MAX_theHitMan wrote:The most unusual ship of the Second World War, was an American Ice Cream Barge. Constructed of concrete, the ship´s only responsibility was to produce ice cream for US sailors in the South Pacific during the war.
The crew made about 5,000+ gallons of Ice Cream every Hour! Cool
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_ship wrote:Concrete barges also served in the Pacific during 1944 and 1945.[12] From the Charleroi, Pennsylvania, Mail, February 5, 1945:Largest unit of the Army's fleet is a BRL, (Barge, Refrigerated, Large) which is going to the South Pacific to serve fresh frozen foods – even ice cream – to troops weary of dry rations. The vessel can keep 64 carloads of frozen meats and 500 tons of fresh produce indefinitely at 12F. Equipment on board includes an ice machine of five-ton daily capacity and a freezer that turns out more than a gallon of ice cream a minute. Three of the floating warehouses, designed for tropical warfare, have been built of concrete at National City, Calif., and cost $1,120,000 each. In the crew of the 265-ft. barges are 23 Army men.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/50259032The Courier-Mail 23 July 1945 wrote:The United States Navy is equip
ping a floating ice cream parlour
for the Pacific. A special barge
is being built at the cost of
£312.500 just to service ships too
small to carry their own ice cream
making equipment.
The barge will be able to make
10 gallons of ice cream every seven
minutes, arid has storage capacity
of 2000 gallons.