Your Afternoon Tea Madam
In common with most ships, at almost any point in the day, there is some kind of food service provided. Of course, the most British of these is afternoon tea. Don't for a moment think that because the majority of passengers on board Caronia were American that this tradition was at all lost on them! It wasn't, and even if it was new to them, they soon took to it with a relish.
Preparations for afternoon tea would start earlier that day in the bakery, where just about every possible type of fancy cake and bun was produced. The same amount of care and artistry was applied to these as if afternoon tea was a main meal of the day. This is the Caronia remember!
However, popular with the passengers it may have been. Popular with the stewards it was not! To all intents and purposes it stretched the luncheon shift from 12.30pm right through the afternoon and extended it until after dinner, maybe as late as 10.30pm.
[Left:]
The “Afternoon Tea Gang” in the Balmoral Restaurant. More photos of our afternoon tea gang can be found here. A few
also show rare detail of the restaurant.
[Photo: © Peter Stevens Feb 1966]
First of all, being on the afternoon teas watch meant killing time from after luncheon clear-up until 4pm, either on deck if the weather was fine, or anywhere except the crew quarters if it was inclement. The photograph above shows our “gang” doing just that in the Balmoral Restaurant.
Usually, we'd probably just busy ourselves with things like burnishing table silver, or playing cards in the stewards mess room, or as we did, sitting at a dining room table putting the world to rights. At 3.45pm we'd make our way up to the main lounge pantries and start preparing the trays.
In the restaurants you walked on linoleum, however the lounges were deeply carpeted and the service pantries were not very conveniently placed. So, by the time you had traversed this expanse several times, first of all to serve, then to clear-up, your feet soon suffered. Did I mention that this duty wasn't very popular?
By the time you returned to your quarters quite exhausted, usually at around 5.15pm, you then barely had a couple of hours before turn-to for dinner. There was little point in trying to get any sleep, so you would probably busy yourself with things like “doing your dhobi” in other words, washing your smalls, polishing shoes or ironing your cummerbund.
If ever there was bain of clothing items, then probably, for the amount of time needed to keep ourselves smart, the cummerbund was it! There was never another part-garment that needed so much attention. Thankfully we only ever wore them for dinner service. Heh! You didn't think that it was only the passengers who dressed formally for dinner, did you?
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