The interdependence of produce and transportation is well illustrated in the early history of what is now known as the United Fruit Company. In 1870, Captain Lorenzo D. Baker was in command of a small, swift coasting schooner en route from Jamaica to Boston. On the wharf at Kingston lay some 40 bunches of bananas, a few of which were ripe, others lacking 10 days or more in which to change their dull green coats into the soft creamy yellow of the matured fruit. Captain Baker was fond of bananas, and ordered that the lot be placed on board his schooner, just before sailing. Fortune favored him and strong easterly beam winds brought him into the harbor of Boston in 10 days, with all of the bunches not consumed en route in practically perfect condition. Many friends of Capt. Baker, to whom this delicious fruit was practically unknown, got a taste of the banana for the first time. Among these was Andrew W. Preston, a local fruit dealer in Boston, who was greatly impressed with the appearance of the fruit, and the success which had attended Captain Baker’s effort to get the bananas into the market without injury. Mr. Preston reckoned that if a schooner with a fair wind could land such delicious fruit in Boston in ten days, steamers could do the same work with absolute certainty in less time. This far sighted pioneer and promoter of trade realized that three factors were essential to building up an industry of this kind. First, there must be a market for the product, and he was confident that the people of Boston and the vicinity could soon be educated to like the banana and to purchase it if offered at a fair price. Next, a sufficient and steady supply must be provided. Third, reliable transportation in the form of steamers of convenient size and suitable equipment must be secured, in order to convey the fruit with economy and regularity to the waiting market or point of consumption. True, he at first failed to interest other fruit dealers in the project. “It had never been done and consequently was a dangerous innovation that would probably prove unprofitable.” But Mr. Preston had visualized a new industry on a large scale, and with the faith of the industrial pioneer he finally succeeded in persuading nine of his friends to put up with him each $2,000, and to form a company for the purpose of growing bananas in the West Indies, of chartering a steamer suitable for the transportation, and finding a market for the produce in Boston.