Pod Insights American History Tellers The Ice King | Indian Summer | 4 About this episode After two turbulent decades in the ice trade, Frederic Tudor had finally made it. Expanding into the American South had paid off, with cities like New Orleans delivering steady profit. But Tudor’s insatiable appetite for risk kept pushing him to bet everything – again and again – even as losses mounted and disaster loomed.
As he entered his 50s, Tudor seemed ready to slow down. But when he was offered the opportunity to ship his ice halfway around the world to India, he couldn’t resist expanding his business once more. And just when it seemed he had mastered the trade he built from nothing, one final gamble threatened to undo everything he’d spent decades building.
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0:00 Lindsay Graham? Audible subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.
0:27 Lindsay Graham? Imagine it's January 1835 in Boston, Massachusetts. You hurry along a downtown street, sweat trickling down your back despite the cold winter air. You skid around a final corner and finally reach your cousin Frederic Tudor's townhouse. Pound on the door with your fist and take a step back. After a moment, 51-year-old Frederick opens the door. His eyes widen when he sees your face. William, you look like you've seen a ghost. Come in, it's terribly cold. Without a word, you brush past him into the parlor, where a newspaper lies folded on the table beside a steaming cup of coffee. Frederick follows you in, a note of concern in his voice. Please, sit down, William. Would you like something to drink? Frederick takes a seat across from you and adds a spoonful of sugar to his coffee
1:12 Lindsay Graham? and stirs it slowly. You watch the swirling brown liquid, your stomach churning. Oh, no, thank you. Well, is everything okay? What brings you here? Well, it's the coffee. I told you, have a cup. No, not that coffee, the market, the coffee market. For the past few years, you've made a living in the coffee trade, buying and selling large quantities of beans for a profit, but you've never actually set eyes on the coffee that you purchase. You're a futures trader. You agree to buy coffee at a fixed price in the future, and then you profit when the price goes up more than you promised to buy it for. It's been such a lucrative source of income that recently you convinced your cousin Frederick to invest his own savings in coffee futures, too. Frederick sets his cup down slowly. Coffee market? What's happened?
1:57 Lindsay Graham? The price of beans has crashed. Well, how's that? It's been climbing 30% a year. It was a bubble, apparently, and now it's just burst. My payments are due and I'm gonna have to sell at a loss. Oh, how short are you? 200,000. Good Lord, William! I'm gonna have to declare bankruptcy. I'm ruined. Frederick closes his eyes and exhales slowly, but you interrupt his thoughts. Frederick, you'll be taking a substantial loss as well. Well, I have the ice business as collateral. Will that be enough to see you through? I guess it has to be, because if it isn't, I'll lose everything too.
2:32 Lindsay Graham? Frederick only invested his money in coffee because you urged him to. So you feel dreadful delivering such bad news. You know the difficulties he had building his ice empire. And now, just as he's finally made a fortune, he might lose it all and it's all your fault.
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3:57 Lindsay Graham? From Wondery, I'm Lindsay Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story.
4:19 Lindsay Graham? By the time Frederic Tudor was in his early 40s, he'd weathered 20 years in the ice trade. After a first decade of struggling to establish a foothold in the Caribbean, he'd experienced a turning point when he expanded his business to the southern United States. There, he found that the markets of sweltering port cities like New Orleans offered a more reliable and profitable income, and from that moment Tudor's business began to thrive. But his journey to prosperity had not been an easy one, thanks to Tudor's enormous appetite for risk. Time and again Tudor had wagered everything in order to expand the ice trade, and constantly encountered setbacks that nearly wiped him out. But through all, he persevered, relying on his supreme self-confidence and sheer determination to succeed.
5:03 Lindsay Graham? So by his early 50s, Tudor had begun to stake his hard-earned fortune on other high-reward but high-risk ventures, like coffee futures. And like all gamblers, Tudor discovered that he'd lose more often than he'd win. It would only be when Tudor settled down and stopped taking risks that he'd finally managed to secure the riches he'd spent a lifetime chasing. This is episode 4 in our four-part series On the Ice King: Indian Summer.
