Note 69 — CHAP. II.

In the French ships of war there is an oven large enough to supply not only all the officers and sick, but part of the crew, with soft bread every day. The advantages attending the use of flour in place of bread are so great and obvious, that the former will probably, in time, be substituted entirely for the latter. There is a proof of its being practicable to use it in place of bread in British ships of war, even with their present conveniences, communicated to me by Captain Caldwell. When he commanded the Agamemnon, of 64 guns, at New York, in the end of 1782, there happened to be no bread in store to supply that ship on her passage to the West Indies, and flour was given in place of it. The men, without any inconvenience, were able to bake it into bread for themselves, and it proved so salutary, that Captain Caldwell ascribed the uncommon degree of health which his men enjoyed to the use of the flour. The only objection that can be made to it is the greater consumption of wood occasioned by baking; but this may be obviated by adopting the grates invented by Mr. Brodie, in which the ovens are heated by the same fire with which the victuals are boiled.