factory ship 
noun
A fishing or whaling ship, or a ship accompanying a fishing or whaling fleet, with facilities for immediate processing of the catch.This has become a really big operation, with one lot of boats for laying the nets and another for picking them up and a factory ship equipped for freezing and canning attending each fleet....
- Although UK whaling finished in the 1960s, Hull men continued to be recruited to work in the whale processing factory ships in the South Atlantic up until the 1970s.
- Consequently, the Canadians now have a fleet of factory ships fishing the stocks of deepwater shrimp around the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland.