We take ice for granted in this age of refrigeration. In prior times, ice was unknown outside of northern climes, right? Not so. Yankee ingenuity made it available around the world when this country was young.
A dude in Boston named Frederic Tudor had the crazy idea of selling ice worldwide in 1810. He had it cut from ponds and bought a ship to carry it to the Caribbean. He repeatedly lost his ass, but kept on trying.
"Tudor had his first profits in 1810 when his gross sales amounted to about $7400, then increasing to just short of $9000; but of that he only received $1000 due to the "villainous conduct" of his agent. At this point his personal debts far outweighed his income and he spent parts of 1812 and 1813 in debtor's prison. By 1815, however, he had managed to borrow $2100, both to buy ice and to pay for a new ice-house in Havana. It was a double-shelled structure, twenty-five feet square on its outside dimension, nineteen feet square on the interior, and sixteen feet high, holding some 150 tons of ice. "Pursued by sheriffs to the very wharf," in Boston, Tudor set sail for Havana on November 1, 1815.
By 1816, Tudor was shipping ice from Massachusetts to Cuba with ever-increasing efficiency and decided to try his hand at importing Cuban fruit to New York. In August of that year, he borrowed $3000 (at 40% interest) for a shipload of limes, oranges, bananas, and pears, preserving it with 15 tons of ice and 3 tons of hay. The experiment ended in disaster as virtually all the fruit rotted during the month-long voyage, leaving Tudor with several thousand dollars worth of new debt. Still, he pressed on, opening up new markets in three southern U.S. cities (Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, and New Orleans, Louisiana)."
He eventually was shipping ice to India, as well as all over the U.S. via the expanding rail system. Let's all lift our glasses to the man who created the ice business. Even if, like me, you like your whiskey neat.
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