Banana boats do their own particular kind of work, too. Actually, they aren’t boats, although they do carry bananas. They are refrigerator ships. Seamen call them reefers—just as railroad men call a refrigerator car a reefer. Everything about a banana boat is arranged to keep her cargo cool. She is even painted white, because white things reflect some of the sun’s rays into the air instead of absorbing their heat. Inside the ship, blowers send cool air circulating around the bananas all the time. It isn’t enough just to chill them once and leave them there. Bananas actually make heat themselves. So a constant cool breeze is needed to carry their heat away. The ships that bring bananas from Central America do keep them in the refrigerator.

A banana boat is fast, for she must rush the green fruit from the farm to market as quickly as possible. There are even very quick ways of loading and unloading. Machines called gantries stand on the pier where the ship ties up. The gantries carry the big bunches of bananas in soft canvas pockets arranged in an endless chain. Men on the dock lay the bunches, one after another into the pockets. Men inside the ship take them out and stow them away.

A banana boat sailor does just about the same things that sailors on other cargo vessels do. He steers and stands lookout and works on deck. And like all sailors he has lifeboat drills. Every ship that sails the seas must have lifeboats. Look for them on some high deck, where they are easy to get at in emergencies. Canvas covers on the boats keep out rain and snow and protect the things stowed inside.

A lifeboat is equipped with everything that you may need if you have to float around on the open sea after your ship has gone down. There are water-tight containers full of food, drinking water and matches. There are oars and sails and life jackets, first-aid equipment and ropes. There are flares to light, so that rescuers can locate the boat, and pistols that shoot signal flares like Roman candles high into the air. There are scoops called bailers for dipping water out of the boat. And each lifeboat carries a supply of storm oil. When this oil is spread out on the water, it keeps stormy waves from breaking near the boat. If a wave breaks too close, it may fill the boat with water and sink it.

The can of storm oil fits inside a cone-shaped canvas bag called a sea anchor. The sea anchor floats ahead of the boat and keeps it pointed toward the wind, while the oil drips slowly out and calms the waves. It’s important to be pointed into the wind, because a boat that bobs around sidewise can easily be tipped over by a wave. Long ago sailors discovered what a wonderful help oil can be in stormy weather, and that’s where the expression “oil on troubled waters” came from. It means to calm things down.

A blast from the ship’s whistle tells seamen when it’s time for lifeboat drill. Every man knows which boat he’s supposed to use. He runs first for his life jacket, then up the ladders by the shortest route to his boat. All the knots and fastenings on the boat are made so that they can be loosened with one jerk. Quickly the men work machines called davits that are always in perfect order, ready to swing the lifeboat out over the water. In a real emergency, the boats would be lowered into the sea, and the men would scramble down rope ladders which are kept ready on deck. But in a drill, seamen just test the davits and lines.

Most lifeboats are double-enders. This means that the bow and stern are rounded and look just alike. The rounded shape helps keep waves from tumbling in at either end. Lifeboats are modeled after the old-time boats in which sailors rowed away from sailing vessels when they went out to harpoon whales.