Reefer ship

A reefer ship is a refrigerated cargo vessel that carries perishables (bananas, citrus, deciduous fruit, meat, fish, and dairy) in insulated holds cooled by the ship’s own plant rather than in containers. The trade began when the steamer Paraguay landed frozen mutton from Buenos Aires at Le Havre in 1878. Classic reefers are fast, 18 to 23 knots, and white-hulled to cut solar gain, with capacity measured in pallets or cubic feet of bale space. Container refrigeration has hollowed the type out: the conventional reefer share of the perishable trade fell from about 55 percent in 2000 to near 18 percent by 2018, and the dedicated fleet is shrinking toward a few hundred ships.