The Ice Business of the United States - Part 3

​Editor's note: The following article was originally published in the New York Tribune, November 19, 1858. Thanks to Contributing Scholar Carl Mayer for finding, cataloging and transcribing this article. The language, spelling and grammar of the article reflects the time period when it was written. {Ton is used to measure the weight of objects, while tun is used to measure the volume of liquids. Source: Engram]

By Nordahl Rolfsen (1848-1928) - Original in "Norge i det nittende ȧarhundrede" (1900), Nordahl Rolfsen (1848-1928), reproduced in Proctor, "Ice Carrying Trade at Sea", 1981, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19299434

SHIPMENTS OF ICE TO SOUTHERN (U. S.) PORTS AND TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
The business of exporting ice from places of its natural formation to southern ports and countries, was first commenced by Mr. Frederic Tudor of Boston. He began operations in the Fall of 1805 by sending agents to the West Indies to procure information, and soon after determined to make his first experiment in that region. But, when he sought to charter a vessel for his proposed cargo, he found no one willing to receive on shipboard so strange an article as this new commodity in commerce. Hence, he purchased one expressly for the purpose — the brig Favorite, of about 130 tuns. During the following February (1806) he shipped the first cargo of ice ever exported from this country, and probably from any other. He obtained it from a pond on the grounds of his father, in Saugus, which then formed a part of Lynn. It was cut with axes and saws and was taken in wagons to the vessel which was loaded at Gray's Wharf, Charlestown. From that time to this[,] Gray's Wharf has continued to be the center of the wharves from which ice is shipped in the port of Boston. This first shipment was dispatched to St. Pierre, Martinique, and, although Mr. Tudor went out with it, it resulted in a considerable loss, (stated at about $4,500.) This happened in consequence of the want of ice-houses, and the expense of fitting out two agents to the different islands, to announce the project and to secure some advantages. But a greater loss arose from the dismasting of the brig in the vicinity of Martinique.

The second shipment was made in 1807, and was to the amount of 240 tuns, per brig Trident to Havana, and this too was attended with a heavy loss. The enterprise, however, was continued until our second war with Great Britain, when the embargo was laid, and put an end to our foreign trade. To this period, 1812, Mr. Tudor had confined his operations mainly to Martinique and Jamaica, and had received no profit from them. In 1815, after the close of the war, Mr. Tudor recommenced his business by shipments to Havana, under an arrangement with the Cuban Government, by which certain privileges and a monopoly were granted. Thus he continued his undertaking, and extended it — in 1817 to Charleston, S. C.; in the following year to Savannah, Ga.; and in 1820 to New-Orleans. In the mean time it had been tried again (by other parties) at Martinique and St. Thomas, and failed; and by Mr. T. at St. Jago de Cuba, where it also failed after a trial of three years.  As late as 1823 successive disasters attended the business, which much impaired both the finances and health of its projector; but after an illness of two years he was enabled to prosecute his trade and to extend it to several of the Southern States and to various portions of the West Indies, In 1832 his whole shipment of ice amounted to 4,352 tuns, which was taken entirely from Fresh Pond, in Cambridge. On the 18th of May, 1833, he made the first shipment of ice to the East Indies, per the ship Tuscany, for Calcutta; and subsequently he commenced exportations to Madras and Bombay. This first cargo to Brazil was sent out to Rio Janeiro in 1834. The trade was almost wholly carried on by the originator until about the year 1836, when other parties engaged in it; and it was also established in other northern seaports, but at none has it been so extensive as at Boston. In fact the immediate vicinity of Boston is extraordinarily favored by nature for this business, since it contains numerous excellent and large ponds, and thus it can obtain supplies at very cheap rates, which advantage, with others, has kept this item of commerce at the port where it was instituted. Some years since the amounts shipped from New-York were relatively greater than at present. The quantity now annually consumed in New-York and vicinity is so vast, and the demand for it so active, that there is little or no inclination among the ice dealers to go south for better markets,

