How did fruit transported from colonies to the capitals during the colonial era stay fresh enough during shipping trips lasting months at sea?

Question

You often hear in history how fruits such as pineapples and bananas (seen as an exotic foreign produce in places such as Britain) were transported back to the country for people, often wealthy or influential, to try. How did such fruits last the months long voyages from colonies back to the empire’s capital without modern day refrigeration/freezing?

In: 7801

Answer 1

I have a tangentially related fun fact. Terrariums were invented expressly for this purpose in the 1800s so that British explorers could ship living exotic plants back home while keeping them in their native humidity/temperature. Nowadays they’re mostly decorative, but they used to be plant life support units.