WWII Beer Brewing Ships of the Royal Navy

[JerseyCity Frankie]

Armies fight on their stomachs but frequently there must be a beverage. The Royal Navy understood the morale benefits of having decent beer available in quantity in the Pacific theater and took steps to assure it would be available by ordering the construction of ten ships that could each brew 250 barrels of beer a week. These ships were built at the insistence of Winston Churchill himself and were not only to include breweries, but also cinemas, dance halls and other amenities, which is why they then became known as amenity ships. In the event, only two were completed by VJ Day and of those only one, the HMS Menestheus  was able to get into the theater in time to start brewing beer on station. One wonders if they had special signal flags. I hope they did.

Here is the article that inspired this post:  http://vinepair.com/wine-blog/wwii-british-floating-brewery/?utm_campaign=atlas&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social