unitedfruitcompany

[Santa Marta] (LOC)

from The Library of Congress

• 5 older comments, and then…
• Mr.TinMD said:

  This appears to be a "banana boat", or refrigerated fruit transport, belonging to the United Fruit Company. The funnel colors would have been black on top, a red band with white diamond in the middle, and buff colored on the bottom. I believe the name of the ship is actually the "Santa Marta", not the Santa Maria. Santa Marta is a coastal town in Colombia and was a place of export for bananas. It's definitely pictured in New York, because you can see the Brooklyn Bridge in the background. These ships were painted white to keep the cargo cooler, and they also carried some passengers.

• Mr.TinMD said:

  More on Santa Marta, from "Going Bananas: 100 Years of American Fruit Ships in the Caribbean" by Mark H. Goldberg, ISBN 1879180018: Santa Marta, built 1909, 5,013 tons displacement, 392' long, 50' beam, 13 knots speed, scrapped in Baltimore 1948, 12 sister ships. On page 355 of the book, there is a photo of her at the same East River pier, from a different angle.

• The Library of Congress said:

  Thanks! We'll fix the title in the source data and reload the description.

• Mr.TinMD said:

  Hi again, I recently came across a model of the Santa Marta in Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, and thought I'd post it here to further document the ship.

• LuHerman1 said:

  Hello, I think this photo may show the same model of the UFC's Santa Marta as part of the United Fruit Company's exhibit the International Trade Exhibition in New Orleans in 1926. [farm7.static.flickr.com/6094/6333381984_eae03d16a7.jpg]