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

This is a broad question and it’s important to note just which fruit you’re referring to, which trade route and which time period.

That being said a general answer is that exotic fruit was very expensive because of that reason. Trips at sea would take months or even years because this was more efficient and profitable for ship owners. For many shipments of goods procured from far away, there wasn’t a time limit. The order was “leave and return with a full hold” of whatever they were going out to get. If a ship was operating under a time limit trips on known trade routes, that is routes that had been charted and the crew had experience with, as opposed with exploratory expeditions of uncharted waters, transit times were not as long as people think. Crossing the Atlantic for example could be done in about a month, give or take a few days depending on the ship or how good the weather was. In general though if fresh exotic fruit became available far away, say in Europe, it was usually either because they were able to cultivate them in Europe, bringing just seeds from the region of origin, or because they could at least be cultivated somewhere closer, like in the middle east or Africa.

A prominent example of just how expensive fruit could be is the pineapple, which for a time was brought over just as a status symbol and not to be consumed. It was considered a huge flex for nobles to display a pineapple in their home during banquets or other functions, and they didn’t actually eat it, they just held onto it until it rotted.

There’s another very interesting story which I unfortunately remember very little of so I apologise in advance but I do remember hearing a story of a roman general/politician who presented a fresh orange/apple to the senate and proclaimed that just three days ago this fruit was picked from across the empire. I don’t even remember why he did it, I thought it was to emphasise the danger posed by enemies at the edges of the empire, but unfortunately I really don’t remember details.