No, not a messy deck, but the actual place where you eat your meals onboard ship. The term goes way back in the Navy and is one of those that have stuck around over time. The term is also used at shore installations for the same places. The food is prepared in the galley, but is eaten on the mess decks. You call the area on the ship where they are located the galley, but when you enter the eating area it is the mess decks.

Of course the officers needed a different name so they call theirs the wad room. The chiefs call theirs the Chiefs Mess and the first class petty officers have a First Class Mess.

We had a TV on ours while in port normally had on CNN or another news station. Underway it was turned off, except for Sundays. You sat according to where you worked. Engineers had the largest section and nobody sat in our area. Even if there was an empty seat, they never took it. Upset the engineers and you might loose hot water. Eating during rough weather was the hardest thing to do, but it could be done with practice.

We also had our soft serve ice cream machine located here. On Sunday’s we had soft serve all day long and on other special days we did as well. They always had tea, coffee, and bug juice on the mess decks and from time to time they would leave out maybe cold cuts and bread. Also crackers were available all the time, to combat motion sickness. We also had a couple cases in the engine rooms.

After meals they were mostly off limits except to get drinks. If you had time to sit around on the mess decks you could be doing something else more important.