THE ICE TKADE. 439 



THE ICE TRADE. 



BY LEANDER WETHERELL, OF BOSTON, MASS. 



It has been often said of Massachusetts that among her chief productions for 

 export are ice and granite ; and it is true that those engaged in the ice and 

 granite trade of Massachusetts have given employment to many seeking labor, 

 have grown rich themselves, and, besides, have in no way impoverished the 

 State. 



In 1805—06 the ice trade was begun* in Boston by Frederic Tudor, then a 

 young man. He has recently deceased at the age of more than 80 years, and 

 was at the time of his death still engaged in the business entered upon when lie 

 was but 22 years of age, as he recently informed the writei*. In 1805 ]\Ir. Tudor 

 made his plans to engage in this trade. He first sent agents to the West In- 

 dies to procure information, but finding no one willing to ship so strange an 

 article, he was compelled, in 1806, to purchase a vessel, the brig FaA'orite, of 

 130 tons, which he loaded with ice from a pond in that part of Lynn, now Sau- 

 gus, near Boston, belonging then to his father, and sent to St. Pierre, Martinique. 



This first cargo of ice from Boston was loaded at Gray's wharf, in Charles- 

 town, Avhere the shipment of ice has centred ever since, it having extended 

 both ways to other wharves. The first shipment of 130 tons was followed, in 

 1807, by another of 240 tons, by the brig Trident, to Havana. The first ship- 

 ment was attended with a loss of about $4,500, and subsequent ones resulted 

 in heavy losses. When the embargo and the war put an end to foreign trade, 

 the ice trade had yielded no profit to its projector. 



In 1815, after the close of the war, Mr. Tudor resumed the ice trade under 

 a contract with the government of Cuba, which granted certain privileges and 

 a monopoly, enabling him to pursue the trade without loss. In 1817 he intro- 

 duced the ice trade into Charleston, South Carolina, where he continued it until 

 interrupted by the rebellion. In 1818 he extended it to Savannah, Georgia, and 

 in 1820 to New Orleans, where, also, it was continued until interrupted by seces- 

 sion. Meanwhile it had been tried again by other parties sending to Mar- 

 tinique and St. Thomas, but it failed. It was also tried by Mr. Tudor at St. 

 Jago de Cuba, where, after a trial of three years, it fixiled. ^ 



The first shipment of ice to the East Indies was made by Mr. Tudor in 

 May, 1833, in the ship Tuscany, for Calcutta, and since then Mr. Tudor lias 

 extended his business to Madras and Bombay. Previous to this the ice trade 

 was chiefly confined to the originator of the business, though it had been engaged 

 in to some extent by otlier parties, but it was abandoned as an unprofitable opera- 

 tion. In 1832 the whole amount exported was 4,352 tons taken from Fresh 

 Pond, in Cambridge, by Mr. Tudor, and shipped by him. Down to that time 

 ship-owners objected to taking ice as freight lest it should injure their vessels 



*Isaac Stiudevant, late of Portlaud, Maine, stated frequently to a large dealer of ice iu Bos- 

 ton tliat be was cabin-boy of tbe schooner Favorite that sailed from Portland in the winter 

 of 1798-99 freighted with wood for New York, and after arriving in port and discharging her 

 freight, a gentleman from Charleston, South Carolina, chartered the ship Favorite, in tlie 

 month of February, 1799, to take a cargo of ice, cut from a pond in New York, near Broad- 

 way and Canal street, to the city of Charleston, seven years before Mr. Frederic Tudor sent 

 cmt the brig Favorite, loaded with ice, to Martinique. Admitting this to be true, it does not, 

 however, derogate from nor invalidate the claim of Mr. Tudor as the originator and suc- 

 cessful founder of the ice trade in the United States. To him does the honor justly belong, 

 auAto him is it most cheerfully awarded. 



