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Banana Boat (ship)
Banana boat is a descriptive nickname that was given to fast ships, also called banana carriers, engaged in the banana trade. They were designed to transport easily spoiled bananas rapidly from tropical growing areas to North America and Europe. They often carried passengers as well as fruit. History During the first half of the twentieth century, the refrigerated ships, such as and , engaged in the Central America to United States trade also operated as luxurious passenger vessels. Surplus naval vessels were converted in some cases in the search for speed with Standard Fruit converting four U.S. Navy destroyer hulls, without machinery, to the banana carriers ''Masaya'', ''Matagalpa'', ''Tabasco'' and ''Teapa'' in 1932. Transfers to naval service served as transports and particularly chilled stores ships such as , the United Fruit passenger and banana carrier ''Quirigua'', and the lead ship of a group that were known as the ''Mizar'' class of stores ships. Modern banana ...
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USS Merak (AF-21)
USS ''Merak'' (AF-21), the second Navy ship of the name, was the United Fruit Company cargo and passenger liner ''Veragua'' that served as a United States Navy in World War II. ''Veragua'' was built for United Fruit's subsidiary United Mail Steamship Company by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Fore River Plant, Quincy, Massachusetts. The ship was one of six nearly identical ships with three each built by Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company and Bethlehem Shipbuilding. The ships were designed to take advantage of U.S. subsidies, including mail contracts, and designated by the line as its "Mail class" vessels to meet the company's primary purpose of refrigerated banana transport with passenger and mail being important sources of revenue. ''Veragua'', launched 23 April 1932 and delivered 5 August was one of three ships assigned to the company's Atlantic routes to Panama allowing an intercoastal connection with the three ships assigned to t ...
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Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 2008. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, he also served as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Under his administration, Cuba became a one-party communist state; industry and business were nationalized, and state socialist reforms were implemented throughout society. Born in Birán, the son of a wealthy Spanish farmer, Castro adopted leftist and anti-imperialist ideas while studying law at the University of Havana. After participating in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, he planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, launching a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. After a year's imprisonment, Castro travel ...
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Nautical Terminology
This glossary of nautical terms is an alphabetical listing of terms and expressions connected with ships, shipping, seamanship and navigation on water (mostly though not necessarily on the sea). Some remain current, while many date from the 17th to 19th centuries. The word nautical derives from the Latin ''nauticus'', from Greek ''nautikos'', from ''nautēs'': "sailor", from ''naus'': "ship". Further information on nautical terminology may also be found at Nautical metaphors in English, and additional military terms are listed in the Multiservice tactical brevity code article. Terms used in other fields associated with bodies of water can be found at Glossary of fishery terms, Glossary of underwater diving terminology, Glossary of rowing terms, and Glossary of meteorology. This glossary is split into two articles: * terms starting with the letters A to L are at Glossary of nautical terms (A-L) * terms starting with the letters M to Z are at Glossary of nautical terms (M-Z). __ ...
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Ship Types
A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished from boats, based on size, shape, load capacity, and purpose. Ships have supported exploration, trade, warfare, migration, colonization, and science. After the 15th century, new crops that had come from and to the Americas via the European seafarers significantly contributed to world population growth. Ship transport is responsible for the largest portion of world commerce. The word ''ship'' has meant, depending on the era and the context, either just a large vessel or specifically a ship-rigged sailing ship with three or more masts, each of which is square-rigged. As of 2016, there were more than 49,000 merchant ships, totaling almost 1.8 billion dead weight tons. Of these 28% were oil tankers, 43% were bulk carriers, and 13% were con ...
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Banana Republic
In political science, the term banana republic describes a politically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the export of natural resources. In 1904, the American author O. Henry coined the term to describe Honduras and neighboring countries under economic exploitation by U.S. corporations, such as the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita Brands International). Typically, a banana republic has a society of extremely stratified social classes, usually a large impoverished working class and a ruling class plutocracy, composed of the business, political, and military elites. The ruling class controls the primary sector of the economy by way of the exploitation of labor; thus, the term ''banana republic'' is a pejorative descriptor for a servile oligarchy that abets and supports, for kickbacks, the exploitation of large-scale plantation agriculture, especially banana cultivation. A banana republic is a country with an economy of state capitalism, whereby the country is ...
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HMS Palomares
HMS ''Palomares'' was a British anti-aircraft ship of the Second World War. Originally MV ''Palomares'', built by William Doxford & Sons, Sunderland yard in 1937, it operated as a merchant fruit carrier ship (a 13.5 knot banana boat) for service on the MacAndrews Line in January 1938 with their Spanish service. Service She was purchased by the British Admiralty in 1940, as these fruit ships were considered to be fast and manoeuvrable. In 1941 the Admiralty converted her to an Anti-Aircraft Artillery ship and subsequently to a fighter direction ship ("seagoing Anti Aircraft Auxiliaries"). Most likely the conversion took place at Fairfields yard in Govan on the Clyde with her sister ship . In March 1942, she sailed with ''Pozarica'', and the corvettes , , and for the port of Seyðisfjörður in Iceland In June 1942, she sailed as an escort in Convoy PQ 17, where 25 out 36 ships were lost to the enemy, while working around Murmansk and Archangel. In November 1942, HMS ''Pal ...
