Who Said Pie?
Because the Leviathan was expected to arrive in port on Christmas eve, a regular navy holiday dinner with all the fixings was given to all hands on the day before. This dinner was given complete and went off smoothly with but one hitch. As said before, soldiers have healthy appetites and a strong affection for pie, and, in order to get more pie than their share, a great many doubled back in the mess lines and perhaps more than once, for there were over 15,000 rations of pie served out on that strenuous day. For a while it looked as if we were going to be overwhelmed and that the last thousand troops to go through the mess lines would not get any holiday dinner, but a good substitute dinner was provided and it is recorded that everybody was made happy.
All this work was accomplished under such adverse conditions and with the added strain incidental to our first trip through the war zone, that it was with relief we arrived in port and fed the soldiers their last navy meal alongside the landing stage in Liverpool. Each man leaving the ship was given a lunch to stay him on the next stage of his journey and with it went the good wishes of the Leviathan’s crew. The practice of providing a lunch to debarking troops has been carried out in all succeeding disembarkations.