Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff. Lauren vog Obam here Stevie Wonder once
Speaker 1: saying that superstition is when you believe in things that
Speaker 1: you don't understand. And maybe he's right. Step on a crack,
Speaker 1: break your mother's back, break a mirror, get seven years
Speaker 1: of bad luck. We've all heard the sayings and rhymes,
Speaker 1: but how many of us really know what they mean, or,
Speaker 1: more importantly, where they come from. As of twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: a survey by Research for Good found that just over
Speaker 1: half of Americans strongly or somewhat believe in superstitions like
Speaker 1: finding and picking up a penny, being good luck. Superstitions
Speaker 1: rise to our minds when we want more control or
Speaker 1: certainty about something. We want an explanation for why things
Speaker 1: go wrong or right, and for whatever reason, we're quick
Speaker 1: to attribute success or failure to something seemingly innocuous, like
Speaker 1: a rabbit's foot or a clover with an unusual number
Speaker 1: of leaves. Psychologists believe that when we carry items like these,
Speaker 1: they actually do have a placebo effect, fueling positive thinking. Conversely,
Speaker 1: if we lose that lucky object, we think negative thoughts,
Speaker 1: and today we wanted to talk about a few of
Speaker 1: the superstitions that come from sailing and fishing. A lot
Speaker 1: of these beliefs date back several centuries and are still
Speaker 1: held in varying levels of seriousness today. For example, it's
Speaker 1: bad luck to sail on a Friday. If you whistle
Speaker 1: or sing into the wind on a boat, a storm
Speaker 1: is short of follow Sailors who wear earrings or have
Speaker 1: tattoos won't drown, And it's bad luck to have women
Speaker 1: on board because they make the see angry or jealous.
Speaker 1: But two of the most enduring superstitions have to do with,
Speaker 1: of all things, bananas and suitcases. In both cases, these
Speaker 1: items are strictly forbidden on board. Many charter fishing boat
Speaker 1: crews have steadfast restrictions about bringing bananas on the boat
Speaker 1: because it's believed that they'll cause bad luck. If found
Speaker 1: a board, the boat may return to the dock to
Speaker 1: purge the offending fruit. Some charters go so far as
Speaker 1: to prohibit brands like Banana Boats, sunscreen, or Banana Republic
Speaker 1: clothing on board. Mariners have even been known to object
Speaker 1: to fruit of the loom underwear. One sport fisher claimed
Speaker 1: had treated wearers to wedgies and then cut the labels out.
Speaker 1: This is particularly odd because the fruit of the loom
Speaker 1: graphic doesn't even have a banana on it, though some
Speaker 1: say the banana was left off because of this very superstition.
Speaker 1: There are a few different ways people say bad luck
Speaker 1: may come to you if you bring bananas on a
Speaker 1: fishing boat. One is that boats carrying bananas don't catch fish.
Speaker 1: The origin of this belief made date back to the
Speaker 1: seventeen hundreds and trade through the Caribbean. The wooden sailing
Speaker 1: boats of that time had to move quickly to deliver
Speaker 1: bananas before they spoiled, and fishermen had a hard time
Speaker 1: catching fish on such fast moving boats, which maybe how
Speaker 1: the superstition came about. Another that originated during this time
Speaker 1: is that bananas will cause a boat to sink, perhaps
Speaker 1: after many boats never made it to their destinations, of
Speaker 1: which were coincidentally carrying bananas. Another banana related superstition says
Speaker 1: the cargo could be more directly deadly to the ship's
Speaker 1: crew working near them, and to be fair in actuality,
Speaker 1: fermenting bananas do give off methane gas, which could conceivably
Speaker 1: get trapped below deck and kill any crew members unlucky
Speaker 1: enough to stay in the hold too long. Another popular
Speaker 1: theory goes that venomous spiders may have hitched rides in bananas,
Speaker 1: and once those bananas were on board, the boat would
Speaker 1: be host to any number of lethal credits. And then,
Speaker 1: of course there's the theory that banana appeals just caused
Speaker 1: crew members to slip and fall on deck. But I
Speaker 1: mentioned suitcases being a no go to. They're considered harbingers
Speaker 1: of death or illness. Even when camera crew boarded the
Speaker 1: crab boats to film Discovery Channel's reality series Deadliest Catch,
Speaker 1: they were asked to leave their equipment suitcases on the dock.
Speaker 1: This superstition has variations too. Some sailors are wary of
Speaker 1: all luggage, Some only band black suitcases and bags, which
Speaker 1: are considered bad luck because black is the color of
Speaker 1: death and a metaphor for the depths of the dark,
Speaker 1: cold sea. And some say that travel bags resemble body bags.
Speaker 1: So why do cruise hang on to these superstitions? And
Speaker 1: probably for the same reason that the superstitions began. Even
Speaker 1: with modern understanding of science and weather patterns, we still
Speaker 1: perceive the sea as a mysterious and treacherous place. And
Speaker 1: many fishing operations are indeed dangerous work. Beliefs and superstitions
Speaker 1: are passed down from generation to generation, and it's a
Speaker 1: brave sailor who turns their back on tradition. Would you
Speaker 1: be willing to see what happens when you reject a
Speaker 1: centuries old superstition? Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: why are Fisherman Superstitious of Bananas? On how stuffworks dot
Speaker 1: Com written by Deborah Ronka. Brain Stuff is production of
Speaker 1: our Heart Radio and partnership with how stuffworks dot Com,
Speaker 1: and it's produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts from
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