White Jacket Chapter VII - Breakfast, Dinner, And Supper

In which the rigid hierarchy of a man-of-war reveals itself not only in rank but in the hour at which each dines, placing the common sailors at the natural and nourishing centre of the day’s meals, while the officers keep more aristocratic and wearisome hours. The chapter further laments the cruel distribution of breakfast and supper times for the crew, proposing that such ill-timed regimen saps the vitality of seamen and thus imperils the very fortunes of naval warfare.