of refrigerated bananas and miscellaneous cargo. The renamed and were taken over by the United States Navy in World War I and used to take troops and refrigerated supplies to and from Europe. After hostilities ceased they were returned to United Fruit Company in 1919. They were requisitioned again on 2 June 1941 from United Fruit for use in World War II. After hostilities ceased they were then returned again to United Fruit Company in 1946. Reefers in U.S. Navy service World War I In World War I, the US Navy contracted for 18 refrigerated ships for hauling provisions to the troops in Europe. They were launched 1918 and 1919 as the war was ending and were nearly all scrapped by 1933 in the Great Depression as an economy move. Most were built in Baltimore Dry Dock in Baltimore, Maryland, Moore Dry Dock Company in Oakland, California and Standard SB Co. in Shooters Island, New York. World War II The s were six United Fruit passenger and refrigerated cargo liners built in 1931–1933 that the United States Maritime Commission requisitioned in 1941–1942. They were USS Antigua, , , , and . Antigua, although requisitioned, was never commissioned into the Navy. United States Maritime Commission Type R ship were Reefer ships. NOTE: also requisitioned from the United Fruit Co. was SS Ulua; which became . It was the last of the UFC 'reefer' ships to be taken over; which happened near the end of April 1943 in San Francisco. Other reefers converted for US Navy use were the Danish ships , and . In addition, the US Maritime Commission ordered 41 new refrigerated ships for the Navy. Because of the difficulty of building refrigerated ships only two were delivered in 1944. 26 were delivered in 1945 and the remainder in 1946–1948. Worldwide service According to the CIA's The World Factbook, there were about 38,000 registered merchant ships in the world in 2010, of which about 920 were designed as refrigerated cargo ships. Because of the proliferation of self-contained refrigerated container systems on container ships, there are many more ships than those designed for only refrigerated cargo that are also carrying some refrigerated cargo. As of 2010, the countries with the largest numbers of reefer ships in their registries are the world's two most prominent flags of convenience: Panama with 212 and Liberia with 109. See also Cold chain Refrigeration Refrigerator car