Stumbled upon this historical jewel that I had to share while searching for NOAA rig reports in the GOM..(thanks Google!)
A letter from Franklin covering a wide range of maritime topics...from sail trim to soup bowls.
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/library/readings/gulf/gulf.html (http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/library/readings/gulf/gulf.html)
"The worst thing in ordinary merchant ships is the cookery. They have no professed cook, and the worst hand as a seaman is appointed to that office, in which he is not only very ignorant but very dirty. The sailors have therefore a saying, God sends meat and the devil cooks."
The general observations at the end are most telling.
As they say, the more things change...
The more things change the more they stay the same.
On Stinger we've found that a good snacktician can really kick our game up a notch.