Colourful ham! Yee-uck! Just the thought makes me want to puke. Did the navy want to poison its sailors?
Sounds like convict rations for early white Australians on their forced voyages in the bowels of sailing vessels.
It's kind of a myth that Aussies love Vegemite - like Sydney and Melbourne are full of kangaroos hopping down the main street, or every bloke is just like Crocodile Dundee. It was selling so badly that an American company, Kraft, in 1935. You see it in tiny little packages supplied at hotels for breakfast because tourists expect it.