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Dunedin (ship)


The Dunedin About this sound listen  (1876–82) was the first ship to successfully transport a full cargo of refrigerated meat from New Zealand to England. In this capacity, it provided the impetus to develop the capacity of New Zealand as a major provider of agricultural exports, notwithstanding its remoteness from most markets.

Robert Duncan and Co built the 1,320-ton, 73-metre (240 ft) Dunedin at Port Glasgow in Scotland in 1874 for the Albion Line (later the Shaw, Savill & Albion Line). Her ship number was 67085. She cost ₤23,750 (£1.6 million, in 2010 inflation-adjusted British pounds). She was one of six Auckland class emigrant vessels, each designed to carry 400 passengers. In 1881, still painted in her original colours of a black hull with a gold band and pink boot topping as shown, she was refitted with a Bell Coleman refrigeration machine, with which she took the first load of frozen meat from New Zealand to the United Kingdom.

Her first trip to New Zealand was in 1874 under Captain Whitson who sailed her from London to Lyttelton, New Zealand in 88 days. In 1875 he sailed from London to Auckland in 94 days. All seven of her voyages from London to New Zealand prior to conversion were completed in under 100 days. Whitson remained her Captain throughout the period she sailed with immigrants. In 1886, five years after she had been converted to take refrigerated cargo, Captain Arthur F Roberts became her Captain after Captain Whitson had died at Oamaru on 4 May that year. Roberts, a Master Mariner, had been Captain of the White Eagle and Trevelyn. Both these ships had sailed to New Zealand under his command. Even after her conversion, the Dunedin continued to carry passengers.


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