About this time prior to the start of the 'Ocean Race' (as the first Rolex Fastnet Race was called), the eventual winner and first Commodore of the RORC, Lt Cmdr E G Martin OBE, RNVR was roaming Cowes High Steet catering for Jolie Brise’s imminent race.
Jolie Brise © Beken of Cowes
Victualling included: six 4lb (1.8kg) pieces of salted beef silverside (typically slow cooked up in the galley in the fo’c’sle), 1lb pats of butter, 36 loaves of bread (which rapidly went mouldy), 140 green bananas (all turned ripe at once but were consumed), a box of apples, tinned sausages, Heinz baked beans and spaghetti and French tinned vegetables (petit pois, etc).
Bath chaps were popular (the cheek and tongue of a pig tied/pressed into shape before being boiled, skinned and breaded). Plenty of cheese including Swiss gruyere (cut into segments and wrapped in lead paper), two pots of Maclaren's Imperial cheese and two 4lb round Dutch cheeses. Biscuits included a 9lb box of digestive biscuits and a tin of Bath Oliver biscuits (crackers).
Terry's bitter chocolate and a wide array of pickles - Military and Pan Yan and Escoffier's piccalilli plus French mustard, anchovies, Gentleman's Relish (anchovy paste) and Shippam's potted meat.
Among Jolie Brise's crew of six (two crew were no-shows) was a cook, but the most popular meal was Martin's own onion soup.
Mealtimes:
0400 Watch change - Bovril
0800 Breakfast of eggs/potatoes and bacon/sausages
1200 Lunch
1600 Tea
1930 Dinner
While the crew suggested Jolie Brise be a dry ship for the race, this was not to EG Martin's liking. In addition to beer and wine, one crew brought whisky, rum and “a most excellent old brandy” but they also consumed copious amounts of coffee and Kia Ora lemon squash (launched in the UK in 1917).
