What happened to nine o'clockers?

Four O'clockers on most ships was spreads or what ever was left over that could not be turned into real food( ha ha ha real food???) anyway 9 o'clockers was a shore establishment thing wasn't it? Did caterers run out of money ( father famine here again) or was it just a pussers wease to help us loose weight ( it did not work by the way)

 

It was all 'scran' to me! No O'clockers! But I did like 3am o'clockers chicken supreme down union street

 

The four oclockers was a snack to fall back on if the dinner meal was crap!!
As often it was heheh!


Nine oclockers was best -especially if you had the middle watch-you could make a bag meal with it!

 

I was a caterer and making up the weekly menu nine o`clockers was bottom of the list!!! If it has gone good riddannce

 

Was phased out gradually in the 90s. The excuse was that it was too labour intensive and expensive. To get round this foibille, fruit is now on offer at all times. As if that makes up for sardines on toast and babyshyte

 

Have to agree, as you might see from my avatar I was also a Caterer.

Four O clockers was the lads equivalent of the Wardroom Tea, coz the Evening Meal wasn't served till 7pm.

In harbour however, when Tea was at 5pm,we did not bother with 9 o'clockers, shore bases stopped niners in the Eighties. I think it was mainly that very few people were bothered with it.


Cheers

 

After over a decade in boats I was "lent" to a 42 for a couple of weeks with the promise of LSSB. First afternoon at sea off to the JR's dining hall with mug in hand and finding the place empty decided I was obviously early so therefore drew up a chair to await the chefs delight. "What the F**k do you want?" asks the PO chef kindly. On being told that I was awaiting first turn at the fish paste for four o'clockers he wasted no time in ensuring there was a good audience so that the laughter lasted a bit longer and was that bit louder.

 

Ah the memory of Mousetrap and marmalade sarnies comes flooding back!

 

Quite! and Squirrel Shite, Mad Dog Spew, Errinzin, tinned jam etc!

 

Hi,
I won two prizes in a raffle the other day, the booby prize, a tin of Spam, and first prize a bottle of Mount Gay RUM.
Happy to say I had fried SPam for breakfast this morning and a glass of Rum this evening.

Now thats what I call 9 o clockers

 

Used to love 4 o'clockers. Babyspew, Herrings-In, cackleberries and toast, cheese spreads etc. Pity they stopped it, but I can fully understand why. Poor old father famine could not put enough stash away for his latest car as it was costing too much.

Food has improved a great deal to be truthful and its very rare to have a bad meal these days IMHO.

 

I think nine O'clockers is still in place at Lympswitz along with extra mars bars.

Been a while since I've been there so could be horribly wrong

theGimpMK2

 

Never heard the expression 9 o'clockers. Stand Easy was the rule in the 50's. In boats it was usually soup, and on one boat it didn't vary - always Mushroom.

 

I had little experience of 9 o'clockers, by the time I got there, the gannets has seen it all off!

 

o.clockers?? in the real navy we called it night flyers !!

 

On ships before helicopters, we still got 9 o'clockers and they weren't called "night flyers"!
To the best of my knowledge, if the the Flight worked at night they got yet another issue called "night flying snacks"
I'm sure a WAFU will enlighten us

 

Don't you mean Night Flying Supper ?

That was AFTER nine o'clockers and only for the elite workers!

 

Thanks CHWM but not sure about the elite workers !

 

The Flight Deck Badgers used to share!

 

When I was in, 4 o'clockers was still in vogue (naafi 3s, fruit). We had one Stoker PO who used get a shake for it if he was off watch. We also used to get a 'Vom Pot' at around 0130 for the oncoming watch, but again some sad individuals would stay up when they went off watch for this dubious treat (usually the days left overs heated in a big pan with curry powder and chilli source.