THE EDITOR, Sir:
I READ with interest "The Port Antonio Experience" story in The Sunday Gleaner's Outlook Magazine of August 25, 2002.
A friend of mine on Marco Island, Florida, is the great-grandson of Captain Lorenzo Dow Baker of The United Fruit Company. A few months ago, he told me the story of his great-grandfather and I would like to share his interesting story with your readers.
Captain Baker owned a small fishing boat which he would take to sea for extended fishing trips, returning to sell the catch in his native Boston. Most fishermen lived from one fishing trip to the next so a bad catch could mean losing one's boat. Due to a hurricane, Capt. Baker was blown off course and had the fortune of landing in Jamaica where he was introduced to the banana.
As he had no fish onboard thanks to the hurricane, he decided to return to the Eastern Seaboard with his boat loaded with the delightful fruit. Unfortunately, upon reaching home the ripe bananas were rotten. Within a few months, Capt. Baker lost his boat in bankruptcy.
A short time later, a relatively large freight ship ran aground near Capt. Baker's home and the shipping company viewed the ship as a total loss. Capt. Baker knew something about the local tides which the shipping company did not. He gathered a few friends and they put together an offer to the shipping firm to pay about ten cents on the dollar for salvage rights to the ship. The deal was sealed. A few days later the tides changed and the ship floated free.
This was the ship that Capt. Baker immediately sailed to Jamaica to load with bananas. And this time, he loaded greener bananas to successfully make the voyage to Boston. Hence, The United Fruit Company was born of the bad luck of a hurricane and the quick thinking of Lorenzo Dow Baker.
As a footnote, my friend said The United Fruit Company was forced into bankruptcy in the early Twentieth Century due to the new competition in bananas coming out of Central America.
I am etc.,
GRETCHEN SCOTT
8345 Whisper Trace Way, #202
Naples, Florida
Via Go-Jamaica