5:32 Lindsay Graham? By 1824, Frederic Tudor had ice houses in South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, and Cuba. Every year, the amount of ice sold from his facilities increased, but Tudor soon hit a limit on how much he could sell. The demand was there, but he didn't have the supply to meet it. Five years earlier in 1819, Tudor's mother had sold the family estate at Rockwood, Massachusetts to settle her late husband's debts. Ever since Tudor had been forced to harvest most of his ice from another source called Fresh Pond near Cambridge, Massachusetts. At 155 acres, Fresh Pond was larger than its name suggested. But while there was sufficient ice in Fresh Pond to meet Tudor's needs, harvesting it was painfully slow.
6:14 Lindsay Graham? Collecting giant blocks of ice by hand was backbreaking work. Hired laborers used pickaxes and chisels to hack the heavy blocks from the surface of the pond, then dragged or floated them to the shore. Once on land, more laborers set about shaping the ice into stackable units with two-man saws. It was arduous and time-consuming work. But while Tudor had come up with a technique to increase the amount of ice that formed in Fresh Pond by drilling holes in the partially frozen surface to increase its thickness, he hadn't found a way to harvest the ice any faster. And now the glacial pace of securing his product was holding his company back.
6:54 Lindsay Graham? Imagine it's January 1824 at Fresh Pond. Despite the bitter cold, you strip off your coat and toss it aside. For the past hour, you've been hacking away at the frozen surface, cutting the ice into large chunks. For most of the year, you run a hotel on the banks of the pond. But in winter, when the tourists have gone for the season, you and your men turn your hand to harvesting ice for Frederic Tudor. The pay is good, but the work is punishing. But just as you're about to take another swing of your pickaxe, you hear a shout. Hey, you there! You turn to see Frederic Tudor picking his way gingerly onto the ice, taking small and careful steps to keep from slipping. You set down your pickaxe, steam rising from your shoulders. Mr. Tudor, what brings you out here? I'm coming to see what's taken you so long.
7:39 Lindsay Graham? My ships are idle in Boston Harbor. My ice houses are empty. We're waiting on you. Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Tudor. The men are working as quickly as they can. Tudor looks over at one laborer, who's put his pickaxe down and is wiping his sweaty brow with a claw. Oh, yeah? You sure about that? Tudor then shouts over to the man. You there! Get on with it! As the man lifts his pickaxe and gets back to work, you guide Tudor back to the shore where ice is stacked in piles. Now, please, Mr. Tudor, this is hard work. The men do need to rest from time to time, but I promise you, we are working as fast as possible. Well, then, what's causing the delay? You've never asked for this much ice. Every year, you need more, but we can't go any quicker. Well, maybe you should bring in more men.
8:22 Lindsay Graham? I already have every able-bodied man in the district. Well, there's fifty thousand dollars' worth of ice floating in this pond, and I need it in Boston. It's a time-critical industry. Well, I don't know what you expect me to do, Mr. Tudor. Ice is ice. We can't harvest it any quicker. Tudor stops to think, and his gaze drifts back to your hotel on the shore. You have empty rooms, don't you? I do. Not many travelers passing through in winter. Well, good. I'll advertise for laborers in Boston and send them up here. Put them up in your hotel. I'll pay for the rooms, but as soon as they arrive, set them to work. I need that ice. Well, all right, sir, but if you're gonna need that much ice every year, we're gonna need a different solution in the long term.
9:04 Lindsay Graham? As you head back onto the frozen pond, you turn the problem over in your head. Tudor is right, the bottleneck in his supply chain is real, but you're not sure more men is going to fix it. So while you could use more muscle in the short term, in the long term, you're determined to solve this problem with brains, not brawn.
