It was now about five months since we were provisioned at Cardiff. A lot of biscuits, which appeared sonneting like cakes, had been bought. In America they might have been called hardtack. They were about 5 inches wide and about ½ inch thick, perforated with many holes in the middle part. We used to say this bread was made of bone-meal, but probably it was wheat flour for the most part. It was not bad bread. I liked it very much. Naturally it was dry and hard; but so it had to be in order to keep for months, stored in the provision room.
But now we had been for several months in a tropical climate, and worms had infested the bread. They were about ½ inch long, with hairy backs and brown heads.
The biscuits had some open spaces, caused by the yeast, and the worms held forth in them, three or four in each piece. We could break the bread to pieces and remove the worms; but this took too much time - for the carpenter, and sometimes also for the rest of us. So, the usual method was to put the bread in the cup of hot coffee, where it swelled up, the worms came out and floated on top. Then we skimmed the worms off with a spoon, sometimes half a dozen of them, and everything was in good order.
The coffee tasted just as good as before the operation. But our carpenter, as mentioned, had no time to waste on removal of the worms. He ate and drank as if there were no eliminations to be made.
There was nothing really dangerous about these creatures, but to some of us the appearance of the hairy things did not improve the appetite, especially when one would bite the bread and crush one or more of them. Now we were in harbor, but no new bread had been secured, though we had told our second mate, who had to do with the provisioning, that we were tired of wormy bread.
Then, one evening I had been ashore, and came back with three loaves of bread I had bought, and, as the captain saw me he asked what I had in the package. 'Bread', I said. He said nothing more, but next day he took the steamer down to Hull, and bought fresh bread and provisions.