F. L. F.
As soon as the decision was made that the Navy would have charge of the commissary departments on the transports, plans were promptly made to effect the most complete and satisfactory arrangements for the subsistence of the troops en route. A board of three expert commissary officers was appointed with instructions to prepare a well-balanced standard bill-of-fare for use on board all of the transports. The bill-of-fare for a fourteen-day period submitted by the board, was approved and copies forwarded to the commanding officers of all transports for their guidance with the request that it be followed as nearly as possible. Experienced officers of the Supply Corps were then recommended for assignment to the transports and nothing was left undone which would contribute in any way to perfect arrangements for the satisfactory feeding of the troops. This work was new to the navy, as transports were heretofore operated exclusively by the army.
On this account and because, as stated by the Secretary of the Navy, “The success of the transfer of the army troops will depend to a large extent on the conduct of the commissary service on each vessel.
“It is especially gratifying to be able to report that the subsistence of the troops en route overseas has been satisfactory in every respect. This fact is confirmed by reports received from time to time.”
This extract from the Paymaster General’s report marks the success of the enormous task given the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts of feeding the A. E. F. while being carried overseas on American transports.
The menus mentioned in the report actually originated from the Leviathan, and the general instructions at that time were to “live up to the standard required by the sample menu, and to do better, if possible.” This was the slogan of all the general messes in the transport service, and it is a well-known fact that the army as a whole has had nothing but praise for the Navy Commissariat.
The Leviathan, being the largest carrier of all the transport fleet, naturally placed the supply officer, Paymaster Geo. C. Schafer and his assistants, headed by H. B. Judkins, Ensign, U. S. N. R. F., Pay Corps, on their mettle to make a success of this enormous undertaking, although at that time and even up to the time the first meal was served to the troops, the huge task was hardly realized.
During the period of fitting out and on the first trip, there were only five men in the Commissary Department who were known to be familiar with the navy general mess requirements and navy discipline, the rest of the Commissary Department was made up from men taken from all walks of life—lawyers, college men, horseshoers, business men, actors, etc.; only about thirty men having any experience as cooks and bakers, and among these only a comparative few who had any seagoing experience. Even these men were of an unknown quantity until tried out, in the actual experience of cooking and serving food to 10,000 troops and crew, the proportionate number carried the first trip through the war-zone. This was the biggest feeding task ever undertaken in the history of the maritime world.
These men came from various sources of recruiting, mostly from the headquarters and commissary schools connected with the Third Naval District, arriving in batches of one to ten almost every day until ready to sail. None of them came fully equipped or uniformed and the first real muster of the Commissary Department was unique in the history of the ship, about three hundred men falling in on B-deck. An attempt was made to drill them into something near the navy standard. At that time it seemed a hopeless task—none seemed to know what was required of them, even to the simple movement of opening ranks for inspection. The inspection was a joke, no one in uniform, and the expression “Coxey’s Army” would describe the general appearance of the men.
However, the spirit was there, and in an incredibly short time the men were properly uniformed and at the first crew inspection made a very creditable showing, even in the opinion of the old-timers.