9:25 Lindsay Graham? By increasing the number of workers harvesting ice at Fresh Pond, Frederic Tudor eventually obtained enough stock to supply his customers. But employing more workers from further afield cost more money, which reduced his profit margin. And the following winter, as the ice harvest season began again, Tudor prepared to recruit extra workers once more. But before he could, ice from Fresh Pond began arriving at Tudor's ice houses in Boston Harbor in greater quantities and frequency than usual. The holdup in his supply chain had unexpectedly disappeared. Tudor was of course pleased, but he was also puzzled. His meticulous diary suggested that nothing had changed, the weather was no different, he wasn't paying for more labor, so Tudor decided to travel to Fresh Pond to see what
10:08 Lindsay Graham? had caused the sudden increase in supply. When Tudor arrived, he found an odd-looking plow being dragged across Fresh Pond by two horses. One of Tudor's ice harvesters, hotelier Nathaniel Wyeth, explained that this peculiar contraption was his new invention, an ice-cutting machine. Wyeth had fashioned an adjustable metal blade and fitted it to a plow that normally worked the fields in summer. Horses wearing spiked shoes pulled the machine across the ice, scoring a line into the surface. By cutting parallel lines at fixed intervals and another set of parallel lines at right angles, Wyeth marked a grid into the surface of the ice. Then the blade was lowered, and the machine was dragged over the lines again.
10:50 Lindsay Graham? After repeating this process to gradually cut lower and lower, laborers used chisels to gouge large blocks from the frozen pond. The horse-drawn blade was quicker than cutting the ice by hand, and since all the blocks were uniform size and shape, they no longer needed to be refined with a saw. They were also in the perfect shape to stack and store. Tudor was impressed with Wyatt's ingenuity. With one stroke of his ice-cutting machine, Wyatt has slashed the limitations on Tudor's ice supply. And that winter, Tudor's ship set sail without having to wait in port, and his ice houses in the tropics never ran short. So in return, Tudor rewarded Wyatt with a new title of Chief Ice Harvester and a salary of $500 a year, a handsome sum at the time.
11:33 Lindsay Graham? But Tudor wasn't motivated simply by gratitude and generosity. He also hoped the lucrative wage would ensure that Wyatt and his revolutionary machine weren't lured away by a competitor. Now, with plenty of ice on hand, Tudor once again set about expanding his business. In 1827, he built a new, larger ice house in Charleston, South Carolina. He intended to build a bigger ice house in Savannah, Georgia too, but ran out of time, though he did manage to find an existing warehouse and fit it with insulation to act as an overflow storage unit that season. Then the following year, in 1828, Tudor predicted an even greater yield of ice. That's because Nathaniel Wyatt had been busy during the summer again, this time building
12:15 Lindsay Graham? a lifting platform that would speed up the process of getting the ice from the pond to the shore. Wyatt's ice lift looked like a giant balance scale with platforms at either end of a beam. When one side lowered into the water, the other rose into the air. Wyatt intended for an ice block to be floated onto the platform in the water, then it would be lifted by a horse-drawn pulley. While laborers dragged the ice block off the raised platform, another team would float the next ice block onto the lowered platform. It was another ingenious device, and Wyatt and Tudor wanted to put it into action straight away. But in mid-December 1827, a low-pressure system settled over New England, wreaking havoc with the weather. One day, temperatures would plunge below freezing, but the next, they rose so high that Bostonians walked the streets in short sleeves.
13:00 Lindsay Graham? As a result of this unpredictable weather, the ice on fresh ponds never thickened enough to use Wyatt's heavy ice-cutting machine, and the few blocks that were managed to be cut by hand weren't big enough for Tudor's needs. So by the end of January 1828, Tudor was back in the situation he'd been in three years earlier. His ships were moored in Boston Harbor with empty holds, and there was no prospect of beginning the larger harvest on fresh pond. Desperate to find an alternative source of ice, Tudor and Wyeth scoured other bodies of water in Massachusetts. They found a few shaded ponds where temperatures had fallen low enough for thick ice to form, but they were few and far between. None were as large as fresh pond, and none were set up for large-scale ice harvesting.
13:44 Lindsay Graham? In the end, the only viable option they found was Swain's Pond, north of Boston. But getting there was a nightmare. There was only one narrow path that led to it, which was blocked by a large boulder. Even after they blew up this rock with gunpowder to remove it, the surface of the path was rutted and slow, and as a result, an impatient wagon driver pulled down a fence and drove a shortcut through a farmer's orchard. Meanwhile, Tudor's laborers chopped down the farmer's trees near the pond shoreline to give them room to work. Upon discovering this destruction of his property, the farmer demanded that Tudor pay him compensation. At the same time, the wagon drivers Tudor had employed realized that they had him over a barrel and hiked their fees. It was too much for Tudor.
