Die deutsche Kühlschifffahrt - German Reefer Shipping. Karsten Kunibert Krüger-Kopiske

mit Yokohama-Fendern ausgestattet.

      The FROGORIFRIQUE was the first reefer ship in the world, but was not built as such. Built in 1870 at the Thomas Royden & Sons shipyard in Liverpool as EBOE for the British Elder Dempster shipping company, she was first used for passenger and cargo shipping between Great Britain and West Africa. The Frenchman Charles Tellier acquired the ship in 1875 and installed his cooling system on board. She brought frozen meat from Buenos Aires to Rouen. However, this trade was only partially successful, which is why the ship was sold to the French Worms & Cie. in 1881 and converted to a pure dry cargo ship. In 1884 the FROGORIFRIQUE sank near the coast in the British Channel.

      The full-rigged ship DUNEDIN of the Albion Line (later Shaw, Savill & Albion), built in 1874, was equipped with a steam-driven Bell-Coleman freezing plant in 1882. The second voyage from New Zealand to London was a complete success and the ship was the first to bring lamb from the southern hemisphere to Great Britain.In 1883 the rig was reduced to a barque. In March 1890 the ship was lost on a voyage from Omaru (NZL) to London.

      The STRATHLEVEN was one of the first reefer vessels in the world and was used for meat transport. The transport of these products was very important, especially for Great Britain, in order to meet the demand for high-quality nutrition at low cost. The first voyage of the STRATHLEVEN ended on 29 November 1897 and the 40 tons of beef and lamb frozen on board were of excellent quality.

      In the colony of New Zealand the number of sheep grew from 233,043 (1851) to 11,530,623 (1880). Compared to the transport of living animals, where they lost weight, fell ill and in some cases died, freezing was the economically and hygienically better alternative.

      The PORT MORANT was not the first refrigerated ship in the world, but it was the first ship specially built to transport bananas from the Caribbean to Europe. The “Imperial Direct West India Mail Service Company” was founded by Alfred Jones, chairman of the British shipping company Elder Dempster, to transport bananas from the plantations of Fyffe, Hudson & Co. The ship sailed from Avonmouth to Jamaica on February 16, 1901. On 18 March the vessel arrived in Great Britain again. Of the 18,000 banana plantations, 2,000 were spoiled. In 1905 the ship was sold to the Elder Lines and in 1909 to Argentina. It sank in the Strait of Magellan in 1912.

      Experts will have noticed—these ships are not fully refrigerated ships and do not really belong in this book. Nevertheless, they played an important role in refrigerated shipping, which is why they have been included here.

      During the Great Depression at the beginning of the 1930s, all shipyards had to struggle with too few orders. The shipyard Harland & Wolff in Belfast, where the TITANIC was built in 1912, offered very attractive ship prices and the government of Northern Ireland made favourable financing possible. So it was the British Shaw Savill & Albion Line who were the first to order a ship. With the WAIWERA they commissioned the first of the later famous “Empire Food Ships”. The cooling capacity was increased from 400,000 to 500,000 Cbf during the construction period. The ships were all of different design but all were used in the trade between New Zealand and Great Britain. Modern refrigeration technology also enabled transport at 0 °C (32 °F), which made the meat more palatable than frozen goods.

      In order to renew the US merchant fleet, which had become completely outdated after the First World War, the US Maritime Commission launched a major newbuilding programme. The highly subsidized ships were handed over to the commercial shipowners and then chartered out by them. The ships were basically all standardized. The METAPAN and her 8 sisters were built between 1944 and 1947 as R2-ST-AU1 types (“R” for reefer; “2” stands for size class and “ST” for propulsion (here steam, i. e. steam turbines). All ships were ordered by the United Fruit Company and were in service until the 1970s.

      The R1-S-DH1 series, also comprising nine ships, was put into service after the Second World War. They were somewhat smaller than the units built during the war. Characteristic of the ships built by Bethlehem Steel Corp. at Sparrows Point is their rather old-fashioned cruiser stern.

