Sailor Mouth Saturday: Food and Drink

If the cards at the market are to be believed, Dad is all about eating on Father's Day.  That and wearing slippers.  For my Dad, may the saints rest his soul, it was usually barbeque and beer that hit the spot; slippers optional.  To celebrate Dads, since Father's Day here in the U.S. is tomorrow, SMS would like to deviate slightly from our usual programming and offer a list, however noninclusive, of some U.S. Navy chow slang from before World War I. 

Afters: dessert (usually in this era that meant canned fruit for the enlisted men but sometimes, depending on the occasion, cake, pie or even iced cream might appear)
Albany beef: boiled sturgeon from the Hudson river
Baby's head: meat pudding
Bag meal: a boxed dinner or supper
Bargemen: weevils swimming in soup thickened with ship's biscuit
Bilge cod: a general term for "it's fish for dinner"
Black meat: bacon
Cheesy-eggy-hammy-stopsides: omelets
Chicken fruit and/or cackleberries: eggs
Covered wagon: pie (of any kind, not just sweet)
Dalmatian pudding: suet pudding with raisins or currents (this was the spotted dog or, in the Royal Navy, spotted dick of the 19th century more appetizingly rephrased)
Deep sea beef: haddock (also known as "priest's fish" as it was often served to Catholic crewmen on Fridays)
Fisherman's sauce: salt water, vinegar and mustard (for making questionable meat more appetizing)
Fish eyes: tapioca pudding
Floaters in the snow: sausages and mashed potatoes
Hollow meat: chicken (sometimes other meat such as rabbit)
Nuts and bolts: stew (sometimes called "nuts and bolts with an awning" meaning a savory pie)
Osh-me-gosh: beef and vegetables
Poison-on-a-plate: biscuits dipped in beef drippings, usually for breakfast
Red lead: canned fish, usually herring or sardines, in tomato sauce (also slang for a red-haired individual)
Resurrection pie: leftovers (also known as "twice laid", for obvious reasons)
Sharks: canned sardines
Soap and flannel: cheese and bread
Spudoosh: stew of mostly potatoes
Torpedo: sausages

There you have it, Brethren; or some of it anyway.  Be nice to your Dad tomorrow if you are fortunate enough to still have him around.  Unless he was truly bad, it never hurts to say "Thank you; you helped me become the person I am today and that's pretty awesome of you."

Header: Enlisted sailors' mess, USS Massachusetts c 1905 via The Pirate's Lair