Another Sea Day – Below Deck Tour of the Ship’s Stores

The Silver Whisper spent one full day moving from Tasmania to Sydney, Australia.  A highlight of the day was a Stores Tour offered to guests.  This gave me a chance to see the storerooms, refrigerators and freezers on 3 Deck where the food and beverages used during a cruise are stored. 

Deck Three is a crew only area as the lowest guest deck is Four. So we, the guests on this by reservation only tour below, were escorted through the door to the forbidden area by a security officer as well as the Stores Officer.  Once in the crew corridors, we walked around pretty much at will.  The Stores Officer showed us the storage room directly over the propellers.  It was extremely noisy but I doubt the packages of flour, rice and sugar and the canned goods stored there cared.  Things got a bit confused on the way to the beer locker.  The passageway was narrow and the walls had huge posters showing pictures of all the world's edible fish and shellfish.  Many stopped to look at the pictures.  Those of us who actually made it to the beer locker, which incidentally has some champagne and hard liquor as well as soda stored in it, were left standing alone for several minutes.  Typical of the independent spirit of Silversea guests, some of us started looking around the refrigerators and freezers on our own.  The Stores Officer was left explaining things to the few people who could get comfortably near him and were patient.

The rear of Deck Three is divided into various storage rooms in which dry goods are stocked by type.  Items likely to be used together are placed near each other.  Someone asked how anyone can fine items required, for example in the kitchen.  The storerooms seemed to be mazes of stacked boxes.  The answer is that the person responsible for finding and delivering the stores to the hotel side of the house is the one responsible for storing them when the ship is provisioned in port.  Each item must be checked off individually, out of stores and into the hotel.  The stores department keeps a computer inventory of everything received and used.

Produce is treated the same way.  Individual refrigerators are kept at different temperatures for storing fruits and vegetables at the optimum temperature for each type of produce.  Meats and other frozen products are kept in walk in freezers.  Again, they are at different temperatures depending on product and how soon it will be used.

Red wine is kept in an unrefrigerated storeroom.  There is a special refrigerator for white wine.

I learned that there is a two-story opening on the port side of the ship for taking stores on board.  The opening on the starboard side opposite it is only one story.  The provisioning officer prefers that the Whisper dock with the larger opening toward the pier at provisioning ports.  He can then use a forklift directly from the dock.  Otherwise boxes are loaded individually using a small conveyor belt when the smaller opening is used. Of course, the Captain docks the ship as he and the harbor pilot see fit.

It is always fascinating to see how the inner workings of a ship operate.