The Dreaded Banana Curse

There has been a bit of commentary lately on social media about bananas on board our fishing fleet vessels.

According to the old wives’ tale, bananas are the most loathed piece of fruit in the Australian fishing fleet because they cause bad luck and bring peril on the vessel they sit upon.

Who would have thought that the brightly coloured fruit, packed full of vitamin C would wreak havoc and cause so much controversy!

Brown Dog Fishing Co sums the ‘banana theory’ up perfectly by asking the question direct to the team– what are your thoughts on the yellow fruit?

Simply titled ‘Banana’s’ the article from Facebook dated 23 March 2017, states, “in the spirit of democracy at Old Brown Dog fishing, we leave the decision to our skippers.”

Jack Stephenson, Skipper Alcyone II said he would never bring the yellow fruit on board. “No way, never! every time I’ve taken banana’s I’ve had major problems.”

While Travis Black, Skipper Ashburton Road said, “I was taking them for a while but now I don’t take them.”

The article goes on to say that owners have been known to catch crew loading bananas onto the boat and then making them stand on the wharf peeling and eating every single banana – before they could throw the ropes off.

Concluding, it is recommended by Old Brown Dog that it is probably best to just not take the fruit on board.

“Who would have thought that such a simple piece of fruit could cause such problems!”

Now taking this information all in, we decided to ask the question directly to our Facebook followers – hoping for an answer to end this saga and find out the truth behind this curse.

And we received the answer from follower Paul Stevenson. He summed the old wives’ tale perfectly with the following: “bananas were banned because they cause other fruit to rot so the sailors got scurvy and other diseases.”

There we go. A lightbulb moment… science not myth…? As we were also told by follower, Jayden Inns.

But we must give the following comments a mention for making us chuckle:

  1. Even banana lollies aren’t allowed. Haha.
  2. I thought the fishers love bananas.

Hm. From most of the answers we received, there doesn’t seem as though there is a lot of love for the yellow fruit. At all.

Even though it is based on science – from what we have observed there is still a lot of belief that bananas on board a vessel can ruin lives. The answers we received have left us questioning whether we can trust the fruit again….

We will conclude with follower Eve Daisy Day‘s, comment that should be a rule for all vessels.

“Why attract all the wanton chaos, destruction and death – keep bananas away from vessels and stay safe people!”

Amen. Stay safe crew and avoid those bananas at all costs (including lollies).

Click to head to full article by Old Brown Dog