To illustrate how normal was our bill of fare on the Roosevelt in winter quarters, here is our weekly menu for the winter of 1908–09 (the north pole voyage):
Monday. Breakfast: cereal, beans and brown bread, butter, coffee. Dinner: liver and bacon, macaroni and cheese, bread and butter, tea.
Tuesday. Breakfast: oatmeal, ham and eggs, bread and butter, coffee. Dinner: corned beef and creamed peas, duff, tea.
Wednesday. Breakfast: choice of two kinds of cereal, fish, forward (that is, for the sailors), sausage, aft (for the members of the expedition), bread and butter, coffee. Dinner: steak and tomatoes, bread and butter, tea.
Thursday. Breakfast: cereal, ham and eggs, bread and butter, coffee. Dinner: corned beef and peas, duff, tea.
Friday. Breakfast: choice of cereal, fish, Hamburger on starboard (our own) table, bread and butter, coffee. Dinner: pea soup, fish, cranberry pie, bread and butter, tea.
Saturday. Breakfast: cereal, meat stew, bread and butter, coffee. Dinner: steak and tomatoes, bread and butter, tea.
Sunday. Breakfast: cereal, “brooze” (Newfoundland hard biscuit softened and boiled with salt codfish), bread and butter, coffee. Dinner: salmon trout, fruit, chocolate.
In addition to the large quantities of the bedrock staple provisions, there is a long list of odd and often amusing supplies that would never be thought of except by those who had already had polar experience. Yet for the mere problem of existence in those regions, to the experienced one the essentials are few, rifle and ammunition, matches, knife, hatchet, needles.
In my work another special class of supplies came in, that is, articles for my Eskimos; tools, weapons, implements, etc., for pay and gifts.