OVER-SEA REFRIGERATION

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1506, 10 January 1901, Page 53

OVER-SEA REFRIGERATION

WHAT IT MEANS TO-DAY. Those interested in marine refrigeration must have long ago had a surfeit of the story regarding the first four hundred carcases sent to Great Britain, a matter of two decades since, so we propose to start a tale from the other end, and say something of oversea refrigeration as it is known to-day. Everyone knows of the enormous expansion m this branch of traffic on the! silent highway, especially during the past five y®^ rs ; Take 1899. for instance, and we find that some 9,000,000 carcases of one sort or another were brought to England in a frozen condition, to say nothing of the immense amount of bee Hand perishable produce, such as butter, fruit, eggs, cheese, c. J 3., etc. At the commencement of the p esent year we gave a list of upwards of three hundred .ships fitted out with one or other of the systems of marine refrigeration whicn ware in regular seirvi e. Of these the South can, Australian, and New Zealand trades subscribe 141 of a combined cold storage mm&v relment of 538,500 tons, and a cooling capacity of more than seven million carcases. Bnt it is when we turn to the latest additions of steamships to the frozen meat trade that the collossal proportion of thel business and the nature of tie work imposed on shipowners and agents is realised. In January last there were no less than 20 steamers either afloat or ready for launching, with a ooldl storage capacity of from 100,000 to 130.000 carcases each. The three recent additions to the Birt, Potter and Hughes line (London -to Australia) have each of them, cold storage of the latter canacity. We refer Suffolk, and Sussex. The iurnbullJVlartiodine, trading from London to New Zealand, has, in the Morayshire and the Perthshire, velssels each with refrigeratinrr power equal to dealing with 110,000 carcases, whilst the Nairnshire, of the same line, is equal to 100,000. Another ship, the Karamea, one*of the 1 at e «t additions to the Shaw,. Savill and Albion line, has accommodation for no less than 110,000 carcases, whilst- the Indradevi, of the Tyser line, is competent to store about 10,000 less. The: Mimiro, of the same line, also finds ample room tor 85 000. Thanks to the enterprise of Messrs Houlder Brothers, and the proprietors of the White Star line, a con-

lian trade regularly carries an immense tonnage of colonial produce* into the Mersey. Such well-known steamships as the Afric, Persia, Medic, Runic, and Sue vie belonging to the latter line, each have a refrigerating capacity of 80,000 carcases. In addition to this there is ample storage space for general cargo. It must not be forgotten, hy-the-way, that amongst the first to grasp the p os si unities of marine! cold stores and to provide liberal space on their vessels for that purpose were the shipowners of Liverpool. At the close of 1898, shipowners of “the black spot on thel Mersey’" were sending out no less than 84 ocean-going steamboats, with capacities for dealing each with quantities varying from 17,000 to 80,000 carcases of mutton together, of course, with the necessary plant for maintaining a low temperature. The trade in cold stored meat, chiefly of the chilled beef variety, has given an impetus to steam shipping between the Mersey and Argentine ports, the

JRoystou Grange and ESstree Grange, both of the Heckler Line, whilst the Hornby Grange and the Gvinvdean Grange, belonging to the same company, each, have a capacity of 40,000 carcases. This trade has, however, been seriously interfered with during the last few months owing to- the complications due to disease in the Argentine and the withdrawal of ships from the service lor the transport of troops to South Africa. From the northern city Messrs It. P. Houston and Co., send four steamers f each of which is able to cold-store 18,000 carcases, while Messrs J. Nelson and Sons own five steamships, carrying from'3B,ooo to 57,000 carcases each. Between Liverpool and the. Norm American and Canadian ports lai'ge provision has been made for the meat trade to be found on that service. The latest additions to this fleet are the Lake Erie, Lake Champlain, Ivernia, Tunisian, Bavarian, and Caledonian, each of which are complete with refrigerating plants of the mostmodern description. Take for instance the Lake Erie. She has four cold storage; chambers of an aggregate cubic space of 40,000 ft., and was fitted with a separate compound double-acting engine for the sole use of the cooling plant. Although a few years ago it was thought the risk of loss through failure of the machinery to keep down the temperature would; preclude its ever having a, vogue, to-day the risk is so infinitesimal that.it scarcely receives cognisance from a shipper at all. Thus by means of scientific modern engineering shipowners are now enabled to set apart a portion of their space for the transit of the produce of our vast colonies over thousands of miles on the ocean highwav. which oftentimes lies across the tropics.—“lce and Cold Storage.”