The following table exhibits the decennial progress of the aggregate export trade (coastwise and foreign) from Boston:
In 1805,   1 cargo ...                130 tuns
In 1815,   6 cargoes ...         1,200 tuns
In 1825,   15 cargoes ...       4,000 tuns
In 1835,   45 cargoes ...     12,000 tuns
In 1845,   175 cargoes ...   63,000 tuns
In 1855,   363 cargoes ... 146,000 tuns
At present, as has been the case for many years, the coastwise trade is considerably more important than the foreign. The ports of our southern cities are in several respects the best markets for ice. The quantity shipped to them is usually twice as much as that shipped abroad. However, there is proportionally a greater profit from the foreign trade, unless attended with unforeseen losses. The total amount of ice shipped from our northern ports to our southern cities cannot be stated correctly except by personally collecting statements from each firm or dealer in the trade. Vessels engaged in the coastwise trade are not required by law to enter or clear at the customhouse unless they have foreign goods or distilled spirits on board. The quantity thus reported as shipped from Boston during 1856 was 81,301 tuns; during 1857, 75,572; and in 1858 to August 31st, 42,468 tuns. The amount shipped and not reported exceeds 20,000 tuns yearly. We give the following summary of the reported shipments this year [1858]:
                                    Jan. & Feb.     March & April  May & June     July & Aug.      Total
Philadelphia ... tuns           .  .                    .  .               300                  700               1,000
Baltimore  ..............            .  .                    .  .                  675                  875               1,550
Washington, DC ....       200                   214                   .  .                  275                 689
Richmond ..............            .  .                    .  .                    .  .                  300                  300
Wilmington ............            .  .                   420                   .  .                    .  .                  420
Charleston ............       1,822                   777              2,520                  830               5,949
Savannah .............           563                   505                   .  .                  310               1,378
Florida, 4 Ports .....        346                   500                 380                    .  .               1,226
Mobile ...................            760                1,942                 250                  636               3,588
New Orleans .........       6,844             15,064                 550               2,739             25,200
Franklin .................            .  .                       244                   .  .                  120                  364
Galveston ..............             275                1,450                   .  .                    .  .               1,725
TOTAL ...................           10,810             21,104              4,675                6,879            42,483
[Some numbers were difficult to read. That may be one reason the totals are not quite accurate.]

According to The Boston Shipping List, the quantity shipped during July last to Southern ports, which was not entered at the Custom House, amounted to about 10,000 tuns, and this was sent principally to Philadelphia and Baltimore, and a considerable quantity was also sent to these ports during August.

Part of these shipments to southern ports are sent by railroad into the interior. This Summer we clipped a paragraph from The Knoxville (Tenn.) Whig, which mentioned the arrival at that place of a freight car through from Savannah in thirty-three hours, filed with ice from Boston. Its editor congratulates the citizens on being able to cool their parched tongues during the Summer with ice thus imported, when the mildness of the last Winter had prevented them from collecting it in their own vicinity.

California, some years ago, received considerable quantities of ice from the New-England States. In 1850 the shipments from Boston were — to San Francisco, 1,299 tuns; to Sacramento, 260; and in subsequent years larger amounts. But most of the ice contained in that State has been obtained from sources on the Northern Pacific coast and other places, and chiefly, we learn, from the Sitka Isles (Russian American possessions). Of the actual whole amount we have no information save by inference from a tabular statement of imports at San Francisco during the last quarters of four successive year, viz: in last quarter of 1853, 1,459 tuns; 1854, 375; 1855, 1,870; and 1856, 1,020 tuns. In a San Francisco paper of July 1st of this year a statement of imports at that place from the 14th to the 28th of June mentions 1,128 tuns of ice, but nothing further is specified about it.

The exports of ice to foreign countries were not specifically mentioned in the annual Treasury Report on Commerce and Navigation previous to 1848. The following table, compiled from the reports since that time, exhibits the estimated value, at place of shipment, of the amount shipped to foreign countries in each fiscal year ending June 30; also the number of tuns for the last three years:
 
Years.              Tuns.               Value.
1847-48 ........                          $75,517
1848-49 ........                            95,027
1849-50 ........                          107,018
1850-51 ........                          106,305
1851-52 ........                          161,086
1852-53 ........                          175,056
1853-54 ........                          202,118
1854-55 ........  41,117             170,791
1855-56 ........  43,150             191,744
1856-57 ........  51,593             219,816
 
These “values" are small, indeed, but it must be borne in mind that they represent only the cost of the cargoes when placed on board. It is, perhaps, impossible to make a reliable estimate of the sums realized for the same when delivered to eager consumers in tropical countries. To the original cost must be added the much greater expense for the shipment out and return trip, and a liberal estimate for profits to all interested.
 
