Why in the old days sailors categorically refused to take bananas on board

For centuries, the profession of a navigator was considered one of the most dangerous. And where there is risk, there is always a place for superstition. Everyone knows well that "a woman on a ship is in trouble." And you know that about the same thing used to be said about bananas. Yellow, fragrant fruit from warm countries, the sea wolves wanted to see even less on board than women. In some places, a biased attitude towards bananas has been preserved in the navy until now. Why did this happen?

The superstition associated with bananas appeared in the 18th century. The era of Great Geographical Discoveries has already ended and Europeans were in full possession of the overseas colonies. Everything that was so lacking in Europe was brought from exotic countries: gold, precious stones, slaves, spices, exotic animals and, of course, outlandish fruits.

But among the fruits transported across the oceans, bananas were extremely rare. Legends said that ships carrying bananas in the holds sink more often than others. It was not uncommon to hear stories that bunches of these fruits were often found among the wrecks of shipwrecks.

It was also said that on merchant ships with a cargo of bananas, provisions suddenly deteriorated or the entire crew fell ill. Thus, bananas had a disgusting reputation and the captains flatly refused to take such a cargo. Is it possible to write it off as sea tales, or does the negative attitude towards fruit have a reason?

In fact, bananas were fraught with many dangers for brave sailors who crossed the oceans on wooden sailboats. First of all, it is worth mentioning representatives of the fauna who happened to be in clusters. Along with the fruit, poisonous spiders, scorpions and snakes could get on board.

Such "guests" are still found in the fruit departments of our supermarkets. Even now, contact with a poisonous arthropod or reptile does not bode well. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it most often ended sadly. In the old days, everything connected with illness and death in the navy was perceived with fear. That's why bananas were considered a cursed cargo.

Could the wooden ship have sunk because of the fruit? There was such a possibility. Even schoolchildren know that bananas plucked by green ripen rapidly and deteriorate quickly. Now, when the ocean can be crossed in a week and a half, it's not scary. But earlier, when the voyage took months, most of the bananas spoiled.

In the process of rotting, fruits emit methane. This gas at a concentration in the air of 5 to 15 percent creates an explosive mixture. When tons of bananas spoil in the holds, the probability of a fire or even an explosion is quite high. In addition, the gas negatively affected the health of the crew members. Cases when part of the team started coughing, choking and even fainting were not uncommon.

Now we can discuss this completely freely. But it should be remembered that the properties of methane were described only in 1778. The sailors, who rarely had a humanitarian education, hardly knew about them even a century after the discovery. Therefore, cases of mass diseases on board were connected directly with the cargo of bananas, without going into details. Damn fruit, and that's it.

As for the spoilage of products on ships with bananas, science has already studied this issue. In addition to methane, overripe bananas emit ethylene gas. It causes nearby fruits to ripen faster, and products to deteriorate prematurely. Today, fruit suppliers masterfully use this feature of bananas.

To make mango or avocado ripen faster, they are placed in a closed container with ripe bananas. When it comes to large volumes of products, ethylene gas is launched into the room from cylinders. But if, on the contrary, it is necessary to slow down the ripening, carbon dioxide is supplied and the temperature is lowered.

But 200-300 years ago, no one knew such nuances. But there were cases when sailors were left in the middle of the ocean with a mountain of rotting bananas and spoiled provisions. It could not be called anything else but the curse of the yellow fruit. Needless to say, neither gold, nor slaves, nor even the fetid guano in the holds, deprived the sailors of food.

Nowadays, all the risks associated with bananas on board have been studied and explained. But maritime traditions are ineradicable, so even now many yachtsmen and fishermen flatly refuse to include bananas in the list of products. However, business is business and superstitions do not prevent cargo ships from annually moving hundreds of thousands of tons of these wonderful fruits across the seas and oceans.