Onions keep well and don’t require careful stowage. Cut small and fry for 2-3 minutes in the bottom of a saucepan with a little fat before adding tinned steak etc.

Sausages: tinned sausages stick like limpets to the bottom of the pan. If fried with the lid on their tenacity is reduced.

Peanuts in shells: filling and cheap (2/- lb.) Good for hurried meals and entertaining guests. They don’t like bilge water.

Ryvita is worth keeping permanently on the boat against a shortage of bread. It will keep a long time given dry storage.

Flapjack is well worth a place in the ship’s stores. It keeps months but softens on contact with air. Simple to make:

3 ozs. sugar ) (½ teaspoon ground ginger ) cream and add (4 ozs. porridge oats 3 ozs. marg. ) (1 tablespoon syrup (lemon juice optional

Bake in flat tin (8” dia.) for 20 minutes in moderate oven. Mark into pieces before cold.

Newspaper: Useful for wiping the tops of tins, knives between courses, dirty saucepans etc.

Asbestos mat: only 6d. from Woolworths and good toast can be made on it over a primus. Useful for protecting varnish from hot saucepans. Should last a season of regular use.

Formica: a sheet of this stuck to a flat surface, e.g. hatch cover, gives a clean surface for spreading bread, cutting bacon etc.