Colorized photo from 1905 Original Title: Unloading banana steamer Photographer: Detroit publishing Location: Pier 3 Baltimore, MD Welcome to the banana docks, located roughly where the aquarium stands today. Fruit is unloaded by hand, and they make bids below. Each cart seems to be marked with numbers its probably related to this bidding process. The boat is called a banana steamer, I can't imagine that is all they carry, but it might be. These particular banana's are known as Michel Gros, or Big Mike in English. They were sweeter and a had a better taste than today's Cavendish banana's we eat now. They were also much more durable, they could be carried like this without worry over damage. Unlike our current version which needs to be boxed carefully and refrigerated. Sadly a blight killed off the Michel Gros, and we don't have too many today, its very hard to find. And our current Cavendish is subject to a new strain of the same banana disease that wiped out the other banana's, we too could have the same problem. People in those days, and even today had to be careful of spiders. Many were afraid of large hairy ones, but its the banana spiders you had to watch out for, those are aggressive and can charge at you. If you should ever move, never use a box fruit came in, there could be dormant insect eggs, and the last thing you need is a new house full of tropical spiders and 4in palmettos.