London's 'Floating Larders': The Delphic

In 1900 England depended for much of its food on foreign imports. In Imperial London, published in 1901, Arthur H. Beavan described the role played by the 'floating larders' - the refrigerated ships which brought frozen produce from all over the world to these shores:

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"A large proportion of the supply of beef and mutton consumed by our population is brought into the country in a frozen condition, necessitating the employment of a great number of ocean carriers, a big proportion of which come to the port of London.

The Delphic, a magnificent steel twin-screw steamer, 8000 tons, may be taken as an up-to-date type of Britain's floating larders, which are pretty much alike in every part of the globe, except as regards size, and excluding those used in the fruit-trade, whose cargo-fittings are altogether different.

The Delphic has freezing apparatus on the compressed-air system, which can operate upon no fewer than 93,000 carcases of mutton, and is, with two exceptions, (The Cornwall and the Devon, each of 100,000 carcase capacity) the largest carrier in the southern trade.

Assume that she starts from Dunedin, or from Lyttelton, the land-locked chief port of the Canterbury district, so famous for its lamb.

Here, as in South America and Australia, where the cattle "on a thousand hills" are at the disposal of England, the arrangements prior to shipment are much the same.

The animals are never over-driven.

As a rule, they arrive from up-country by rail, and are rested until the moment comes for their transformation into frozen meat.

In the abattoirs, perfect cleanliness prevails, and after being slaughtered, the carcases are gradually, not suddenly, frozen.

They are hung up until it is necessary to ship them, when they are wrapped in cotton coverings, and conveyed on board ship either by barges, or specially-constructed steam-tenders.

Mutton and lamb are not the only meats carried in the Delphic's refrigerating chambers.

There are quarters of prime beef, hares, rabbits, pheasants, ducks and fish, besides hundred-weights of excellent cheese and butter, delicious apples, and other fruits.

Thus stored, the floating larder is borne across the southern ocean, and, doubling Cape Horn with its everlasting desolation of restless waters, anchors for a brief space in the unrivalled harbour of Rio de Janeiro.

Thence to the Canary Islands - a delightful sail over summer seas - and, finally, thirty-four days out, to Plymouth and the Albert Docks.

With the development of the business, the warehousing accommodation has increased, not only at the principal wharves, but on a very large scale at the West Indian, South and Victoria Docks, and there is excellent accommodation inland at West Smithfield Market.

Everywhere the arrangements are similar -a series of ware-houses with every facility for the rapid handling of perishable cargoes, and divided into convenient chambers, where so long as the machinery continues to work properly, the contents remain sound for any period, or, like tea, coffee, tobacco, etc, they can be disposed of when required."

Next: London Markets in 1900.