FROZEN CARGOES

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 120, 15 February 1932, Page 5 (Supplement)

FROZEN CARGOES

3uilding Up an Industry SARLY DAYS OF TRADE Birth of Steamship Lines Following the success of the Dunedin’s pioneer voyage, other 'shipments >f frozen meat were quickly arranged, md the industry was definitely established in New Zealand.' It was not bng before the first steamers were ■rought into the business, and their dvent marked the birth of the direct teamship services between New Zeatnd and London, The second shipment of frozen meat rom New Zealand was taken by the few Zealand Shipping Company’s ship lataura, which was fitted with Hasam’s dry-air machinery in London. Chis ship, it is interesting to record, vas commanded by Captain H. E. ■Jreenstreet, who later had command if the company’s steamers Rimutaka md Remuera. He retired during the ,var, after completing 100 voyages round the world, and is still living in England. His diary of the Mataura’s voyage gives,the following details: — ‘Left London December 15, 1881. Crossed Equator . January 15, 1882. Caught alblcore, 1201 b ■ weight. This fish and birds shot in Southern Ocean were put in the freezing chamber, and m arrival at Lyttelton were presented o Sir Julius von Haast for the Christhurch Museum. Arrived Port Chalnes, April 27: 150 carcases per day vere sent on board and frozen in tween decks for 24 hours, then bagged nd stowed in lower hold. The meat argo was 3844 carcases of mutton, 24 uarters beef, and 77 pigs; total weight 22,0921 b; freight, £3340. Sailed June 2, 1882. The passage Home lasted 03 days, and great worry was exerienced as the boiler feed pumps vould not act on one tack when the hip heeled over. The voyage was a uccess, and the meat was delivered in .ondon in excellent condition.” This hipinent was the New Zealand Ship4ng Company’s own venture. In the following year the Mataura. ,-ent to Auckland and took the first hipment of frozen meat from that >ort, of which 4000 carcases had to be lestroyed on arrival at London. A Double Tragedy. The Dunedin took her second cargo >f frozen meat, 8295 carcases, from Sew Zealand in 1883. She made in all ten consecutive voyages to New Zealand—chiefly to Port Chalmers—for meat. On March 19, 1890, she sailed for London with a full cargo, and was not heard of again. The ship Marlborough, 1124 tons, loaded with wool and frozen meat, had sailed from Lyttelton on January 11,1890, and she, too, , went “missing.” The tragic disappearance of these two fine ships was a sea mystery that was never solved. Possibly they foundered in heavy weather- . in the Cape Horn latitudes, or they j might have collided with icebergs, j Bound from Pictou to London with , frozen meat in 1893, the ship Welling- j ton collided with an iceberg after j rounding the Horn, the ship’s fore- i castle being completely smashed, and < two sailors killed. The ship finally t reached Rio de Janeiro, where she was 1 repaired, and where a good portion of 1 her frozen meat was sold. 1 i Wellington’s First Shipment. ] The first shipment of frozen meat £ from Wellington was taken by the ship c Lady Jocelyn, which was loaded, in * addition to wool, tallow, etc., with 5800 ' carcases of mutton, 352 quarters of 1 beef and seven kegs of butter by the £ Wellington Meat Export Company, and < ’with 630 carcases of mutton by Levin j and Company, the total value of the , Refrigerated cargo being given as { 512.166. On the day the ship cleared { it the Customs the occasion was ] marked by a ceremony on board at ( which success to the venture was j “drunk in champagne cooled with ice , from the ship’s freezing chamber.” The . Lady Jocelyn sailed from Wellington ] oil February 25, 1883, and made a smart ; passage Home, her cargo opening up in 1 good condition. ( Freezing works were rapidly estab- ( lished in many parts of New Zealand. ; In April; 1883, the New Zealand Ship- < ping Company’s ship Opawa loaded 1 frozen meat at Bluff, and it is of in- ] terest to record that her refrigerated cargo included 1000 dozen oysters. Sailing Ships in the Trade. 1 From 1882 till well on in the ’nine- < ties sailing ships were regularly em- ( ployed in the frozen meat trade. They ( carried their cargoes remarkably well. | Certainly the 90 to 110 days’ passages ( instead of the mail steamers’ 40 from j New Zealand was against them, but. , then, as has been said, the “c.i.f. busi- , ness and ‘catching the market’ were ‘ rudimentary points in the ’eighties.” The Shaw, Savill and Albion Company . had the ships Dunedin, Lady Jocelyn. ’ Lyttelton, Invercargill, Oamaru, ’ Northumberland, Wellington, West- ’ land, Timaru, Marlborough and Hine- 1 moa. The last-mentioned was a fourmasted barque of 2203 tons register j specially built in 1890 for the frozen i meat trade, in which, however, she : made only one passage. The New Zea- 1 land Shipping Company also ran a 1 number of its sailing ships in the 1 frozen meat trade. It is of interest .« to record that this company’s ship t