Amount and Cost Value of Ice Shipped to Foreign Countries for Two Fiscal Years ending June 30:
 
                                                1855-6                                     1856-7
Countries.                  Tuns.               Dols.               Tuns.               Dols.  
Cuba                            8,399               33,666             8,846               25,849
Porto Rico                      460                    931                767                   1,681
British West Indies     3,608               11,503             3,009                 8,365
Danish West Indies        860                 2,050               638               ..1,550
French West Indies        641                 1,659                409                 1,002
Hayti                                                                                   50                     150
New-Granada               1,312                 3,247                845                 2,172
Venezuela                        228                   588                610                 1,431
British Guiana               1,177                 3,000                807                 2,142
French Guiana                                                                    15                      45
Dutch Guiana                 212                    529
Brazil                           2,607                 7,790             2,873                 8,990
Buenos Ayres             1,774                 4,909             1,365                 3,528
Chili                                                                               1,135                 3,513
Peru                             6,754               21,351              5,731               17,921
Equador                         730                 2,555             1,760                 5,535
England                          291                    657
Spain                              128                    290
Gibraltar                         187                    514
British East Africa          976                 2,931
British East Indies       9,236               82,165             18,531             124,262
Dutch East Indies         1,146                 3,661             1,997                 6,066
China                                 371                 1,295                310                 1,001
Manila and P. I.                 560                 1,700                517                 1,500
Australia                         1,485                 4,683                596                 1,800
Canada                                 5                        50             ....... 2                      20
British Am’n Colonies         3                        20                777                 1,293
Totals                            43,150               191,744           51,598             219,816
 
The next table is a statement of these exports by districts (no previous returns on this point have been published by the Treasury Department), and shows that nearly the whole were exported from Boston:
 
                                                1855-6                                     1856-7
Districts.                      Tuns.               Value ($).         Tuns.               Value ($).
Portland                            175                    515                      
Saco                                                                                   777                 1,293
Boston                         41,414             187,374           48,888             214,109
Salem                                                                                 15                      45
New-York                      1,556                 3,805             1,916                 4,349
Detroit                                  5                      50           ..   .......2                      20
                                ________        _________      ________          _________
Totals:                         43,150               191,744            51,598             219,816
 
The succeeding table exhibits the destination and amount of the foreign exports of ice [in tuns] from Boston during the last two calendar years, and is compiled from the semi-official custom-house returns published in the Shipping List of that city:
                                    1856.               1857
Havana                       5,801               3,624
Cuba, indef                    314               5,382
Matanzas                       605                  454
St. Jago                          445                  . . .
Cardenas                       422                  . . .
Manzanillo                       57                  . . .
Remedios                         10                  . . .
Porto Rico                      181                    49
Kingston                      1,594               1,952
Barbados                       877                  250
Port Spoin [sic]              704               1,209
Nassau                           180                  180
St. Thomas                    793               1,037
Martinique                      211                  494
Guadeloupe                   . . .                   183
Vera Cruz                       . . .                    103
Bermuda                          40                  . . .
So. America                    375                  . . .
New-Granada                390                  . . .
Aspinwall                        557               1,125
Rio Hache                         10                  . . .
Porto Cabello                   50                  . . .
La Guayra                        218                  753
Demerara                      1,100                  625
Brazil                                   43                  220
Pernambuco                    257                  250
Bahia                                 375                  . . .
Rio Janeiro                     1,762               2,512
Buenos Ayres                  530                  . . .
Montevideo                     893                  . . .
Valparaiso                        614                  557
Peru                                1,194                  592
Callao                             6,744               2,150
Guayaquil                      6,023                  810
Liverpool                        . . .                      298
Malta                              . . .                      430
Egypt                              . . .                      761
Cape Town                    . . .                      498
Mauritius                        . . .                      654
East Indies                  14,330               8,843
Ceylon                            467                 1,352
Melbourne                      596                  . . .
Sidney                            520                  . . .
Totals: [sic]                  44,419             37,400
[Actual Totals:             49,282             37,347]
The corresponding amount for the present year, up to Sept. 1, [1858], is 25,764 [tuns], being a considerable decrease from last year.
 
For many years after its commencement, the business of shipping ice was decidedly of a bothersome character. The domestic business alone involved much expense and vexation — in devising and experimenting with instruments for cutting ice, machinery for storing it, and storehouses for preserving it. The outlay and work connected with shipping it was considerably greater. Ice-houses were required abroad as well as at home. Ship owners objected to receiving ice on freight, fearing its effect on the durability of their vessels and the safety of voyages. Peculiar arrangements were required for lowering it into the holds of vessels. Long-continued and costly experiments were made to ascertain the best modes of preparing vessels to receive cargoes. Various methods and materials were successively adopted. Formerly the holds of vessels were sealed up at the sides, bottom and top, with boards nailed to joist ribs secured to the skin of the vessel, and with double bulk heads forward and aft. The spaces thus formed were filled with refined tan, rice hulls, meadow hay, straw, wood shavings, or like materials. These spaces were made of a thickness proportionate to the length of the voyage, and with reference to the season. The immediate surface of the ice was covered with the same materials, excepting tan.

