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, was able to create 10 USgal of ice cream every seven minutes, or approximately 500 USgal per shift, and could store 2000 USgal. It was employed in the USN's Western Pacific area of operations, at one point anchored at Naval Base Ulithi. 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.