chilled beef from australia

[desfforde]

I'm reading a book called 'The Blue Funnel Legend' a rather dense history of Blue Flue.
The author asserts that Blue Star ships were carrying chilled beef home from Australia in the late 1930's. It give the Sydney Star (I assume) class of ships built in the late 1930's a speed of 17.5 knots.
Now, I don't really believe this. I know from sailing on the 'Rockie' and Gladstone Stars that they were built to carry chilled beef from Queensland to UK, but this trade never materialised due to union problems in Australia.
I consider that the voyage time homeward from Australia was too long for chilled beef to be in good condition on discharge.
Is there any truth in this assertion? CRE's to the fore!
Regards to any old shipmates, Des Fforde

[bluey1958]

Don't know if this helps but I was J/3E on the English Star in the late 50's and seem to remember a discussion with some of the lads when it was said that CO2 was injected into the holds to help preserve the chilled beef on the Aussie run.
I also recall a story, I can't verify the truth of it, that on one of the older ships the CRE allowed the frozen lamb to partially defrost during the voyage home and froze it again before reaching the UK. I believe there was a bit of a problem unloading
it !.
Hugh Reid

[COLINCOLLIER]

According to EZER GRIFFITHS it was not practical to carry chilled beef from Australia on a seven week voyage, after considerable trials at Cambridge University, by maintaining the temp at 28.5 f with 10% CO2 air content it was possible to achieve this without any undue damage by moulds, taint or loss of colour. Meat unlike fruit does not produce CO2 so had to t be introduced which caused severe practical problems in maintaining gas tight refrigerated cargo holds, it was tried and doubled the survival times but was never rally pursued i suspect because of maintaining the gas tight capabilities.
The voyage time of 3weeks from Argentina was ideal for this trade, hence the A boats which maintained a constant supply of chilled beef to Smithfield Market,
Regard to all ex BSL personnel, Colin Collier C.R.E

[desfforde]

Thanks for the information, especially from Colin Collier.
It would seem that most ships on the australasian trade were fitted for the carriage of chilled beef in lockers with a provision for CO2 injection to cope with the longer transit time/
This was probably started by Blue Star putting their ships from the South America trade on to the Australian trade in the 1930's, and building a new class of 'Colony Boats in 1936.
But there's an account of the Port Fairy loading an experimental cargo in 1932, both from Aussie and NZ.
I was surprised to find that Blue Funnel had followed the trend, and that there was no post-war record of carrying chilled meat on a regular basis.
Best wishes, Des Fforde

[IforOwen]

We carried chilled beef on the Tasmania Star on two succesive voyages and confirm we introduced CO2. The locker doors were sealed with oakum and brown paper (as were the insulated plugs). We loaded the meat in Glastone 1st Oct and Port Alma 8th Oct then loading frozen & general in Brisbane,Sydney and Melbourne and arrived London 21st Dec 1955. The chilled would have been aboard for over 80 days. The wharfies in Australia were not used to hanging meat and were not interested in how it should be done so the stow was not as tight as the South American one.
On the second voyage we loaded in the same ports, Gladstone 20th June, Port Alma 28th June arriving in London 3rd Sept 1956. I was aboard during the discharge and as the meat had been aboard for 75 days we expected it to be first off but the market was not ready for it,too much South American meat available so it was about a week later when it was discharged.
When I came ashore in London I found that the chilled beef market was very demanding and prices fluctuated daily so the discharge was controlled by the meat traders, in BSl our cousins 'Weddell". All was well when the price was over 2 shillings a pound but below that we had 'frozen wing ends" or 'black mould" so they could put in an insurance claim against the ship for depreciation.
The Queensland and others built for the trade sailed homeward Northbound which would have reduced the max carriage time to arround say 45 days. As these ships did not come into service until 1957/58 we might have been used as trials to see the effect of extended carriage times.

[Nigel Ianson]

I don't know about chilled beef from Australia, but I do remember loading chilled 'beef' (or more likely lamb, ) in New Zealand whilst on the Wellington Star during the mid 60's.

From what I remember we loaded two lockers full in No 4 hatch and then bolted up and sealed the steel airtight plates in the doors and injected Co2.

What I do remember was that we were sent home at best speed which was round about 19 knots, direct to the Royals in London to discharge.

Mind you, best laid schemes of mice and men, we hit thick fog in the channel and with no radar crept along dead slow for what seemed like weeks.

[David Payze]

For what it is worth in the Chief Engineers cabin on either the Rocky or Gladstone there was paperwork specifying a build contract requirement of Townsville to London via Singapore and Suez in 30 days which would amount to an expected cargo life of 50 days if say a Bowen, Port Alma,and Townsville load.
Another chilled beef option was or be could be ex Wyndam in northern Western Australia.
They were sending canned bully beef from there to Europe 1915 for the troops.
The 4 cylinder Sulzer diesel that powered the meatworks I saw in a technology musuem in Freemantle 20 years ago.
If you have never been to Wyndam you have missed out on nothing.
David Payze

[Norman Hopkins]

I was 3rd / 2nd freezer on Australia Star 1 between 1955 and 1957, and we regularly carried "chilled" beef to the UK from NZ, duration approx 4 weeks.
We carried it in the tween deck lockers, and as far as I can remember we didn't inject CO2, it was only used as the refrigerant.
I'm not saying it wasn't done - just not by us.
Temperature was critical however - 29.5 degrees with a tolerance of 0.5 degree. At least that was what the log book showed.

EDIT:
Re-reading the thread, it seems that CO2 was used on longer voyages - 7weeks from OZ to home must have been quite a slow vessel.
The Australia Star fire protection system was CO2 - I wonder if that was how it was administered by those who did?