"Scotty" Wilson's War

P.O. J.Ronald "Scotty" Wilson was turned down by the RCNVR when he tried to enlist in 1939; then he was turned down by the Army and Air Force. An injury had partially debilitated his left arm at the age of 14, and he was deemed unfit for service. He spent the first full year of the war working in the General Motors plant at Oshawa, Ontario, and trying to enlist. When he met a high school friend in naval uniform, he was teased about not having "signed up"; "Scotty" told him about the problem. The friend was a recruiting officer; he knew that "Scotty" had worked as a cook on a couple of lake freighters before the war, and he said that the Navy was desperate for cooks. Not only that, but they were willing to overlook minor disabilities for cooks (in a tradition dating back to the days of Nelson). This time he was accepted.

From his journal and family letters it is clear that P.O. J.R. "Scotty" Wilson was a cook, but little mention is made of the day to day routine of this occupation aboard ship. He certainly wasn't the only cook the RCNVR had, but a real cook was the exception and he gained a somewhat legendary status when rumours began to circulate among the corvettes that somewhere out there was a ship that had fresh bread almost every day!

He served his first run under a captain who was so sea-sick he could eat only "little niceties" that the ordinary sea-man, just as ill, could only dream about. During training the least able of the men were assigned to train for first aid (they would, in effect, often become the ships’ doctors, treating wounds that the most hardened emergency ward surgeon would find daunting).

They would spend days and nights alone on the open sea with a crippled freighter whose crew had been removed to other ships and departed with the convoy; exposed to aircraft and U-boats, knowing their fuel would run out before they could regain harbour (or, as was the case later in the war, miss their chance to refuel at sea) as they waited for a ship to come from Newfy John or Iceland or Londonderry to tow the merchantman & its cargo back to harbour . But the day before, a man from their ship went overboard; he saw him go, he saw him flailing in the heavy seas - he sent up the alarm - but the order came "Proceed with Convoy" and he watched his comrade, as the ship left him behind, become an even smaller speck in the North Atlantic. Ron learned that cargo was precious, men were expendable.

Ron did however tell us a few ancecdotes that help to fill out the picture of a "can openers" life.

Once, shortly after he had become lead cook and therefore did not have to arise in the early dawn to prepare breakfast, he felt the ship rolling in a somewhat alarming way and realized that it was also past the time for breakfast mess to have been piped. He made his way to the galley to find porridge seeping out over the galley door onto the deck. The cooks had persisted in trying to make porridge, only to have the pots wrested from the gimbals several times and dumped onto the floor. The galley was more than six inches deep in porridge, the cooks severely scalded and at a complete loss as to what to do. He sent them in search of brooms and a shovel if one was to be found, made french toast for the ward room and fried oat cakes for the ratings. Only an experienced cook knew you couldn't make porridge in a heavy sea.

Ron said he taught himself to make bread so that the men could have fresh bread at all times. Bread may be the staff of life, but if his story is true, he may have had other reasons. Corvettes were always "damp". They were either hot and wet or cold and wet. Supposedly, on the runs into Murmansk, Ron discovered that he could be warm and dry, if somewhat cramped, if he went to sleep in the same oven as the rising bread.

He became friends enough with navigator and officers of the watch, that upon leaving harbour, the course would sometimes be altered to a set of nearby lobster traps. Sealed tins of chocolate, cigarettes or a bottle of rum would be left in the trap and in return the creatures taken on board for a chowder or scrambled eggs with lobster. Many years later he watched me make a chowder with the shells left over from a feed of lobster, he was amazed and sorry that he had never thought of that.

At sea, if conditions seemed right, he would trail hooks aft - always mindful he would be in severe trouble if the lines made any noise against the hull of the ship. (U-boats could be near by and pick up the sound) When the fresh meat had run out, followed by a day or two of beans and macaroni, even a boy from the prairies would welcome a fresh fish stew. Throughout all the years I knew him, Ron loved a mess of fresh fish, but, just as he couldn't swat a mosquito, he could no longer bring himself to catch his own fish. He said it was baiting the hook, not catching the fish that bothered him.