14:27 Lindsay Graham? Whatever ice he would be able to get from Swain's Pond wasn't worth the cost of harvesting it. So within only a few days of arriving, Tudor and Wyeth abandoned their plans, leaving a trail destruction behind them. Eventually Tudor decided to send Wyeth 150 miles north to the Kennebec River in Maine, which was completely iced over. But it took time for Wyeth to pack up his ice-cutting machine and travel there. By the time he arrived, it was the end of February, and Tudor's ships were still in port. With his ice houses in the tropics sitting empty, Tudor repeatedly wrote to Wyeth imploring greater urgency. As a result, Wyeth and his laborers worked from dawn to dusk, and with the ice-cutting machine at their disposal, they made quick progress.
15:09 Lindsay Graham? They were also lucky because the air temperature in Maine remained below freezing, meaning they didn't even need to put the ice they harvested in an ice house. They just covered it with straw and wood, and loaded the cargo straight from the riverbank onto boats for transport. After a frantic few weeks, Wyeth returned home and despite the unseasonably warm winter, Wyeth's ingenuity and hard work meant by the end of March 1828, Tudor had managed to supply every one of his ice houses. And although profits dipped slightly compared to the previous year, the following year, they recovered. Tudor's business resumed its upward trajectory so that by the end of the 1820s, Tudor was exporting over 4,000 tons of ice a year, a threefold increase over the previous decade.
15:52 Lindsay Graham? And now that the supply chain was no longer a limiting factor, Tudor had more ice than he needed to sustain his markets in the United States and the Caribbean. This glut meant he could now set his sights farther afield, much, much farther. In pursuit of even greater success, Frederick Tudor would look to send his ice halfway around the world.
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17:53 Lindsay Graham? Imagine it's April 1833 and you're in a tavern in Boston, Massachusetts. You hand a few coins to the bartender and then take your drink, eyes scanning the room. You're not a regular here, but the man you're looking for is. Frederic Tudor rents a modest apartment close to the Customs House on State Street. And word is, he likes to come to this bar to enjoy a quiet drink after work. Soon enough, you spot Tudor alone at a corner table. So you make your way over, slide into a seat across from him. Mind if I join you, Mr. Tudor? He looks up, his eyes narrowing, then softening in recognition. Oh, I, I know you, Mr. Austin, isn't it? Please, yes, please, have a seat. Well, I hope you don't mind me disturbing you, but you're quite the celebrity in the Customs House. The man who made his money in ice. Celebrity, eh?
18:38 Lindsay Graham? Well, not long ago, I was a laughingstock. I proved them all wrong, didn't I? Well, I certainly admire what you've done, yes. In fact, I have a proposal that I think you might be interested in. Next week, my partner and I have a ship coming into Boston with a cargo of Indian spices. But when it heads back to India, it's going to be empty. Normally, the captain loads stones as balance, but that's got no value. It just gets dumped into the sea before the ship dies. So I was thinking, maybe ice can be your balance. Exactly. If we have to load the ship down for a voyage to India, why not use something we can sell when we get there? Tudor leans back in his chair and folds his arms. Well, 20 years ago, I'd have jumped at the chance. But now? Well, I've had some bad experiences exporting ice to the wrong locations.
19:22 Lindsay Graham? Lost a lot of money. I learned to trust my own instincts, not someone else's. And what are your instincts telling you now? Well, there's no doubt, India's a large market. The British colonials out there must be roasting, but it's a long way from here. Yes, but it's a new era, Mr. Tudor. The world is shrinking. You might be surprised to hear that my ships can get there in only four months. Tudor shakes his head. Not even so. Four months onboard a ship? I'm too old to be traipsing halfway around the world. Well, you won't need to. My partner, William Rogers, will be our man on the ground. Tudor falls silent, lost in thought, and you wait, heart thudding, fingers crossed beneath the table. After a long pause, Tudor leans forward and picks up his glass.
