Like, did they just shrug and be like “oh well, I guess we aren’t getting our pineapples this year” or was it a rare and problematic occurence?
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There’s a very good podcast on this exact issue. It’s an episode of “The Constant: A History Of Getting Things Wrong” (great title). The gist of it is that, if you were an orphan or a drunk or a petty criminal in London in the 1860s and were press-ganged into crewing a cargo ship, you were very likely a dead man before you even climbed aboard.
Due to a quirk in insurance regulation (which didn’t really exist), it was possible for ship owners to insure a ship for more than the combined value of the ship and its cargo. They actually made a profit if the ship sank. There was an incentive for owners to scrounge up unseaworthy vessels and load them up with as much cargo as could fit aboard, regardless of safety concerns. If the ship miraculously made it to its destination, hey, you made extra money by carrying extra cargo. And if the ship sank and everyone died, oh well– the insurance companies would pay off and you’d come out ahead anyway.
https://www.constantpodcast.com/episodes/shipwreckless9235205
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