Thursday, January 28, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Doomsday chest item no.65
Shipmates,
Say what you want about the Germans but they do know sausages. I've been partial to the odd brätwurst ever since I joined my first convoy in 1940 (the ship was a Flower Class Corvette since you asked). My beloved Captain - let's call him "Philip" - was, like all sound men, a student of history (and a strong opening bat).
He told me that in Roman times a general would often keep a likeness of his opposite number in his tent and gaze at it in an attempt to know the man and he had decided to adopt a similar course of action.
If you were a Mr J. Caesar in 58BC and you were fighting the Gauls you could just press gang a travelling merchant into knocking up a quick charcoal for you, but with us - in 1940 - it was a little more complicated. Obviously there were a few portraits of dear old Adolf on board our destroyer (mainly on the wall of the Gents) but we were on the Atlantic convoys so our real enemy were the U-boat Captains. Since we didn't know what any of them looked like, the Captain got special dispensation from the Admiralty to stock up with bratwürste and sauerkraut. Many was the time that I saw him on deck munching a bratwürst and playing if-I-was-a-U-boat-where-would-I-be? It was almost as reliable as our sonar...
That's a longwinded way of saying that I love bratwürste - they are delicious and, if the pretzel is correctly salted, are the best hangover cure short of Resolve (on that note, that's going in as item no.66).
The photo below is of my German friend who sells them in Whitecross Street market (EC1) every Thursday and Friday.
So far the Doomsday Chest includes:
- Bratwürste
- A case of Latour '82
- Frank Cooper's Fine Cut Oxford Marmalade
- Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
- A fishing rod
- Nintendo Entertainment Console
- Paul Hogan
- Danger Mouse's car with accompanying taser pack
- Earl Grey
- One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich & Tubular Bells
- Cake
- Black Dynamite
- Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas read by Richard Burton
- Who's The Man official motion picture soundtrack
- Ralph Lauren pink T-shirt
- Sebago shoes
- The Economist
- Teddy the Welsh terrier
- The Navy Blue blazer
- Yorkshire Terrier Cask Bitter
- Coopers Pale Ale
- A portrait of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
- B&H Cairo cigarettes
- Michael Jordan's number 23 Bulls jersey
- Brut cologne
- Morgan's Pomade
- Branston Pickle
- Airfix
- Bangers & mash
- A foot-powered mobile phone charger
- Levi Roots and his Reggae Reggae Sauce
- Boonie
- Wilkin & Sons Tomato Ketchup
- Booze
- Battleship the game
- Sriracha Chilli Sauce
- Radio 4 (198 LW)
- Bagpipes
- Harris Arlington Shaving Cream Pot
- Crab pots
- A tin of Carr's water biscuits
- A sextant
- A briefcase train set
- Naval binoculars
- A Kwik Cricket set
- Chap stick
- A twister beach towel
- X-Treme Right Guard
- Cay Tre's chilli salted squid
- 6 x windsurfing kites
- Solar-powered compass watch
- A flare gun
- Crystals
- Absinthe
- Rose's Lime Cordial
- Cucumber
- An African Grey parrot
- Croquet set
- Turf
- Petit Upmann cigars
- "The West Wing" DVD boxset
- a Maglite (large)
- Berry Bros. Good Ordinary Claret
- Scotch eggs
- a Polaroid camera
- the female cast of "Gossip Girl"
- What is the chest?
Yours,
Edward P. Sailor, RN (Ret.)
Cc: First Sea Lord
Say what you want about the Germans but they do know sausages. I've been partial to the odd brätwurst ever since I joined my first convoy in 1940 (the ship was a Flower Class Corvette since you asked). My beloved Captain - let's call him "Philip" - was, like all sound men, a student of history (and a strong opening bat).
He told me that in Roman times a general would often keep a likeness of his opposite number in his tent and gaze at it in an attempt to know the man and he had decided to adopt a similar course of action.
If you were a Mr J. Caesar in 58BC and you were fighting the Gauls you could just press gang a travelling merchant into knocking up a quick charcoal for you, but with us - in 1940 - it was a little more complicated. Obviously there were a few portraits of dear old Adolf on board our destroyer (mainly on the wall of the Gents) but we were on the Atlantic convoys so our real enemy were the U-boat Captains. Since we didn't know what any of them looked like, the Captain got special dispensation from the Admiralty to stock up with bratwürste and sauerkraut. Many was the time that I saw him on deck munching a bratwürst and playing if-I-was-a-U-boat-where-would-I-be? It was almost as reliable as our sonar...
That's a longwinded way of saying that I love bratwürste - they are delicious and, if the pretzel is correctly salted, are the best hangover cure short of Resolve (on that note, that's going in as item no.66).
The photo below is of my German friend who sells them in Whitecross Street market (EC1) every Thursday and Friday.
- Bratwürste
- A case of Latour '82
- Frank Cooper's Fine Cut Oxford Marmalade
- Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
- A fishing rod
- Nintendo Entertainment Console
- Paul Hogan
- Danger Mouse's car with accompanying taser pack
- Earl Grey
- One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich & Tubular Bells
- Cake
- Black Dynamite
- Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas read by Richard Burton
- Who's The Man official motion picture soundtrack
- Ralph Lauren pink T-shirt
- Sebago shoes
- The Economist
- Teddy the Welsh terrier
- The Navy Blue blazer
- Yorkshire Terrier Cask Bitter
- Coopers Pale Ale
- A portrait of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
- B&H Cairo cigarettes
- Michael Jordan's number 23 Bulls jersey
- Brut cologne
- Morgan's Pomade
- Branston Pickle
- Airfix
- Bangers & mash
- A foot-powered mobile phone charger
- Levi Roots and his Reggae Reggae Sauce
- Boonie
- Wilkin & Sons Tomato Ketchup
- Booze
- Battleship the game
- Sriracha Chilli Sauce
- Radio 4 (198 LW)
- Bagpipes
- Harris Arlington Shaving Cream Pot
- Crab pots
- A tin of Carr's water biscuits
- A sextant
- A briefcase train set
- Naval binoculars
- A Kwik Cricket set
- Chap stick
- A twister beach towel
- X-Treme Right Guard
- Cay Tre's chilli salted squid
- 6 x windsurfing kites
- Solar-powered compass watch
- A flare gun
- Crystals
- Absinthe
- Rose's Lime Cordial
- Cucumber
- An African Grey parrot
- Croquet set
- Turf
- Petit Upmann cigars
- "The West Wing" DVD boxset
- a Maglite (large)
- Berry Bros. Good Ordinary Claret
- Scotch eggs
- a Polaroid camera
- the female cast of "Gossip Girl"
- What is the chest?
Yours,
Edward P. Sailor, RN (Ret.)
Cc: First Sea Lord
Monday, January 25, 2010
Guess the naval hero...
UPDATE: Congratulations are due to "Gerald" who has just written in with the correct answer. It is of course Admiral Vernon (the man who we have to thank for grog).
Unfortunately there's no prize - apart from the satisfaction of being right.
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