Frozen Meat Trade Pioneered By Shaw Savill & Albion

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 153, 24 March 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

Frozen Meat Trade Pioneered By Shaw Savill & Albion

DUNEDIN LOADED FIRST CARGO IN 1882

Clipper Ship’s Historic Voyage From New Zealand

n-TV-SEVEN years ago, almost to the day on which the Dominion Monarch left England on her maiden — voyage to New Zealand, the little sailing-ship Dimedin sailed from Port Chalmers for London with the first X cargo of frozen meat from New Zealand. It was a daring enterprise for a small shipping company, as for a young country whose population numbered barely half a million, but its complete success well and trulylaid I lie foundation of a trade which rapidly grew to an annual export of 2,000,000 carcases ten years later, and today calls for Ihe services of such ships as the Dominion Mon arch and other great refrigerated-cargo carriers. It is one of the many proud traditions of the Shaw Savill and Albion Company that it pioneered the frozen meat trade of the I, Dominion, and that its successive generations of ships—sail, steam and motor—have played a foremost part in building up that trade to its present-day- greatness. Whereas the little Dunedin took 98 days to transport some 5000 carcasses of meat to London, the Shaw Savill and Albion Company has a number of motor-ships, each with a capacity of 170.000 freight carcasses, that make the passage in from 29 to 30 days. The Dominion owes its present state of development and prosperity very largely to marine refrigeration.

IT was primarily the demand in Great Britain for greater meat supplies that called for the dis-

covery of some means for the safe delivery of those supplies from overseas. The uneasiness that was felt respecting the food supplies in England became very marked in the early ’fifties of last century, and the gradual growth of the manufacturing industries made it clear that Britain must be an increasingly important meat consumer. Meat supplies and their prices in Britain were on a most unsatisfactory basis for a generation before the establishment of the great overseas meat

trade. AH the available statistics show that, prior to the introduction of frozen meat, supplies of homethrown stock' were being overtaken by consumption, and it was plain that the inhabitants of Britain would have to be content with less meat or pay fancy prices for it, or arrange for largely increased supplies of dead meat to be brought across the seas and sold at a moderate price. ' In New Zealand,..as in Australia and the Argentine, the sheep flocks had increased so rapidly that it was apparent that, as wool and tallow producers only, their full value was not being realized. After shearing was finished ‘’it was not an uncommon thing for the old and inferior animals to meet the fate of the Gadarene swine.” Boiling-down works were established in many places. There was enormous waste; the sheep were kept during the flush of grass in the summer, and then boiled down for tallow—wool and tallow were the only products.

Many schemes were tried out; legs of mutton packed in tallow were shipped to England, and though the meat arrived in good condition the enterprise failed. About 1869 canning was started by Company at several places. The best joints were preserved, and the remainder of the carcasses boiled

down for tallow. All the offal and skins were wasted. Owing to unreliability of quality, the canningbusiness did not pay, and all the works were closed down.

The sheep industry in New Zealand at this period was not a profitable one; the surplus animals often sold for 6d. or 1/- a head. From 1865 to 1882 runholders in New Zealand had a very bad time. It is generally agreed that the sailing in 1879 of the steamer Strathleven from Australia to London with a small cargo of frozen meat marked the economic beginning of the industry. The ship

dertaking to find a cargo of meat, up to 7500 sheep, if necessary, to fill the chambers and to pay a freight of 2{d. a pound, In support of this enterprise a Glasgow firm of insurance brokers agreed to accept what was then a totally unknown risk by covering all contingencies attaching to the carriage of meat at the moderate premium of five guineas per cent. An Historic Ship The ship Dunedin, 1250 tons register, commanded by Captain Whitson, was selected for the great venture, and Mr. Davidson sent in-

left Plymouth early in 1879, and after loading at Sydney and Melboorne, sailed from the latter port on December 6 for London, where she arrived on February 2, 1880, with 40 tons of beef and mutton, which had been frozen on board. \

structions to Mr. Thomas Brydone, the land company’s superintendent in New Zealand, to erect a killing shed on the Totara estate, near Oamaru, to secure first-rate butchers, and in every way to prepare a cargo of the most attractive'classes of sheep.

