Reefer Ship - History of Reefers

History of Reefers

In 1700s, only the rich elites had ice for their guests or to cool their drinks or preserve other perishables. It was harvested locally in winter and stored through summers in a covered ice houses to minimize melting. Ice production was initially very labor intensive as it was performed entirely with hand axes and saws, and may cost hundreds of dollars a ton to have ice available all summer. In the early 1800s they developed techniques and specialized tools to harvest ice cheaply and one of the major exports from Massachusetts, New York and other settled northern states was ice—the “Frozen Water Trade”. This trade eventually averaged several million tons of ice/year that sold for millions of dollars in the U.S.. This ice was harvested by scoring the ice with horse drawn gouges or ice plows that allowed the ice to be separated into square or rectangular blocks. This ice was cut out of frozen lakes, rivers and ponds, floated in a cleared channel to a loading dock before being transferred to an insulated ice house. There it was kept till it could be sold or transferred.

Ice harvesting developed into a profitable business with an acre (0.4 hectare) of clean water in a cold climate yielding up to 30,000 to 150,000 tons of ice/year which could be harvested for about $1.5/ton and sold for up to $4/ton. Before railroads existed the ice was transported by wagon or sleigh to Boston or other northern ports where it was stored in ice houses until it could either be loaded aboard ships for shipment elsewhere or sold for local consumption. The number of ice loaded ships in some harbors exceeded nearly all other trade in Boston, etc. in winter months. The ice when it was delivered was put in specially designed ice houses in each port to minimize melting before it was sold. After 1840 when railroads were developed ice was often shipped by rail in insulated rail cars and the railroads started using ice to help keep perishables cold. The refrigeration industry developed for use by the railroads closely parallels the refrigerated ship business—they both used nearly the same equipment. During warmer than average winters when less ice could be harvested the cities suffered a shortage of ice in what were called then "Ice Famines". One of the many shortages the south suffered in the U.S. Civil War was ice—they could no longer import it from the northern states.

One of the more unusual applications of the frozen ice trade was the miners in Comstock Lode in Virginia City, Nevada. As they mined ever deeper for the silver and gold there the temperatures in the mines continued to rise. Soon the temperatures were well over 110 deg F (43 deg C) and they started having to give the miners ice to help them survive. A miner could use over 75 pounds (34 kg) of ice per shift. The ice was harvested in winter from frozen lakes in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) with some like the Central Pacific Railroad building, after 1869, special ponds to help them harvest and ship ice to Virginia City, San Francisco, California and other Nevada and California cities.

By 1830 ice became a commodity available in most cities in the United States. The ice trade developed much slower in Europe and even today many Europeans prefer room temperature drinks versus the iced drinks preferred by most in the U.S.. Ice supplied year round at a reasonably low cost (usually less than $10/month) made it available for most middle-class people for cooling drinks, keeping ice boxes cold for storing perishables, etc.–-previously a luxury affordable only by the upper classes. Most of the ice was shipped to cities in the United States; but significant amounts were shipped to warmer foreign cities and countries by first sailing ships and later paddle steamers. The ice loaded on board ships was put into near air tight insulated compartments and further insulated with sawdust around the outside of ice blocks to slow down its melting rate as it was being shipped. A typical shipment would lose about 20% of its original weight before it could be sold—a 24,000 miles (39,000 km), about 200 day, ice shipment to Calcutta India usually arrived with more than half of its ice. At the ports the ice was stored in special built ice houses till it could be sold. The first ice shipments to the tropics were made by Frederic Tudor in 1805 from Charlestown, Massachusetts to Martinique. By 1815 he had established a profitable trade to Havana Cuba, New Orleans, Louisiana and other southern cities. Soon he and others were taking advantage of the melting ice to preserve apples, butter etc. which could be sold at a profit in a warm climate-the first “reefers”. One of the most popular products was ice mixed with salt used to make ice cream. By 1836 they were even shipping ice to Calcutta India.

By 1869 they were shipping beef carcasses frozen in a salt-ice mixture from Indianola, Texas, to New Orleans, Louisiana and served it in hospitals, hotels and restaurants. By 1873 they were shipping frozen beef from America to London which developed into an annual tonnage of around 10,000 ton. The insulated cargo space was cooled by ice, which was loaded on departure. The success of this method was limited by insulation, loading techniques, ice block size, distance and climate.