S.S. Safco I
The SS Safco I was a refrigerator ship built in 1938 by Gotaverken Cityvarvet in Gothenberg, Sweden with a gross tonnage of 1799 tons and was part of the Norwegian merchant fleet. Before being rechristened Safco I in 1958 (just in time for her appearance on the post card above), she sailed as the Duala and the Sainte Sabine. Interned by the French in Dakar in 1940, In 1943 she was assigned to convoy duty and, later, independent duty in the Pacific. She ended her career sailing under Panamanian registry as the West Gate. The presence of the Safco I is only incidental in this post card intende to highlight the banana docks of New Orleans. A traveller in the 1930's noted that if all of the bunches of bananas that enter New Orleans in any normal year were linked into one continuous stem, that stem would extend around nearly three quarters of the earth. If the ships that carried those bananas from tropical countries to New Orleans were lined up bow to stern, the fleet would be forty miles long. New Orleans was the leading banana port in the United States, with imports of around 20,000,000 bunches annually. Ships carrying from 25,000 to 50,000 bunches--the latter enough to fill 100 refrigerator cars--docked at wharves in New Orleans that are completely outfitted with mechanical conveyors that take the individual bunches from the holds of the ships to the doors of the railroad cars. Once into the refrigerator cars, the green bananas were sent to many parts of this country in charge of caretakers who travelled along with the trains, making inspections, taking temperature, regulating ventilation and keeping vigilance over this perishable fruit. The banana is a living organism until fully ripe, drawing sustenance from its stalk, and the ripening process goes on while enroute.
Go to the Grose Educational Media Home Page. © Derrick Grose, 2022 |
