First shipment of frozen meat leaves NZ

The success of the sailing ship Dunedin’s first shipment of frozen meat from New Zealand to Britain in 1882 eventually helped lift the colony out of economic depression.

This voyage from Port Chalmers to London paved the way for the trade in frozen meat and dairy products that was to become the cornerstone of New Zealand’s 20th-century economy. The production of lamb, butter and cheese would flourish as New Zealand established itself as ‘Britain's farmyard’.

The Dunedin’s voyage was organised by William Soltau Davidson, general manager of the giant New Zealand and Australian Land Company, and the company’s local manager, Thomas Brydone. Frozen meat had been successfully shipped to Europe from Argentina and Australia since the mid-1870s, but the voyage from New Zealand was even longer. 

Brydone built an export slaughterhouse at Totara Estate, near Oamaru, where 95% of the first cargo originated. The carcasses were transported by horse and cart to Oamaru then by train (in ice boxes) to Port Chalmers, where they were frozen by a steam-powered Bell-Coleman freezing plant installed aboard the Dunedin. But after 600 carcasses had been frozen the plant failed, forcing the sale or disposal of the original cargo. Undeterred, Brydone had the plant fixed, and a further 5000 carcasses were frozen aboard the ship over two months.

The Dunedin sailed on 15 February. When the vessel became becalmed in the tropics, the crew noticed that the cold air in the hold was not circulating properly. To save his historic cargo, Captain Whitson crawled inside and sawed extra air holes, almost freezing to death in the process. Crew members had to pull him out by a rope attached to his ankles and resuscitate him. When the Dunedin arrived in London after three months at sea, all but one carcass was still in superb condition.

In 1890 the Dunedin disappeared, with all 35 hands, while en route from New Zealand to the United Kingdom. The ship probably hit an iceberg off Cape Horn.

Image: Detail from a Gear Meat Company label (Te Ara)