Young Knights of the Empire Part 32

The linen is put into a circular "drum" full of soapy water and whirled round and round till well washed.

It is then partly dried by being put into another metal tub, which is whirled round by electricity at such a pace that the water flies out of the clothes. These are then put into a kind of mangle between hot steel rollers, which squeeze out any water that remains, and at the same time so heats the things that they come out quite dry and ironed into the airing-room, where they receive a final drying in hot air.

The ironing of small articles like shirts and blouses is done by a few laundrymaids using flat-irons heated by electricity.

OUR BIRTHDAY CAKE.

While on board we celebrated our birthday--that is, my wife's birthday and my own (for by a curious chance we were both born on the same day, though not in the same year!)--and at tea-time a beautiful birthday cake appeared upon the scene, beautifully sugared and decorated with our names and appropriate inscriptions, just as if it had been made ash.o.r.e.

I do not know how the knowledge of the birthday got about, but I do know that the cake was a most excellent one, and the kind thought of the baker in making it was greatly appreciated by both of us.

FOOD AND FEEDING.

After seeing the stokehold, the engines, and the laundry, we visited the kitchens. The feeding of the pa.s.sengers is an important point, for on board are no fewer than 200 first-cla.s.s, 230 second-cla.s.s, 800 third-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers, and over 300 officers and crew--more than 1500 people altogether.

The voyage to Australia takes nearly six weeks, so you can imagine that a pretty large amount of food has to be carried on board to take the ship out and home again.

Tons of fresh meat and vegetables, b.u.t.ter, and eggs are stored in ice-cold cellars. Each day a supply is brought up and put into iced larders for that day's issue.

Here are some of the amounts taken in the ship for one voyage: 5 tons bacon, 50,000 eggs, 6 1/2 tons b.u.t.ter, 45,000 oranges, 9000 lb. jam.

In the great kitchen are a dozen cooks at work preparing the meals for all cla.s.ses--the cooking is exactly the same for all. Also the quality of food is the same, except that the first-cla.s.s get more variety and choice of different dishes. In the bakery is made the daily supply of bread for the whole ship, and also baked puddings, cakes, and sweetmeats.

POTATO PEELING.

There were lots of interesting machines used in the kitchen to save time and labour.

For instance, there was a machine for peeling potatoes; a round metal tub in which the potatoes were rushed round and round until their skins were rubbed off, and they were ready for the cooking-pot.

There were egg-boiling machines, which, working by clockwork, kept the eggs in boiling water for whatever time was desired, and then took them out without any attention on the part of the cook.

There was a bread-slicing machine and a plate-washing machine, the dirty plates being placed in iron racks and lowered into a tank where boiling water is dashed on to them from both sides, so that they clean themselves in no time. There was also a machine for kneading the dough for making bread.

In fact, the whole place was a marvel of work and organisation all compressed into a very small s.p.a.ce, and yet done most successfully and cleanly.

A GOOD DINNER.

Here is one day's bill of fare for the third-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers, which shows that they do not fare badly. I had some of it myself, and it was excellent.

BREAKFAST

Porridge with Milk Yarmouth Bloaters Hashed Meat Cold Corned Pork Bread b.u.t.ter Jam Marmalade Tea Coffee Cocoa

DINNER

Mulligatawny Soup Roast Mutton Potatoes Mashed Pumpkin Suet Pudding with Syrup Children--Milk Pudding Bread Cheese Biscuits

TEA

Lancashire Hot-Pot Cold Meat Salad Pickles Bread b.u.t.ter Jam Marmalade Currant Cake

SUPPER

Bread b.u.t.ter Cocoa Biscuits and Cheese Gruel for Infants if required Cocoa or Coffee with Biscuits at 6.30 a.m.

AN ECHO OF THE ZULU WAR.

Of two of the cooks with whom I talked, one had been twenty-three years in the service of the Orient Company and the other twenty-six years: and nearly all the ship's company had been in this ship four years, though their engagement only lasts for one voyage. So it looks as though the Orient were a satisfactory line to serve with.

One of the cooks had been a soldier in the Wiltshire Regiment, and had served in the Zulu War of 1879. He had been in the siege and defence of Etshowe.

This place was surrounded by the Zulus, and another British force tried to get into signalling communication with it by means of the heliograph, which at that time was quite a new invention.

I reminded my cook friend of this, and he told me this little yarn about it. He said:

"I was walking out on the ridge there close to the camp with a corporal in my company when we noticed a light flickering on a hill in the distance. He had been through a course of signalling, and said it looked as if somebody were trying to flash a signal to us, so we got a bit of looking-gla.s.s and flashed it in their direction.

"Suddenly he said to me:

"'Write down what I tell you.'

"I got out a piece of paper and a pencil, and he spelt out a message which was meant for Colonel Pearson, our commanding officer. It was to say that if we sent a signaller on to the church steeple in Etshowe they could signal direct to him.

"I took the message to the colonel, and soon after a sailor managed to get up somehow or other, and we very quickly had messages going and coming."

SEA SCOUTING

In the days of Queen Elizabeth, nearly four hundred years ago, the sailors of Spain, of England, of Holland, and of Portugal were all making themselves famous for their daring voyages in small sailing ships across unknown oceans, by which they kept discovering new lands for their country in distant corners of the world.

There was one small cabin-boy on a coasting brig in the English Channel who used to long to become one of these discoverers but when he looked at the practical side of the question it seemed hopeless for a poor little chap like him ever to hope to rise in the world beyond his present hard life in a wretched little coaster, living on bad food and getting, as a rule, more kicks than halfpence--but it shows you how the poorest boy can get on if he only puts his back to it.