The Voyage That Changed the Way We Eat

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In February 1882 the SS Dunedin departed New Zealand on a voyage that would revolutionise the way we eat and kickstart the globalisation of the world's food supply chain. Aboard were thousands of mutton, lamb and pig carcasses as well as 250 kegs of butter, hare, pheasant, turkey, chicken and 2226 sheep tongues. This cargo would be kept fresh in the ship's hold using a Bell-Coleman compression refrigeration machine and would mark the first time fresh goods had ever been transported over such a distance. However, the journey was far from plain sailing though as you will hear in this episode.

To tell the Dunedin's story and to celebrate the new digitisation project by Lloyd’s Register Foundation’s Heritage & Education Centre Dan is joined by Charlotte Ward and Max Wilson from the Foundation.

The Lloyd’s Register Foundation’s Heritage & Education Centre, the custodians to an archive collection of maritime, engineering, scientific, technological, social and economic history that stretches back to 1760. Their ship plan and survey report collection numbers a colossal 1.25 million records, for vessels as diverse as the Mauretania, Fullagar and Cutty Sark! It consists of survey reports, ship plans, certificates, correspondence and the weird and wonderfully unexpected. Currently, there are more than 600k of these records online and available for viewing right now by visiting their website hec.lrfoundation.org.uk.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I have a welcome down to Snow's history. You know another day, another wonderful archive
0:05.0	and library, and I'll just say some massive digitization project. This is just great.
0:09.2	The Lloyds Register Foundation's Heritage and Education Centre. They are the custodians
0:14.4	of an archive collection of maritime and engineering, tech and social and scientific economic history
0:20.6	that stretches back to 1760. From that point, in the 18th century, you know, I love the
0:25.7	18th century. When ship owners and merchants got together and realised they needed to start
0:31.1	collecting information about ships, about wrecks, about near misses, that would help them
0:37.0	improve the safety record of their industry and thus drive down insurance rates and make
0:42.6	it more profitable. And those archives are all still there. And Lloyds Register has just
0:47.9	put 600,000 online. And in this episode, I'm going to talk to Charlotte Ward and Max Wilson
0:54.0	from Lloyds Register about some of their favourites things in the collection, but particularly,
0:59.8	particularly the Dunedin. The Dunedin. The famous ship, you should know more about,
1:03.9	it's one of the most important voyages in maritime history and deserves to be more famous.
1:07.4	Because it is the start point really for our globalised food transportation network.
1:13.6	We now think nothing, nothing of getting an orange that was grown in Tasmania. That's
1:19.8	just, you know, fine, totally normal to see that. Until 150 years ago, that would have
1:24.6	been the most absurd, the most mind-blowing impossible feat. It was scientifically inconceivable.
1:33.0	And then someone invented a refrigeration system, someone invented reliable navigation,
1:38.8	ships that were fast and safe. And before you know it, you got food being embarked
1:43.4	in New Zealand, being sent to the Imperial capital and being given the thumbs up from those
1:49.3	hard to please wholesalers down the docks in Canary Wharf. This is the story of Dunedin,
1:55.2	the first really successful refrigerated cargo ever to go from New Zealand to London,
	...

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