One of the first persons to inspect the meat in London was the produce representative of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company,'who reported that he found it “in a perfectly sound state, frozen quite hard, and covered with an artificial rime.” Realizing the great need of an outlet for the large surplus of sheep, and foreseeing the great possibilities of the frozen meat trade already indicated by the first Australian trials, Mr. W. S. Davidson, general manager of the New Zealand and Australian ■ [.and Company at Edinburgh, alter careful investigation of the position, induced his directors to agree to a trial shipment from New Zealand. .During 1880 a contract was concluded whereby the Albion Shipping Company ('which soon afterward merged into the Shaw Savill and Albion Company) agreed to fit up one of its best and lastest sailing ships with insulated meat chambers, boilers, and Bell-Coleman refrigerating machinery, the Land Company un-

The work of loading the Dunedin was started at Port Chalmers on December 7, 1881, when Mr. Davidson and Mr. Brydone personally stowed the first dozen sheep ever loaded in New Zealand. Four days later a mishap to the freezing machine stopped the work and compelled the sale of the 641 sheep then in the chambers, and of the 360 killed and in transit. Thus New Zealanders themselves were the first consumers of their own frozen meat. Repairs were made, and the loading of the ship was completed on February 11, 1882, the Dunedin sailing four days later and arriving at London on May 24, after a passage of 98 days. During all that time the refrigerating machine had worked well; at times, in cool weather, it was run only two or three hours in the day. Shipmaster’s Anxieties The anxiety as to the condition of the meat is described by Mr. Davidson, who had then returned to England. “Captain Whitson came on to London ahead of his ship in

a pilot boat, looking very strained and careworn as he entered the shipping company’s office. . . . His anxieties about the cargo had been aggravated by his dread that his masts would be burnt, as the sparks from the funnel set fire to the sails on several occasions. Then, in the tropics the ship was for a long time on one tack, and owing to its steadiness, the cold air was not sufficiently diffused among the carcases, and, in fact, the temperature in the upper chamber remained so high that the engineer was almost in despair.’’ Finally Captain Whitson crawled down the main trunk to alter the circulation, which was evidently defective, and in the process of cutting fresh openings for the better escape of the air he became so benumbed by the frost that he was only rescued from his perilous position by the mate crawling in behind him and attaching a rope to his legs, by which means he was pulled out of the air trunk!"

Of great interest is the official report on this the pioneer shipment from New Zealand, quoted in Critcliell and Raymond’s “Historv of the Frozen Meat Trade." as follows: "The discharging of the cargo commenced three days after arrival, and the whole shipment was sold within a fortnight, the meat being taken out at night and conveyed to Smithfield market, so that the sheep were hard frozen wb.cn butchers went to buy them in the morning. . . At first the salesmen were rather doubtful about the venture being a success, specially as it was the first trial from New Zealand, but when they saw the fine big sheep which, though many of them had been frozen over four months, were as clean and bright as newlykilled mutton, they quickly ch-nmed their opinion and pronounced the meat to be ‘as perfect as meat could be.’ New Zealanders will be n'eased to learn that the shipment was mentioned even in the House of Lords.’ Excepting the very fat coarse sheep weighing over 1001 b. each—several weighed over 1501 b.. and one was 1821 b.—the mutton was quite suitable for the English market. Out of the whole cargo only one sheep was condemned.” A Double Tragedy •The Dunedin took her second cargo of frozen meat, 8295 earcases, from New Zealand in 1883. She made in all 10 consecutive voyages to New Zealand—chiefly to Port Chalmers—for meat. On March 19, 1890, she sailed for London with a full cargo, and nut heard of again. The ship Marlborough, 1124 tons, loaded witii 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 might have collided with icebergs. Bound from Picton to London with frozen meat in 1893, the ship Wellington collided with an iceberg after rounding the Horn,' the ship’s forecastle being completely smashed, and two sailors killed. The ship finally reached Rio de Janeira, where she was repaired, and wheije a good portion of her frozen meat was sold.

Wellington’s First Shipment The first shipment of frozen meat frotii Wellington was taken by the Shaw Savill. and Albion Company’s ship Cady Jocelyn, which was loaded, in addition to wool, tallow, etc., with 5800 carcases of mutton, 352 quarters of beef, and seven kegs of butter by the Wellington Meat Export Company, and with 630 carcases of mutton by Levin and Company, the total value of the refrigerated cargo being given as M 2,166. On the day the ship cleared at the Customs the occasion was marked by a ceremony on board at which success to the venture was “drunk in champagne cooled with ice from the ship's' freezing chamber.” The Lady Jocelyn sailed from Wellington on February 25, 1883, and made a

smart passage Home, her cargo opening up in good condition.