Naval galley.

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Aug 25, 2012
In large ships there was enough room for a good size galley. But what about the smaller brown water boats? Some of these must have been cramped, the need to store the items needed to run the boat took up much of the space the crew needing a fair amount of the extra space for sleeping. The galleys on these boat must have been tiny as well as the food storage area. My next question is what about fuel for cooking in the small galley?

Why is the cooking area on a warship called a galley? Why was the cooking area on a merchant ship called a caboose?
 
Well, lets think about this for a minute. Ships during the conflict carried coal for the engines, and for blacksmith forges used for repairs. Wood burns a great deal faster than coal. While a five gallon bucket of coal can last for half to a full day in a forge, it would take a lot of wood to substitute for coal, and more time cleaning out the wood ashes to maintain the fire. So given a choice for convenience and ease of use, would someone consider using wood or coal, if given the choice.... I can almost hear the response from a cook or cook's assistant when told to go find wood to cook on... As far as Caboose..... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caboose_(ship's_galley)
 
On a train food is cooked in a galley and the caboose is something completely different than a caboose on a merchant ship.
 
You learn something new every day! Much as I've read about ships, I'd never run across caboose on shipboard.

A train caboose often had cooking and dining facilities (and bunks) for the crew. If the term already existed for ships, it was probably adopted for trains.

n.b. the plural of caboose is cabeese.
 
You learn something new every day! Much as I've read about ships, I'd never run across caboose on shipboard.

A train caboose often had cooking and dining facilities (and bunks) for the crew. If the term already existed for ships, it was probably adopted for trains.

n.b. the plural of caboose is cabeese.
What a great word
 
It is wonderous how much good food a ship’s cook can crank out in a kitchen the size of a bathtub. Onboard tall ships, the sheet cakes always have one end thicker than the other. The watch going on duty is first in line & gets to eat from the thick end of the cake. The thickness varies with the wind. With a fine topsail wind blowing & the deck canted right over, the folks at the end of the line get mighty thin slices.
 
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Or like Mouse, one mouse , two mjce --------- one caboose, two cabice! Now I'm being silly.

Many years ago we knew an old Thames tugboat skipper who always called his steering position a caboose !
 
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