Ice cream barge

An ice cream barge was a vessel employed by the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater of World War II to produce ice cream in large quantities to be provisioned to sailors and U.S. Marines. The craft, a concrete barge acquired from the U.S. Army and worth one million dollars,^[1][2] was able to create 10 US gallons (38 L) of ice cream every seven minutes, or approximately 500 US gal (1,900 L) per shift, and could store 2,000 US gal (7,600 L).^[3][4] It was employed in the USN's Western Pacific area of operations, at one point anchored at Naval Base Ulithi.^[5] These ships were intended to raise the morale of U.S. troops overseas by producing ice cream at a fast rate. The army built three concrete barges of their own, specifically for making ice cream.^[6]

See also

• USS Quartz (IX-150), a contemporary of the ice cream barge, used as a "crockery" ship

References

Sources

• Bovbjerg, R.V. (2004). Steaming as Before. G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Hamilton Books. ISBN 978-0-7618-2850-1.
• Wingo, J.D. (1994). Mother was a gunner's mate: World War II in the Waves. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-924-6.
• Meister, C. (2017). Totally Amazing Facts About Military Vehicles. Mind Benders. Capstone Press, an Capstone imprint. ISBN 978-1-5157-4542-6.
• Funderburg, A.C. (1995). Chocolate, Strawberry, and Vanilla: A History of American Ice Cream. Bowling Green State University Popular Press. ISBN 978-0-87972-692-8. Retrieved 2018-06-23.

Further reading

• Matt Siegel (August 6, 2017), "How Ice Cream Helped America at War: For decades, the military made sure soldiers had access to the treat—including spending $1 million on a floating ice-cream factory", The Atlantic