Fruit Reefers
 

I posted two photos in the Gallery under S.A.Langkloof. One is the beginning showing launch day at Verholmes, and the other is the more usual view in 1966, departing Cape Town full of Outspan oranges. Remember, these boxes were loaded by hand from palettes and came right alongside the quay in freight trains hauled by huge SAR steam engines. Things have no doubt changed a lot in 50 years.

David
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and by the time they got here they were ready to eat right of the boat as they use to say no cold storage .the ones we have now are underripe washed in a jell for a longer shelf life but tasteles.I make sure my son and his missus buy fruit then wash it and leave it for a few days to ripen.back in the early 50s bananas were stored in a warehouse not far from where I lived and kept there till they were just on the cusp of being yellow then sold with in a day ready to eat .

We loaded a small cargo of oranges in Raratonga on the foredeck of a Union Co ship from Vancouver to NZ. They were covered by tarpaulins against weather but when these were removed in Auckland the bottom boxes had been pillaged by crew and the weight above had crushed those below. It was some special arrangement between cargo agent, and captain for a special Cook Islands function in Auckland. We enjoyed the oranges!

Hatches 1 - 4 were cooled, and 5 & 6 had the capability to freeze. We used to load frozen beef on general cargo voyages in No.6

David
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Fond memories David, I did numerous voyages on the Clan R reefers Europe-SA-Europe, I have just put a couple of pics in the gallery of loading in ZSC, and one of the outward voyage in ballast sorting dunnage and hold cleaning.