that the entire crew could be fed in a reasonable amount of time.

The Ship’s divisions provided 100 men to work in the mess decks. They served food, assisted the cooks and bakers, and performed many other duties associated with feeding the crew and keeping the mess areas clean.

Eight men staffed the scullery - "dishwashing central." It even had a dishwasher and sterilizer! After finishing their meal, the crew emptied their leftovers into garbage containers and took their trays to one of three soiled gear tables. They placed their cutlery, cups, and bowls into baskets next to the tables. The trays and silverware were placed in baskets and sent through the dishwasher’s wash, rinse, and sterilizing tanks on a conveyor. After cleaning, the items were stored in racks for use again.

"I always thought the chow was fantastic, I enjoyed ever bit of it. Some of my favorites were beans for breakfast, beef on toast, eggs (out at sea they were usually powdered but sometimes we got fresh ones). Our bakery was exceptional; we had pies, cake, homemade bread and rolls. Seconds were sometimes available and sometimes refused, but usually if there was some leftover we were allowed. One thing we always were sure we did when we had biscuits or bread or anything like that was before we ate it we held them up to the light to make sure there weren’t any black spots in them as we did have a lot of cockroaches! Quite often we would find them in the bread, sometimes so many of them we thought there were raisins in them! "

"The first one served is the Officer of the Deck. He had to come down and look at the chow and eat it. If it is suitable to him, then the chow line starts. If there were any grievance he has about the looks of it or the taste of it, then the chow line would be secured until all this would be taken care of. There was seldom any time the chow line wasn’t palatable. We ate very well on here. We had fresh baked goods all the time. They’d be baking pies and cakes and jelly doughnuts. We had ice cream all the time."

"I knew one guy on the ship that I grew up with. He was in the same high school I was. He was in the bake shop. Now, I was fortunate to know him because if anything was left over, he would call up the engine room, ‘Neumann, send up a messenger. I have some leftover pies.’ I would send up the messenger and he would come down with the pies. I always had something to eat. He would make a pie or a cake. He would actually make a flat pizza pie and he would send some down to us. He always took care of me like that."

"In 1942, everything was Spam, Spam, Spam for breakfast, dinner and supper with eggs. Back then they had powdered eggs and dehydrated spuds. They got a little bit better and a little bit better after a while. Now that I’m old and think about it, they had the finest food, but we were young and criticized the cook and everybody else. There was a Chief Steward, his name was Jackson. For a while, he started giving nothing but bologna. Somebody told the captain that ‘they are going to throw him overboard.’ If I recall correctly, they had a Marine orderly with him for a while who followed him around for a few weeks. They finally changed the menu."

"July 18, 1942. Chow is being rationed to maintain enough for us to stay out for two months – one egg or two pancakes for breakfast – baked beans for dinner. I might lose some weight on this kind of rations."

- Edward J. Gillespie, officer, journal entry, after Ship left Pearl Harbor and was headed for action for the first time. Officers were allowed to keep journals. No one was to keep a personal diary, but a number of them did.