Turakina in 1893 took a shipment of 300 tons of frozen beef from Townsville, Queensland, to Hamburg, where it was landed in excellent condition. Part of this shipment went to Vienna, but the opposition of local interests, both in Germany and in Austria, checked the business. A few outside sailing ships were fitted with freezing machinery and chartered to run in the New Zealand trade. But the day of the sailing ship was rapidly passing, and it was to the steamship that New Zealand, Australia and the Argentine turned to develop the frozen meat trade. The First Steamships. The first steamer to load frozen meat in New Zealand was a German vessel, the Marsala, 2367 tons register, owned by R. M. Sloman and Company, of Hamburg. She took the third shipment from Port Chalmers, sailing from that port on September 22, 1882, with 8506 carcases, averaging 701 b. each, and she proceeded to London, via Java and the Suez Canal —a long, roundabout route. She was followed by another German steamer, the Sorrento, 1800 tons, chartered by Houlder Brothers, which visited Lyttelton and Port Chalmers. The Sorrento sailed from Port Chalmers on December 7, 1882, for London, via the Suez Canal, witli 5838 carcases of frozen mutton, 4223 bales of wool, 82 bales of sheepskins, 5798 sacks of wheat, 139 casks of tallow, and 13,173 ounces of gold. In 1883 the New Zealand Shipping Company established the first line of steamships between England and New Zealand. The first steamer was the

Fens tanton, a new ship of 2500 tons, belonging to Watts, Milburn and Company, of London. It is interesting to record here that Mr. G. A. Troup, exMayor of Wellington, travelled out to New Zealand in the Fenstanton, in i which his- uncle was financially inter- ’ ested. On arrival the Fenstanton went to Lyttelton, where a Haslam freezing plant was installed in her. Gangs of men working in shifts 24 hours a day were employe 1, and the work was fin- : ished in 28 days. That is to say, the Fenstanton was fitted with machinery , and insulated at Lyttelton, docked and ■ cleaned, and loaded with 7840 carcases ' of mutton and a general cargo at Port .1 Chalmers, and was off to London in a ; month. The Fenstanton was the first to enter Port Chalmers dry dock. On March 20, 1883, the New Zealand , Shipping Company’s chartered steamer ■ British King, 3550 tons register, arrived at Wellington from London, and she , sailed from Lyttelton, on April 9 with 6198 carcases of frozen mutton. 3036 bales of wool, and 7478 sacks of wheat. Other ships dispatched with frozen ( meat in 1883 by the New Zealand Ship- , ping Company were the British Queen, .. sister ship to the British King, the , lonic and Doric, the first White Star liners to visit New Zealand, and the ( Catalonia, the first ship to show the t Canard Line flag in New Zealand. The , Catalonia was fitted up with refriger- ; ating machinery and insulation for the j one voyage made by her under charter ; to the New Zealand Shipping Com- i pany. i Regular Steamer Services. 1 Both the New Zealand Shipping Com- ‘ pany and the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company, which had secured a mail contract from the New Zealand Government, had ordered specially design- , ed steamers for the service, and while these were building, employed char- j tered steamers in the London-New eZa- . land trade. The Shaw, Savill, and Al- j bion Company in 1883-84 fitted refrigerating machinery in the chartered steam- , ers Victory, 2848 tons, and the Tri- ( uniph, Bombay, and Florida, each of ; 3130 tons, all of which carried frozen j meat from New Zealand. The Triumph. ' which arrived at Auckland on Novem- i ber 26, 1883, ran ashore on Tiritiri ; when leaving port. She was refloated, i taken back to Auckland, and repaired I in the old graving dock, which was too small for her, so that a special caisson had to be built, and even then a good part of the ship's stern was protruding | from the dock. The two companies , started regular services-with their own i steamers in 1884. I