Antique Ship S.S. Zacapa Ashtray, Trinket Dish, Tropical Fruit S.S. Co, Shipping Company (Banana Boat!)

Very rare !

Dated between 1909 - 14

Brass, with enamel badge, with Tropical Fruit S.S. Co house flag. 

8cm x 8cm x 1cm

Good use condition for age and application, with some superficial wear, marks and tarnishing.

Some slight detection the the enamel badge 

Zacapa - Tropical SS Co UK flag, 1914 Zacapa SS Co (US flag), 1922 to United Fruit Co. 1934 cut down to freighter. 1947 "Refrigerated SS Line" [UFCo]. 1949 scrapped Baltimore, MD

Fruit / passenger ship - LEMON, BANANA, MANGO & AVOCADO

Typical routes - New York, Port Antonio,  Kingston, Colon, Santa Marta

New York, Kingston, Colon, Cartagena, Puerto Colombia, Santa Marta.

Return voyages: Santa Marta, Colon, Kingston, New York.

I have included some images of the ship in the photos just for reference. 

The year 1904 was marked by a decided increase in the fleet owned or controlled by the United Fruit Co. The Tropical Fruit Steamship Co., Ltd., was organized for the purpose of providing better freight and passenger facilities, more especially between the United States and the American tropics. This company made a modest start with three banana steamers, the "San Jose", "Limon", and "Esparta". This was the modest beginning of the Great White Fleet.

Extracts from the company's Annual Report indicate the increase of the Great White Fleet: three more steamers were delivered in the summer 1908, another three in 1910, another three in 1912; that year, the company owned 18 steamers and purchased another four, which increased the fleet to 25 units, in addition to the 16 owned by Elders & Flyffes, Ltd., and numerous chartered vessels. In 1926, the 86 steamships owned by the company made 1,273 round trip voyages, steaming 5,200,022 miles, and carried, in addition to bananas, 66,848 passengers, 993,683 tons of freight, and 196,480 bags of mail. The company owned 92 ships in 1934

Nautical Box 1