Ice Trade
F1. Maritime HistoryDefinition
Nineteenth-century New England export of natural lake ice to the Caribbean and India.
The nineteenth-century New England business of cutting natural ice from ponds and lakes and shipping it to warm markets. Frederic Tudor of Boston began it in 1806 with a cargo to Martinique; he later reached Havana, New Orleans, Charleston, and, from 1833, Calcutta, where Tudor ice arrived after a months-long voyage insulated with sawdust. Wenham Lake (Massachusetts) ice was a luxury brand in London. The trade collapsed late in the century as mechanical refrigeration and plant ice spread.
Source: Frederic Tudor first ice cargo to Martinique 1806; first Calcutta shipment 1833