On the 4th of May, 1838, a patent for an improved method of packing and stowing ice was granted to Mr. Tudor, the projector of the trade. The improvement consisted simply in filling the spaces usually left between the separate blocks of ice, with any non-conducting material (such as saw-dust, chaff, pulverized cork, &c.), it having been found that by so doing the ice would be preserved from melting for a much longer period than usual. The interstices between the blocks would admit air, and whenever it might be of a temperature above the freezing point, of course the ice would melt.

In 1840 and 1841 the Patent Office authorities had under consideration a somewhat similar claim for a patent, which was denied. Beside its bearing on this subject of the ice-business, the case illustrates some features of Patent Office procedure. The following is a summary of it: — On March 20 [or 26]th, 1840, John F. Kemper, of Cincinnati, applied for a patent for “improvements in the manner of constructing vessels for the stowing and carrying of ice, and also for an improvement in the manner of stowing the same in “vessels and ice-houses.” No objection was made to that part of his claim relating to the novel construction of vessels for the transportation of ice, but the Commissioner (Hon. Henry L. Ellsworth), decided that he was not entitled to a patent for his manner of stowing ice, which consisted in placing all of the blocks edgewise, that is[,] upon their narrowest side. From this decision an appeal was taken in February, 1841, under the Act of March 3rd, 1849, to the Chief Justice of the District of Columbia, and this was the first appeal taken under that act to that court. On March 22d following, Chief Justice Cranch confirmed the decision of the Commissioner. The Commissioner, in defense of his decision, said:

"It had long been common to place blocks of ice edgewise in vessels for transportation, although it was not known that there was a very beneficial result from so doing, and although there was no custom of placing all the blocks edgewise.”
In illustration of his view of the claim he said:

“If apples keep best on end, a patent would not be granted for parking them thus. If cider keeps better by placing the bottles horizontally rather than perpendicularly, this could not be patented, as both methods are used. In neither case is there anything new.”

As the attorneys of the claimant had referred to the Tudor patent, the Commissioner remarked concerning it thus:
"This fact (i. e. about the air melting the ice,) was a discovery in distinction from an invention, and was not patentable. But Mr. Tudor contrived a mode of preventing the melting by filling up the interstices with non-conducting material, which was an invention, and, as such, the subject of a patent. Yet, if previous to that time, the interstices had been filled up with any non-conductor for some other purpose, and Mr. T. had merely discovered that it would prevent the admission of air, and thus the melting of the ice, he would not have been entitled to a patent. If the contrivance or invention patented by Mr. Tudor was not new at the time the patent was granted, then it only shows that the patent ought not to have been granted, but it is no argument in favor of the present claim.”

The Commissioner further said concerning the Tudor patent, ‘‘the novelty claimed in that case appears questionable.” He also ruled that Mr. Kemper's application covered two distinct inventions, which cannot be included in one patent. Judge Cranch in his decision referred to the Tudor patent thus:

"No judicial decision is produced affirming the validity of that patent, and it seems to me to rest upon very doubtful grounds; but it is to be presumed that the Commissioner who issued it was satisfied that the means used were a new invention.”

At the present day, in shipping ice for voyages of considerable length, saw-dust is used almost exclusively. It is placed immediately between the ice and the skin of the vessel. That used at Boston is obtained from Maine, and before its use for this purpose was entirely wasted at the saw mills, and [by]  falling into the streams[,] occasioned serious obstructions. Its average value as delivered at Boston is $2.50 per cord, and several thousand cords are required yearly. Not only do the sawmills find customers for their saw-dust which they are glad to be rid of, but the planing-mills likewise dispose of their shaving with which they formerly were bothered. The companies engaged in shipping ice from Boston now annually expend about $25,000 for shavings, saw-dust and rice-chaff. Thus these small things which were formerly a subject of cost to get rid of, now produce income.
There is a considerable variation in the original cost of the ice-crops of successive Winters, caused by the character of the seasons, which may or may not be favorable to securing ice. There is also a difference in the cost of stowing ice on board vessels caused by the greater or less[er] expense of the fittings required for voyages of different duration, or by difference of season when the shipments are made. Last year, 1857, the average cost of ice at Boston when stowed on board was estimated at $2 per tun, which is about the ordinary rate in common seasons.

