This case is bananas.

Florida-based reefer owner Great White Fleet has filed a lawsuit against a Marlow Ship Management Deutschland-managed boxship Wednesday for allegedly going too slow while moving cargoes of Chiquita-brand bananas around Central America ahead of shipment to the US.

The lawsuit, which the 1,300-teu boxship Warnow Whale (built 2007) and registered owner Princesia Shipping, was filed in Fort Lauderdale federal court and seeks the arrest of the ship for arbitration in New York.

“The charter contract between the parties described the [Warnow Whale] as being able to proceed 19 knots,” said Great White Fleet’s lawyers at law firms Tomaselli & Co and Casey & Barnett.

“The vessel was unable to proceed at 19 knots. During the entire period the vessel was on charter to [Great White] it was unable to perform was warranted.”

The charter began in March 2018. Great White said it asked the Warnow Whale’s master to go at full speed, given the perishable nature of the cargo, but the ship could only get up to 17.5 knots.

“The vessel was not described properly and/or was purposefully misdescribed in the charter” causing it to miss several transshipment times and costing Great White Fleet more than $600,000, the lawyers wrote.

The Warnow Whale is controlled by Germany's Marlow Ship Management Deutschland, according to Equasis. The ship was later replaced on the charter in July 2018 by the 18,349-dwt As Federica (built 2007), according to the complaint.

The lawsuit alleged that Great White is owed for extra fuel, time lost, extra port call, extra survey charges and payment of freight to third parties due to missed transshipment.

An arrest warrant has not yet been issued for the Warnow Whale.

According to AIS data, the ship is underway in the Caribbean Sea, offshore Miami.

This article has been amended to reflect that Equasis identifies Marlow Ship Management Deutschland is manager of the Warnow Whale. This article originally cited Clarksons data that identified the manager as Liberty Blue Shipmanagement.