The Sunbelt Dixie cargo ship was the world's first combined car and refrigerated fruit transporter.
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The ship came into service at the beginning of March 1978 as hull number 260 of the Japanese shipyard Sasebo Heavy Industries. The concept of combined car and cold fruit transporters goes back to the company Great American Lines and the ship developer Peter Dent. In principle, the ship is a car transporter whose ro-ro area can be cooled in a controlled manner. The Sunbelt Dixie was used for a long time in shuttle traffic between Japan and the USA, bringing new cars from Japan and transporting chilled citrus fruits on the return trip to Japan. Since 2002, the significantly larger Sunbelt Spirit has been sailing another similarly designed successor ship, after which the smaller Sunbelt Dixie was also used on other routes. The unusually designed debut was in service until May 2009 before it was sold for demolition in Alang for US $ 2,432,710 .
