UCL Mail Ships

[vic mcclymont]

In Soton for the 10 day lay over the ships ran on shore power.
Were the freezers unloaded or did they run on the available shore power?
Vic

[robpage]

The Galley staff was all left on fridges and freezers but the hatches all their refrigeration stuff was turned off I can't remember which one it was but I ended up working on a CO2 compressor there and all the other compressors was shut down I think it must have been either at the Edinburgh or the Oranjie 1 I remember those fridge compressors on CO2 gas very well they ran at some really evil pressure and I think the only place you could ever service them was in Southampton I was working with a fridge engineer don't know why but it wasn't done by Harland and Wolff

[Lewis McColl]

Only advantage I can ever remember with CO2 systems on ships was you had the brine room , so when you went down on watch you stuck your after watch beers in there and they were cold for knocking of time.

[Doc Vernon]

Don't know too much on this however just thinking about the question,as the 10 Day Layover was to clean and replenish Stocks ,Maitenance etc,then I would at a guess say that they had to have full power at all times,as what would happen with the Frozen Foods etc not only for the Catering side for next trip but the masses of Foods loaded into the Holds etc. As said just thinking
Cheers

I worked by many a time for the extra cash,and saw loading of all the above mentioned during the Layover. ??

[Bill Cameron]

Not sure if I am infringing the rules, but

---

on Orient line ships, I spent a few hours chucking lamb carcasses and sides of beef all purchased in Australia, into the Channel before we docked iin Tilbury
Allegedly this was because the Australian meat would not pass UK regulations, have to admit this was in thr 1960’s maybe the rules have changedl

[Doc Vernon]

Wow Bill the Sharks would have had a Frenzy food Feast! LOL
What a complete waste of good Food but things happened on all Ships like with UCL we threw so much Silver over the side,and they do say that the Route between Soton and Cape Town is strewn with Silver! One could make a small fortune retrieving all the if it were possible!
Cheers

[robpage]

Only advantage I can ever remember with CO2 systems on ships was you had the brine room , so when you went down on watch you stuck your after watch beers in there and they were cold for knocking of time.

We certainly had Brian rooms on R22 systems and R12 systems. When it came to using the brine tank as a beer chiller if you had more than five minutes the cans used to freeze as the brine tank used to be well below freezing point CO2 is actually a brilliant refrigeration gas it's just at the pressures that are involved with it are up in ridiculous amounts from memory it was around 1000 PSI

[happy daze john in oz]

Bill Ford, a real gentleman, was chief fridge on the Windsor.
From what he told me all 8 holds were chilled only, no frozen food.
Mainly fruit carried along with bullion and diamonds.
Any meat we may have carried was also only chilled but do not ever remember seeing any being loaded.

The galley cold rooms were all brine chilled and the covers could easily be removed exposing the pipes.
Great spot to hide all the smoked goods were used to take ashore in Durban.

[Keith Tindell]

I remember on the Stirling Castle we could buy very cheaply crates of grapes in wooden boxes, obviously ships stores initially, this was when grapes were rarely seen in UK and very expensive, kt