Shippers of ice usually pay the expenses of loading and discharging their cargoes; and hence the freight money earned by a vessel is passed over to its owner or charterer without cost or deduction. The average rate of freights paid for ice shipped at Boston (for both coastwise and foreign ports) has been stated, in a report to the Board of Trade, to be about $2.50 per tun clean and clear to the ship owner. Vessels bound into the Gulf of Mexico take from 50,000 to 60,000 tuns annually, from which their owners derive on the average $120,000 freight. The receipts for a ship's cargo of ice to India are from 10 to 15 per cent of the earnings for the whole run of the ship out and home. It is considered that the ship owner generally derives as much profit from the business as the owners of the cargo, and often more.

The weight of ice for shipment is usually determined at the wharves immediately before being put on board, by scales constructed for that purpose; and this single operation settles the weight to be paid for by the party for whose account the ice is shipped, the amount due for freight on shipboard, for transportation to the wharf, and that which is to be received by the owner of the ice.

In the export as well as in the home trade there is always a large loss of ice from melting, breaking, etc. The waste varies according to circumstances, and ranges from 30 to 60 per cent. To deliver a shipment in India requires a voyage of 16,000 miles, occupying four or five months, during which the equator is crossed twice; and if one-half of the original cargo is delivered, it is considered a successful delivery.

The existence and increase of the export ice trade has materially benefited the commercial marine of Boston. Formerly, a large portion of the vessels employed in the freighting trade sailed from that port in ballast to southern latitudes, where they obtained cargoes of cotton, tobacco, sugar, rice, etc.; and the earnings of their return trips covered the expenses out and home. Now, something can be earned for the transportation of ice to those places where freighting vessels ordinarily obtain cargoes. The ice trade has generally been unsuccessful to places where profitable return freights cannot be obtained, because a considerable amount must be paid for conveying the ice to those places, and this it cannot bear; also because southern places which do not produce valuable exports are usually unable to consume expensive luxuries. It is probable that the ice trade of Boston has been one of the principal means of preserving to that city almost the whole of the American trade with Calcutta; and that it would effect an important increase of the Boston trade with China if that country was in a more quiet condition.

The exportation of American ice to England has now almost wholly ceased. The main reason for this is that the London and Liverpool dealers obtain large supplies from Norway more quickly and at cheaper rates than from any other foreign source. The cost, when delivered in the Thames, is from four to five dollars per tun. The great difference in the price has rendered the American article unsalable, although it is superior in quality to the Norwegian. Another reason is, that a difficulty has always existed about obtaining suitable storehouses in London; and this with other drawbacks has frequently been productive of much loss to shipping. Some years ago the St. Katherine's Dock Company built a dock warehouse expressly for ice, but it proved to be an imperfect protection. Mr. Lander, who first introduced the Wenham Lake ice into London, and Mr. Gould, who succeeded him in a large business, were pecuniarily ruined by the trade, though both were shrewd and experienced men; and several London ice dealers became bankrupts [sic] at subsequent periods.

In some of the cities of Italy the use of ice is more general among all classes than in any other portion of Europe. In Naples, Catania and the adjoining towns[,] the sale of ice and snow preserved in the caverns of Vesuvius has long been a considerable branch of trade. A recent letter from Turin refers to the warmer weather there, and contains the following:

"There is an abundance of ice, and the price is exceedingly low. The vendors do not weigh it, but give a large block for two or three sous [a French coin]. Generally speaking, it is perfectly clean, and as transparent as crystal; it is cheap enough to be in common use among the poorer classes. One sees fruit-women eating their dinners by their stalls, with a large lump of ice in their drinking jugs. The evenings, until 10 or 11 o'clock, are nearly as warm as the days; and the demand for frozen drinks in the cafés is prodigious.”
​
We have but few items relative to the trade among other nations. The actual importance of the business in any community where it has been established, may best be estimated by a consideration of the result which would follow from the immediate discontinuance of it. In the United States a complete failure of the ice crop for any reason would occasion a positive loss of many millions of dollars. But no such disaster can be anticipated. So long as the earth endures[,] the seasons will continue their circling succession, and each will forever be characterized by the reproduction of its peculiar blessings.

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