Snorkers is a British English

British English

British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...

 colloquialism for sausage

Sausage

A sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made...

s. The reference is probably to the resemblance between a sausage and a snorkel. It may have a Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 slang

Slang

Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...

 origin.

Snorkers is the nickname for Palethorpe's pre-cooked tinned sausages. The nickname originated aboard World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 Royal Navy submarines, along with other culinary delights such as HITS (tinned Herrings In Tomato Sauce) and Baby's Heads (tinned steak and kidney pudding). Fresh food lasted only a few days aboard submarines so nearly everything was tinned.

Snorkers are mentioned in Nicholas Monsarrat

Nicholas Monsarrat

Commander Nicholas John Turney Monsarrat RNVR was a British novelist known today for his sea stories, particularly The Cruel Sea and Three Corvettes , but perhaps best known internationally for his novels, The Tribe That Lost Its Head and its sequel, Richer Than All His Tribe.- Early life :Born...

's novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 The Cruel Sea as the favourite food of Lieutenant

Lieutenant

A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 James Bennett, RNVR. Bennett is described as Australian, and the snorkers references attributed to him alone, which suggests a possible antipodean derivation of the word.

Terry Wogan often referred with relish to snorkers, a welcome part of the culinary delights (sometimes) served up for Sir Terry and his "team" on the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 Radio 2

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

breakfast show.

External links

• Domestics in a Submarine - description of RN submariner's food
• Palethorpe Foods - company history