Bananas are BAD Mojo on a fishing boat. Please don’t bring them! They are a delicious fruit that we all love, but just not on the boat. We will likely throw them overboard.
Why, you may ask?
"You probably won't find a more superstitious group of people than sailors and fishermen. Their present superstitious beliefs date back several centuries and include these prominent examples: It's bad luck to sail on a Friday. If you whistle or sing into the wind on a boat, a storm is sure to follow. Sailors who wear earrings or have tattoos won't drown.Fisherman are a very superstitious lot.
Spend more than a few days aboard a fishing boat, and you start to understand the feelings of “luck” that come with good streaks and slumps of slow fishing…and everything in between.
There are two very long standing superstitions aboard crab boats that have been passed down to fisherman of all kinds.
Namely – never bring a banana or a suitcase aboard a fishing boat.
"It's bad luck to have women onboard because they make the sea angry or jealous.
"Rats leaving a ship are a sign of trouble. (Actually, that's no superstition. You probably should pay those fleeing rats some heed, as you'll learn in How to Survive a Sinking Ship.)
"Crab boat fishermen are a particularly superstitious lot.
Perhaps it's because their jobs are so inherently dangerous -- commercial crab fishing is one of the deadliest industries in the world. Or maybe it's because the industry has been around for so long, and fishermen have spread superstition neurosis to the next generation for many, many years.
One thing we do know for sure: Try to bring a banana or a suitcase on a crab fishing boat, and you might find yourself waving goodbye at the dock. "
"One of the creepier superstitions is that banana cargo could actually kill a man. In actuality, fermenting bananas do give off methane gas, which could conceivably get trapped below deck and kill any crew members unlucky enough to be working in the hold.Two of the most enduring crab boat superstitions have to do with, of all things, bananas and suitcases. In both cases, these items are strictly forbidden onboard.
Many charter fishing boat crews have steadfast restrictions about bringing bananas on the boat. In fact, they'll return to the dock to purge the offending fruit [source: ESPN].
Some charters go so far as to prohibit Banana Boat brand sunscreen or Banana Republic brand clothes onboard.
Fishermen have even been known to object to Fruit of the Loom underwear (one sport fisher claimed he's treated wearers to wedgies and then cut the labels out) [source: LA Times].
Oddly enough, the Fruit of the Loom graphic doesn't even have a banana on it, and some say the banana was left off because of this very superstition [source: Brincefield].
"Another popular theory was that venomous spiders hitched rides in bananas, and once those bananas were onboard, the boat would be host to any number of lethal critters. And then, of course, there's the theory that banana peels cause crew members to slip and fall on deck [source: Attah].
"Suitcases onboard is a fishing boat no-no as well. Even when camera crew boarded crab boats to film Discovery Channel's reality series "Deadliest Catch," they were asked to leave their equipment suitcases on the dock [source: Deadliest Catch]."
If one has consumed "bananas" and comes on board, this prayer is recommended:
Oh great Konpira
please, hear my plea
I am sorry for my mistake
A banana I brought to sea
it was an honest gesture
a noble means of nutrition
I had no ill intent
I brought fruit of my own volition
Please forgive my idiocy
I meant my friends no harm
We just want to go fishing
and go home with a sore arm
We beg of you to release the curse
upon which I have brought
In your honor I consume these bananas
a sacrifice all for nought
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