As the war progressed Ron became more adept at "informal commodoties trading" (the black market), but apparently, always with his ship in mind. Tea or cigarettes could purchase eggs, onions, cream & butter in Ireland - these could be traded in Scotland or England for extra rations of fresh meat and flour (most of that from Canada!) butter apparently went a long way in Bermuda and could be traded for rum and sugar which could get what you desired in Halifax or Newfy John. Ron would just smile and hint broadly about this activity, saying only that he wanted to see his crews "well provisioned".

Even after his training at Kingston, "Scotty" seemed destined for coastal duties only. He was assigned, as cook, to a mine-sweeper in Halifax harbour. A dull duty at the time. He was desperate to go to sea. He had heard that a convoy was forming and one corvette in it still did not have a cook.

An acquaintance told him of this and he wrangled his way on board. His friend had told him that the captain was entertaining "shore men" and that the captain would probably sell his soul for a lemon pie like his wife could make. Ron said he made the best lemon pie of his life and was called to the wardroom. When the captain learned that the cook was not his new cook but one visiting from a harbour mine-sweeper, he signed his papers and Ron sailed with the Sherbrooke. This explains why his clothes were left on the Cornett.

What eventually became an irritant to his family, was probably something that was a life-saver on his ships. He knew that men could work well only if their stomachs were full. No man starved in the RCNR, but even today there are men who will not look at baked beans, stew, chipped beef or soup - for many of the ships in the RCNVR "any old can opener" certainly did suffice. Bread and fresh meat were gone five days out of harbour, ten days out, even the hardtack was mouldy. On a corvette cooking was a challenge in calm seas, but these men served four to five years on the North Atlantic in some of the heaviest seas ever recorded - they fought the sea as much as they fought the war. Ron notes in his journal, with some pride, that one day he succeeded in preparing a meal in seas so heavy that the men could not eat it.

His cookbook is not included here, but the following is a list of his recipe cards. The inclusion of certain sauces, stuffings & accompaniments meant that the men were served, when provisions allowed, dishes for which he kept no recipe card. His cookbooks remain in pristine shape. They were kept in his sea chest. The recipes were transferred to cards & the cards rewritten as they wore out or were destroyed by falling into the soup or onto the galley floor as the ship rolled with the sea. His cards list quantities for 100, 50 & 12 men.

Cheese Omelet (120 eggs, 3 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp pepper, 3 pints milk, 6 pints grated cheese, 3/4 lb butter) = 100 men
Pancakes, French Toast
Corn Bread/Johnny Cake Muffins (Mazola)
Bran Muffins All Bran Muffins
White Bread (50 loaves) Brown Bread (Porridge style)
Bread (U.S.Army Formula) Oatmeal Bread
Bran Loaf
Raisin Tea Biscuits Tea Biscuits (Regular)
Tea Biscuits (Southern) Gingerbread

Consomme Clam/Fish Chowder
Corn Soup Split Pea Soup
Tomato Rice Soup Vegetable Soup

Creamed Vegetables, Glazed Carrots
Harvard Beet,s Scalloped Potatoes
Potato Croquets/Log Cabin Potatoes, Yorkshire Pudding, H P Sauce
Mint Sauce, Mint Relish (for lamb)
Raisin Sauce (for ham & tongue) Chili Sauce
Cranberry Sauce, Cranberry Jelly (I & II)
Glazed Pineapple (for ham)

Mayonnaise, Eggless Mayonnaise
Boiled Dressing, Sausage Dressing/Stuffing
Poultry Dressing/Stuffing

Salmon Salad Devilled Eggs
Vegetarian Plate Vinegar mix for sweetpickle

Egg Nog Fruit Punch

Swiss Steaks Cornish Pasties
Sausage Loaf Meat Loaf
Vegetable-Meat Loaf Casserole of Meat & Rice
Meat Croquets Trout Cakes
Salmon Loaf
Sweet Green Peppers, Stuffed Macaroni & Cheese
Chili Con Carne Baked Beans Christine
Boston Baked Beans
Plain Cookies Sugar Cookies
Chocolate Cookies Peanut Butter Cookies
Oatmeal Cookies Oatmeal Drop
Macaroons Chocolate Brownies

