CONFIDENTIAL REPORT 2G-9C
S34
     
 
FORMER GERMAN SUBMARINE TYPE IX-C
 
 
 
 
MESSING
 
     
 
SUMMARY
 
     
          Commissary equipment is limited, and the only equipment outside of the galley is certain tables and mess gear in the battery compartment, and the individual mess kits of the enlisted personnel.  
          The galley is located forward of the control room and the officers' country, and separates the latter from the petty officers' country.  
          It is fitted with a small refrigerator and a ready provision locker on the port side of the main fore-and-aft passage, and with an electric range, a soup kettle, a sink, a hot water heater, a dresser and lockers.  
          The refrigerator is what would be considered a domestic size unit in the United States.  Further details of this unit will be found in section S59.  
          The range is a small unit made of cast and sheet iron, enameled in part, fitted in one or other of the following two ways:  
          a)  Three hot plates on top, hot water heater at the back of the oven and two lockers below.  
          b)  Four hot plates on top, oven below.  
                  Note:  in this case the range of mounted on lockers, and the hot water heater is provided as a separate unit.  
          The hot plates come in two sizes.  The larger has snap switch control providing three stages of heat up to 3000 watts.  The smaller plate has three stages of heat control up to 1200 watts.  
          The oven, which in one model is only 11.8" x 15.7" x 13/7", and in the other is 7.9" x 23.6" x 19.7", is provided with three 250 watt heating elements top and bottom, with three stages of heat control up to a maximum of 1500 watts.  
          The immersion heater, where built into the range, is rated at 1200 watts, and heats a 10 liter (2.6 gallons) tank.  The separate tank and heater, where provided, have the same water capacity, but a heat rating of 2000 watts.  
     
 
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           The soup kettle has a capacity of 40 liters (10.6 gallons), and is heated by an 8800 watt unit in the base.  Three stages of heat control are provided.  The kettle is further fitted with a tight cover with a relief valve to permit it to be used as a pressure cooker, and a faucet at the bottom from which the contents of the kettle may be withdrawn.  
          The sink is a small single enameled iron affair with a sheet metal or, on some vessels, a wooden drain board.  It is provided with a hand pump which supplies either hot or cold fresh water (similar to the system on LCT (6) craft) to a mixing faucet, and with an additional faucet which (when the engines are running) supplies hot salt water.  
          Galley equipment consisted of bread boxes, colanders, ladles, basting spoons, dredge boxes, a carving board, a hand meat grinder; sauce pans, bake and roasting pans, pressure cookers; knives, spatulas; cook's forks, a cleaver; scoops, can opener, bottle opener and an egg whip.  
          Mess hear consisted of individual mess kits for enlisted men, and a fairly elaborate outfit of silver, glass chinaware and table linen for the officers.  In this latter category no surrendered vessel had a complete set of Navy equipment, for the missing items were eked out by using items salvaged from hotels, restaurants, or other sources.  
          A mess gear locker, with fitted stacks and fiddle boards, was provided in the wardroom.  
          Mess tables, while shown on plans, were not available to non-rated men on surrendered vessels at Portsmouth.  
     
  Comment:  
          The galley is cramped in size.  The floor space excluding the main fore-and-aft passage of the vessel is 27-1/2" x 4'-11".  When it is considered that all cooking and all washing of mess gear for 48 men takes place in this space, the congestion can be appreciated.  
          The range is not sufficiently flexible to provide a diet up to U.S. submarine requirements.  The size and shape of the oven is such as to permit baking potatoes, but does not permit extended baking, broiling or roasting of food for an entire crew.  
          The large soup kettle, and the numerous deep pots including pressure cookers, give evidence of a diet largely  
     
 
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9C-S34
     
  consisting of boiled or steamed food.  
          The sink and its appurtenances might have been taken bodily from a small summer cottage.  
          The crew's messing facilities appear to be primitive if, in fact, it was not the custom to provide the mess tables and benches which are shown in the torpedo rooms on the general arrangement plan.  
          The location of the galley reduces to a minimum the distance which food must be carried when messing, viewed in the light of the general quarters' arrangement.  
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
 
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