GREAT VALUE in design, materials and craftsmanship
INTRICATE CREATION expertly carved in exotic naturally colored wood
SS Cartago 1:1250 scale model
Email for oversized pictures
Ocean liner model of banana boat CARTAGO ( United Fruit
Company, 1908) in scale 1:1250. Model is handmade
in USA from scratch by marine artist Alexander Scherbak and representing the ship in 1914, when Great White Fleet
of banana boats came under American flag.This colorful model is not painted!
It is built from carefully selected exotic hardwood with proper natural colors. The hull and superstructure
are carved from solid piece of white American holly - the whitest wood available. Other wood used are pear wood, yellow
boxwood, pink ivory, ebony, bamboo. The funnel is complex handmade wooden mosaic reflecting beautiful United Fruit marking
- white diamond on the red strip around buff funnel with black top.Life boats
and ventilators are individually carved from holly and boxwood respectively. Only 3 models built. Sold
Out.
Cartago and privateer Rambler carved from pearwood
The United Fruit Company was
a United States Corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas, peaches and plums) grown on Third World plantations
and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 from the merger of Minor C. Keith's banana-trading
concerns with Andrew W. Preston's Boston Fruit Company. It flourished in the early and mid-20th century and came to control
vast territories and transportation networks in Central America, the Caribbean coast of Colombia, Ecuador, and the West Indies.
Though it competed with the Standard Fruit Company for dominance in the international banana trade, it maintained a virtual
monopoly in certain regions, some of which came to be called Banana Republics.
It had a deep and long-lasting impact
on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism
and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the
so-called "banana republics" (a term coined by O. Henry). After a period of financial decline, United Fruit was merged with
Eli M. Black's AMK in 1970 to become the United Brands Company. In 1984, Carl Lindner, Jr. transformed United Brands into
the present-day Chiquita Brands International.