Dough Nuts Fritters - Apple or Pineapple
Butter Tarts Cocoanut Meringue Tarts

Icing (plain) Icing (butter cream)
Icing (fluffy) Icing (ornamental)

Plain Cake Plain Cake (rich)
Jelly Roll Spice Cake (sugarless)
Pound Cake Dark Christmas Cake

Pastry - Sweet Scotch Pastry - regular
Pumpkin Pie Rhurbarb Custard Pie
Any Berry Pie Lemon Pie Filling
Cream Pie Filling Baked Custard Bread Pudding
Baked Rice Pudding Steamed Pudding (Duff)
Plum Pudding - Smitty's Ice Cream

The chief cook had to prepare a menu for the coming week, this would be presented to the captain or Number One and passed or vetoed. How many menus actually went according to plan depended on the sea & the cooks’ abilitiy to keep himself and his pots upright in the galley. Two of Ron''''s menu plans survive - one day's menu is given here.

H.M.C.S. Halifax
Wednesday - Week ending January 1943

EARLY MORNING
cocoa

BREAKFAST
fresh orange
porridge
liver & bacon
bread & butter
tea or coffee

DINNER
barley broth
breaded veal cutlet, tomato sauce
bread & butter
vegetables - lyonaise potatoes, cut wax beans
second - pumpkin pie
tea or coffee

TEA
bread & jam or marmalade
cheese
tea

SUPPER
fried cod fillets
french fried potatoes
mixed diced vegetables
bread & butter
tea or coffee

That was a harbour menu, or one prepared less than a week out of harbour. Most of the meals list fresh meats or dishes made from the bones and scrapings of fresh meat. Two weeks out to sea and a menu plan probably became more formality than reality.

Two staples Ron used as little as possible were hardtack and cornstarch. He said anybody could take a pound of chipped beef, a pound of cornstarch and sufficient water and make 50 men think they'd been fed.

Hardtack was meant to be scraped, pounded and ground to use as a nutritious thickener for soups, stews and gruel when the fresh bread ran out. Ron said he could keep flour dry more easily than he could the hardtack and could do more with it with less work. Much of his complaint of work and lack of sleep had to do with his practice of keeping the flour dry. He would regularly remove it from the sacks & spread it on baking sheets to dry out in the ovens as they cooled from his afternoon baking, only to be labouriously scraped into the sacks again to make way for the evening meal.

He said once the hardtack turned too mouldy, there was nothing he could do with it, but he could keep the flour relatively free of mould this way, however, drying flour was something he could do only when the sea was calm enough. He didn't waste his rations though, cornstarch became lemon filling for pies and hardtack became duff’ and thickening for chowder in his galley.

Perhaps because he was a true cook, I never heard him complain about the lack of fresh meat at sea. He could make a good meal with tinned goods. However sprouted onions and rotten potatoes were the bane of his life. He would cut away the rotten potato flesh, sometimes being left only with some withered skins and chop into this as much onion as could be salvaged, throw in powdered milk, tinned corn and tinned tomatoes and that would be cream of vegetable soup.

The dreaded tinned sausages would be rinsed in as much condensed water as was allowed him and became "bubble & squeak". (A dish made with sausage & cabbage) The flour having gone over even under his diligent care, the hard tack was taken out, scraped clean of as much mould as was possible and "duff" made. Not a meal to write home about, but better than the plate of canned beans and some mouldy bread without butter that seems to have been the general fare aboard many corvettes a week or two out to sea.

Ron discovered that "savouries" could do much to disguise lack-lustre tinned meat or provisions that were "off" but still safe. This explains his recipes for pickles, chili sauce & HP Sauce. These, in commercial tins and jars, were part of the ships provisions, but he used them in greater quantity than the RCNVR ships stores provided.

Ron spent the last year of the war in Bermuda. He spoke less of this time to his family than of the previous years. He certainly enjoyed the warm weather, sailing in small boats off the coast and arranging ships dances - it probably reminded him of his time spent with the Camelot Club and the Oshawa Yacht Club. It was 1945 and he had been accepted in the RCNVR in 1941. He began trying to enlist during the late fall of 1939. After two years trying to get in and four years in, he was 35 years old, an "old man" by navy standards. He had been married for two years by 1945, but not yet had a chance to live a married life.