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Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)
"Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" is a traditional Jamaican folk song. The song has mento influences, but it is commonly classified as an example of the better known calypso music. It is a call and response work song, from the point of view of dock workers working the night shift loading bananas onto ships. The lyrics describe how daylight has come, their shift is over, and they want their work to be counted up so that they can go home. The best-known version was released by Jamaican singer Harry Belafonte in 1956 (originally titled "Banana Boat (Day-O)") and later became one of his signature songs. That same year the Tarriers released an alternative version that incorporated the chorus of another Jamaican call and response folk song, "Hill and Gully Rider". Both versions became simultaneously popular the following year, placing 5th and 6th on the 20 February, 1957, US Top 40 Singles chart. The Tarriers version was covered multiple times in 1956 and 1957, including by the Fonta ...
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Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. His breakthrough album '' Calypso'' (1956) was the first million-selling LP by a single artist. Belafonte is best known for his recordings of "The Banana Boat Song", with its signature "Day-O" lyric, " Jump in the Line", and " Jamaica Farewell". He has recorded and performed in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. He has also starred in several films, including ''Carmen Jones'' (1954), '' Island in the Sun'' (1957), and ''Odds Against Tomorrow'' (1959). Belafonte considered the actor, singer and activist Paul Robeson a mentor, and was a close confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. As he later recalled, "Paul Robes ...
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British African-Caribbean Community
British African-Caribbean people are an ethnic group in the United Kingdom. They are British citizens whose ancestry originates from the Caribbean or they are nationals of the Caribbean who reside in the UK. There are some self-identified Afro-Caribbean people who are multi-racial. The most common and traditional use of the term African-Caribbean community is in reference to groups of residents continuing aspects of Caribbean culture, customs and traditions in the UK. The earliest generations of Afro-Caribbean people to migrate to Britain trace their ancestry to a wide range of Afro Caribbean ethnic groups. African Caribbean people descend from disparate groups of African peoples who were brought, sold and taken from West Africa as slaves to the colonial Caribbean. In addition British African Caribbeans may have ancestry from various indigenous Caribbean tribes, and from settlers of European and Asian ethnic groups. According to the National Library of Medicine the averag ...
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Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is dominated by a maritime climate with narrow temperature differences between seasons. The 60% smaller island of Ireland is to the west—these islands, along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands and named substantial rocks, form the British Isles archipelago. Connected to mainland Europe until 9,000 years ago by a landbridge now known as Doggerland, Great Britain has been inhabited by modern humans for around 30,000 years. In 2011, it had a population of about , making it the world's third-most-populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The term "Great Britain" is often used to refer to England, Scotland and Wales, including their component adjoining islands. Great Britain and Northern Ireland now constitute the ...
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English Cricket Team In The West Indies In 1959–60
The English cricket team in the West Indies in 1959–60 played five Test matches, eight other first-class matches and two minor games. England won the Test series by one match to nil, with the other four matches being drawn. England touring party : PBH May (captain) (3) : DA Allen (5) : KV Andrew (wicket-keeper) (0) : KF Barrington (5) : MC Cowdrey (5) : ER Dexter (5) : T Greenhough (0) : R Illingworth (5) : AE Moss (2) : JM Parks (wicket-keeper) (1) : G Pullar (5) : MJK Smith (5) : JB Statham (3) : R Subba Row (2) : R Swetman (wicket-keeper) (4) : FS Trueman (5) :Manager: RWV Robins :Note: Number of Tests played is given in brackets. Following the unsuccessful tour of Australia a year earlier, the selectors opted for youth, with only May, Cowdrey, Trueman and Statham having had substantial Test experience. Players who represented West Indies : FCM Alexander (captain) (wicket-keeper) (5) : BF Butcher (2) : CC Griffith (1) : WW Hall (5) : CC Hunte (5) : RB Kanhai ...
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West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and the Lucayan Archipelago. The subregion includes all the islands in the Antilles, plus The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the North Atlantic Ocean. Nowadays, the term West Indies is often interchangeable with the term Caribbean, although the latter may also include some Central and South American mainland nations which have Caribbean coastlines, such as Belize, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname, as well as the Atlantic island nations of Barbados, Bermuda, and Trinidad and Tobago, all of which are geographically distinct from the three main island groups, but culturally related. Origin and use of the term In 1492, Christopher Columbus became the first European to record his arri ...
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