Glimpses of the ice trade in 1884 (Source: Harper’s Weekly)
In 2026, as we get ready to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence, here’s a remarkable story from the nation’s early period. Several decades after the U.S. gained freedom in 1776, India began importing American ice—which had nothing to do with immigration and a lot to do with giant cubes of water.
American merchants had formally begun trading in India in 1778 when Lord Cornwallis extended the opportunities to them, but transporting and trading in ice was a different matter altogether. Even in the 1830s, when [‘Ice King’ Frederic] Tudor’s ship made its first voyage to India across the Atlantic Ocean and beyond, the journey across the seas took four months on average. In the decade of the 1820s, however, innovations in the ice harvesting business made such voyages and Tudor’s ambitions a possibility. Some of these improvements were largely the work of Nathaniel Jervis Wyeth, an associate of Tudor’s, though they would soon fall out.
Wyeth invented a twin-bladed, horse-drawn ice cutter that allowed the cutting up of ice sheets into big blocks or carpet-sized squares, which were then pried out with iron bars. This saved time and increased productivity of men and horses. These giant cubes could also be packed tightly to quell melting. Nathaniel Wyeth, who experimented with methods of insulating the ice onboard, developed double-walled storehouses coated with sawdust or tan, a product of tanneries. The storehouses were made accessible from the roof, which helped reduce the melting inevitable during the long voyage. On May 12, 1833, the ship Tuscany sailed from Boston for Calcutta, carrying 180 tons of ice. When it docked at Calcutta on September 6, the ship still had 100 tons—from the original 180—of ice in its hold.
People who gathered were amazed at the giant, icy cubes as these were unloaded. These were labelled by a contemporary historian as “crystal blocks of Yankee coldness.” A local who reached forward to touch the ice believed he had been “burnt,” considerably alarming the other onlookers.
Another asked the captain of the ship if ice grew on trees in America. It helped that special concessions were given to Tudor (a discount rate to load the Boston ice on ships). The ships headed east also left from Salem, a port that had a history since the 1780s of long-distance ocean voyaging. The port had willing and able seamen who congregated from all over the world.
William Rogers, the ice agent, was welcomed by a special proclamation issued by then Governor General William Bentinck. He was gifted a silver vase and praised for the spirit and enterprise of the journey. The amount of ice—now only 100 tons—was sold at 6.5 cents per pound. The owners received $12,500 against the investment which, considering every risk, did not exceed $500.
The ice from Walden Pond, a place made famous by Henry David Thoreau’s book, served the elites—the British, other Europeans, and the wealthier upper classes—in India’s cities. Tudor secured numerous favors and exemptions from the British. On this, his very first trip, William Rogers secured other concessions as well. The ice, for example, was transported directly to warehouses without waiting for customs house formalities. Unloading the ice was permitted at night.
In Bombay, the ice ships received a favored docking place, and the ice was made duty free. More ships headed to India with cargoes of ice. The Shepherdess came in 1837. In 1853, despite the now increasing availability of ice, the price—thanks to rising demand, and ice as a “status symbol”—had risen to 12 cents per pound.
The export of American ice to India soon flourished. Compared to the “local” varieties then existing, this kind of ice was seen as pristine. Massachusetts and its freshwater lakes, located in the high latitudes and on the eastern shores of the Atlantic, produced substantial ice. For example, the purity of the ice cut from Wenham Lake, which was shipped to London, impressed contemporary scientists like Michael Faraday, who concluded that this ice melted slowly because of the absence of salt and air bubbles in it. Over the next three decades, Calcutta and soon the other Presidency towns would become Tudor’s most lucrative destination, bringing him immense profits, and making him a millionaire many times over.
In Bombay, the firm of Jahdangir Nuseervanji Wadia, from a noted ship-building family, distributed the ice—and Jamshetji Jeejeebhoy, a noted entrepreneur and philanthropist, was the first to dispense ice cream at a dinner party. When several guests contracted a cold, Bombay Samachar, the Gujarati language newspaper, opined that this was a worthy price to pay. In Calcutta, Dwarkanath Tagore, a merchant and patron of the arts (and Rabindranath Tagore’s grandfather), expressed an interest to involve himself in ice shipping, but Frederic Tudor’s monopoly stayed for some decades more. Tagore was part of the Calcutta committee—along with Kurbulai Mohammad, scion of a well-established landed family in Bengal—that regulated ice supply. The ice chest made of teak (as well as “brass bound and zinc lined”) became a desired item of furniture in well-to-do homes. Ice of course kept wine cool, and this soon became a popular aperitif at society events and garden parties. Wine merchants flourished in both Bombay and Calcutta.
Between the years 1856 and 1882, 353,450 tons of ice had been shipped out all across South and East Asia and also Australia. Some of the ice was reserved for medical hospitals in the Presidency towns, where the ice was rationed when supply was low. The artist Colesworthy Grant, writing in the 1850s, believed ice was no longer deemed a luxury but a necessity.
Reprinted with permission from Anuradha Kumar’s Wanderers, Adventurers, Missionaries: Early Americans in India, published by Speaking Tiger Books. Kumar, a prolific New Jersey-based author, earned an MFA as well as degrees in history and management. A Commonwealth Foundation awardee, she is a contributor to Scroll.in, among other outlets, and has written historical and mystery novels, including The Kidnapping of Mark Twain, in addition to nonfiction books and works for younger readers.