The Fish That Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen

Zemurray paced the railroad bed, hands on his hips, muttering. In the cities, it stopped altogether, sometimes for hours, waiting for cargo and crew. In the towns, it was no faster than a man walking. In the country, it went the speed of a trotting mule. The train traveled maddeningly, infuriatingly, exceedingly slow. Color and country: blue in the morning, green at midday, red in the evening. The train left on a Tuesday morning, say, the sun fiery above the smoky freight yard dawn, the clank of wheels over switches, the ocean drifting away. In most cases, a fruit hauler would spend a few dollars extra for a bed in the caboose, but since the freight charge used the last of his money, Zemurray traveled in the boxcar with his bananas, the door open, the country drifting by. The trip to Selma was scheduled to take three days, meaning he would have just enough time to get the fruit to market before the sun did its worst. He did not spend all his money but retained a small balance, which he used to rent part of a boxcar on the Illinois Central. Zemurray’s first cargo consisted of a few thousand bananas. I can hustle where others are satisfied with the easy pickings of the trade.

I can be fast where others have been slow. Rich Cohens brilliant historical profile The Fish That Ate the Whale unveils Zemurray as a hidden power broker, driven by an indomitable will to succeed. As far as he was concerned, ripes were considered trash only because Boston Fruit and similar firms were too slow-footed to cover ground.

After that, he would be left with a pile of glue. He knew what this meant-that he would have to move fast, that he was entering a race with the clock. He figured it would go further if he spent it on ripes. They spoke as the sun went down, the man with the Ivy League elocution and the kid with the Russian accent, who rolled his Rs and spit his vowels. Rich Cohen, author of The Fish That Ate the Whale.Īfter the ship had been unloaded, after the trains had carried off the green bananas, after the merchants and peddlers had taken away the turnings, Sam walked down to the pier to talk to the company agent.

The Fish That Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen