In Illustrious it is very hard to find any area where the Supply Department does not have some interest, and since sailing from Newcastle it is a fact that until the day the ship decommissions, goes to scrap, or heaven forbid, get sold, there will always be members of the Supply and Secretariat (S&S) Department providing the ship’s company with food, uniform clothing, pay, stores for other departments, services for the officers, administrative support (paperwork) for all departments, and cigarettes, beer and confectionery (usually called ‘nutty’). The latter three items are sold by the NAAFI on board and organised by six civilians who all come under the umbrella of the S&S.
Carrying out such a wide range of jobs means we do have our critics and while some think S&S stands for ‘sorry and shut’ we in the department like to think of it as standing for ‘service to ship.’ Our department has eight officers and 120 ratings, and when the air group embarks the S&S numbers swell by another 30 ratings.
Since we left Portsmouth on this deployment, the Supply Department task has been normally quite routine, although the longer people remain at sea the more important the standard of food at meal times and the range of goods available at the NAAFI becomes, because these events may be the only highlight in an otherwise boring sequence of days.
When you consider that the NAAFI, in the period from sailing to mid-October, has sold 105,000 cans of beer, 40,000 cans of minerals, 50,000 hot or cold drinks, goodness knows how many cigarettes and cigars, and nearly 100,000 bars of chocolate, then you start to realise just how popular the NAAFI shop is. Its sales in this period amounted to £120,000.
Of course everyone, diet conscious or not, when away from loved ones, occasionally like to spend a little money on ‘nutty.’ However, never let it be said that only junior officers and ratings are most likely to succumb to the display of sweets at the NAAFI counter, because although our Captain does drive a big ship (rather than a big lorry), he has had nearly 50 bars of Yorkie so far on this trip.
In the dining halls, the cooks try to tempt everyone in the more conventional way to put on weight by offering multi-choice menus. These meals have also been very successful and with superb presentation by the cooks, the bakery and caterers, who have provided the following amounts of food for consumption: 10,000 loaves, 150,000 rolls, 75 tons of spuds, 30 miles of sausages, 200,000 eggs and 6000 family sized tins of beans.
When it comes to pay and cash then the statistics are not known because the Royal Navy always takes particular care to ensure that everyone’s pay, cheque cashing transactions and allotments are known only by the Supply Officer Cash and his staff of four. However, Supply Officer Cash did admit that he had already paid out in the region of £1,250,000 in ship’s company pay since we sailed, so there is a lot of money about somewhere.
A very important part of the Supply Organisation is the Naval Stores Department, and in 14 large storerooms they carry some one and a quarter million items for distribution to all departments as required. You would think that being at the hub of this huge stores wheel all they would have to do was hand out the stores. But no. Continuously there are demands of the stores that we do not hold for new equipment, as well as demands for items that are used quickly. Up to now the Stores Accountants (SAs and not SAS as they often like to think) have sent off 15,000 demands for extra stores along with thousands of signals in support of those demands.
Working on the old premise that if the boss is happy then everyone is happy, we come to the job of the stewards. In the Wardroom there are 150 offices who run all the many different organisations on board such a big ship. In order for these officers to devote all their energies towards the ship achieving all its aims, there are many types of support required to ensure that they do an efficient job. It is in this capacity that the stewards do such excellent work by planning, organising and implementing the many and various daily routines and functions associated with the traditions of Wardroom life.
Throughout the whole Supply Department, which is run by a Commander, it is always important not only to have good relations with the Engineers, Air Department, Air Squadrons, etc, but also between the sub departments within the S&S organisation. And in this, Illustrious is very lucky – we have a great team of S&S people on board.