      Of the nearly 6,000 ships built in the United States between 1939 and 1950 on behalf of the US Maritime Commission, some were also refrigerated ships. These included the six C2-S-B1 class ships delivered in 1945, which were used by the US Navy to supply frozen meat to troops. None of these ships were operated by a private company. Some of them were put into the US — American reserve fleet, and all of them had been scrapped by 1981.

      The FORT DAUPHIN, built in 1949, was one of a small series of three ships built for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. Until 1968, she was mainly used in traffic to the West Indies. The 122.50 m long ship was quite slow with 16.50 kn.

      In the 1950s and 60s, not only was Germany’s fleet of refrigerated ships the world leader, ships were also built at German shipyards. But many ships were also delivered to foreign customers. Bremer Vulkan often had orders from British shipowners on its books. United Fruit ordered six T-class ships for delivery in 1960/61, which were first operated under British and then Honduran flags. At the beginning of the 1980s they were all scrapped after having been with only one shipping company during their entire service period.

      The ATITLAN built in 1960 was a typical product of Eriksbergs Mekaniska Verkstad AB — Göteborg (SWE). As with almost all conventional freighters and reefer vessels, the bridge and the mesh structure was still located amidships. With 351,000 cbf and a speed of 18.5 kn, the ship was an average example of its time. Belonging to the Swedish Salén Group, which was the leading reefer shipping company in this area, this ship was renamed MALAYAN REEFER and was brought under the Philippine flag, but was never sold. Her career ended unusually young in 1984 at a scrap yard in Taipei.

      The SOUTHAMPTON CASTLE and her sister, the GOOD HOPE CASTLE, were not pure reefer vessels, but they did have 380,000 cbf of refrigerated space, which can certainly be described as suitable for this traffic. Built in Great Britain in 1964 at Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, the vessels were the strongest general cargo vessels of their time with a service speed of 25 kn and 25,500 kW. These unusual ships with their huge funnel and sparse loading gear were overtaken by developments in shipping. Sold to an Italian shipping company after only 14 years, they ended up at a scrapyard in China in 1984.

      The ZAIDA and her sister, the ZIRA were odd ships in the fleet of the British India Steam Navigation Company. They were not only the sole reefer vessels in the fleet of this traditional shipping company, they were also the last units the shipping company put into service. The ships should be able to do everything—take refrigerated cargo, transport refrigerated containers and also passengers. Originally planned for service between Australia and the Middle East, both ships transported frozen meat to Japan and were later used in the Eastern Mediterranean between Israel and France. They were taken over by the Israeli Ofer Group in the mid 1970s and were scrapped in 2004 — after more than 30 years.

      The MANISTEE (IMO No 7216957) delivered to Elder & Fyffes in London in August 1972 is the first ship shown here that was built in Japan. The 380,000 cbf ship shows a tendency for the superstructures to move further and further aft. The classic cargo gear only serves two cargo holds. Renamed MIMOZA in the early 1990s, the ship was always in service with United Fruit until it was recycled in 1999.

      The British company Geest, which has Dutch roots and was also based there until the Second World War, entered the shipbuilding business as a fruit trading company in the 1950s. The GEESTBAY (IMO No. 8003761) was built in the UK in 1981 and had a cargo capacity of 435,000 cbf. She was recycled in India in 2009. A striking feature of many Geest ships was the double funnel, which this vessel also had. Geest was a competitor to United Fruit/Elders & Fyffes on the British market and was taken over by them in 1996.

      The SCOTTISH STAR (IMO No 8315994) is clearly recognizable as a Blue Star liner and as a product of a British shipyard. She and her three sisters were built at Harland & Wolff in Belfast in 1985 and had a capacity of 465.000 cbf. Until their recycling in 2011 the ships were operated by Blue Star or Star Reefers.

      The JORGEN LAURITZEN, built in Denmark (Danyrads) in 1990/91, is part of a quartet and, together with a few other ships, represents the climax and the end of European refrigerated shipbuilding. Like many other types of ships, merchant ships today generally come from (East) Asia. With 738,000 cbf they are among the very large units.