Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 285
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[Page 285]
[offi]cers explained that they had no "frigory" like us, referring to the refrigerator which a thoughtful Admiralty had had installed. This "frigory" was a boon to our chummy ships as well as to us, and often at a rendezvous at sea we passed over fresh meat to our less fortunate friends, serving in ships which were not so blessed. The man-o'-war in some respects is a queer abode, and up to a few years ago, at any rate, the utilities were strictly observed. For instance, except in the most modern ships there are no baths installed for either officers or men, and the daily - or otherwise - bath is taken in a species of tin dish which is attached to the roof of the cabin. Even in the Sydney there were one or two dear old daddies who still preferred to bathe as per regulation and looked with scorn upon the new-fangled fittings of the New Navy. Even the seamen had showers in the Sydney, and the stokers had their own baths with hot water laid on. Refrigerators too were unconventional, and the Melbourne and ourselves were the only ships on the North America-West Indies station lucky enough to have one. Some ships spend years on the China station and in the tropics, and yet no-one apparently thought of such an appendage to ordinary civilised life. In any except a freezing climate this meant tinned and preserved foods after a few days at sea, a serious hardship when a ship, like several of ours in the South Atlantic, was not in harbour for months on end. For this reason the Sydney and Melbourne gained a specious popularity, and one fears our pals in the Royal Navy loved our cup-