re: Tuna fishing in Venice

Back in the day before refrigeration, cargo ships carrying bananas, among other fruits, often pushed the limits as far as maintaining course regardless of poor weather conditions. They did this in order to deliver the cargo before it spoiled. This led to many banana boats being lost to treacherous weather conditions. Since the invention of refrigeration, reefer ships no longer had to maintain such strict time limits. Nowadays bananas are a stupid superstition. Every ship I've ever been on had had bananas. In fact, there are about 50 bananas located approximately 10 feet away from me right now.