20:02 Lindsay Graham? Well, maybe it's this drink talking, but all right. Bring the figures to me tomorrow and we'll take a look. Oh, great news. You tap your glass against Tudor's, but then he pauses, eyeing your drink with distaste. Uh, there's just one problem. And what's that? Your whiskey. How can you drink it without any ice?
20:24 Lindsay Graham? You grin, leaning back in your chair. You've done what you came to do. Tudor's experience will be invaluable to your new venture, even if he doesn't yet realize that you have no intention of making this a long-term partnership.
20:40 Lindsay Graham? After years of aggressive expansion in the Caribbean and along the southern Atlantic coast, Frederic Tudor found the opportunity to expand all the way to India all too enticing. Tudor believed that if he played his cards right, India, then known as the jewel of the British Empire, would become a vital part of his business empire too. But the distance from Boston to India was a staggering 16,000 miles, and the four-month journey to get there was far longer than any ice ship had sailed before. Tudor's new partner in the scheme, Samuel Austin, would provide the ship, but Tudor knew from experience that it wouldn't simply be a matter of loading ice and hoping for the best. The ship carrying his product would need to cross the equator twice during its voyage, and air temperatures would peak at more than 100 degrees.
21:25 Lindsay Graham? Tudor couldn't imagine a more hostile environment for a cargo of ice, so if he was to make any money on this Indian expedition, he had to prevent as much of the ice melting as possible. That meant Tudor would need to outfit the merchant ship carrying the ice, the Tuscany, before it sailed, and he set about putting the knowledge he'd gained over the past three decades to use. He instructed laborers to add an insulating second skin to the cargo hold, leaving a one-inch gap between the hull and the new planks. He then had them line the internal hulls with sawdust, dry hay, and animal skins. Only then did he fill the hold with 180 tons of ice, and once the hull was sealed, Tudor gave the crew strict instructions not to open it under any circumstances. If they did as he said,
22:09 Lindsay Graham? Tudor estimated that two-thirds of the ice would last the voyage. On May 12, 1833, the Tuscany set sail and arrived in Calcutta on September 13. Only then did Austin's business partner William Rogers open the hold, and he found that 120 tons of ice had survived the trip. Tudor's predictions that two-thirds of the cargo would make it was spot on. And after the Tuscany docked in Calcutta, the city's newspapers hailed the arrival of American ice as a monumental event. The British officials who ran the East India Company were accustomed to a much colder climate back in Britain, and the stifling heat in India left them desperate to find ways to keep cool. They had few options, however. One solution they'd found was to hang wet blankets across windows as a makeshift form
22:54 Lindsay Graham? of air conditioning. Another involved servants pulling ropes to operate rudimentary ceiling fans. But neither of these methods did much against the oppressive subtropical heat. As a result, every weekend Calcutta's roads were gridlocked with British officials seeking the cooler air of the hills or the sea breeze on the coast. But now, thanks to the arrival of a shipment of ice, residents of Calcutta could cool down in the city itself with the help of chilled drinks and ice cream. By December 1833, the shipment of ice had run out and the Indian venture had grossed $10,000. With a prospect of profits like that, Tudor hoped to send another ship straight away. But in April 1834, Tudor was shocked to learn that Samuel Austin had moved forward without him.
23:38 Lindsay Graham? Austin had already bought a load of ice from a rival merchant and dispatched the Tuscany back to Calcutta, cutting Tudor out. That's when Tudor realized he'd been played. It became clear that Austin had only partnered with him to gain his in-depth knowledge of how to transport ice, and now that Austin knew Tudor's trade secrets, he intended to freeze him out of the Indian market. But Tudor was not about to let this betrayal stand. He hastily chartered a different merchant ship, loaded it up with 150 tons of ice, and ordered its captain to chase the Tuscany to India. But Tudor was at a disadvantage. He had no local contacts in India, so he hired a young Boston merchant named Marcus Bacon to accompany the shipment and act as his representative in Calcutta.
24:20 Lindsay Graham? But that wasn't all. He also gave Bacon orders to do whatever it took to undermine Austen's business. Tudor was declaring war on his one-time partner. But the first battle of this war went Austen's way. The Tuscany won the race to India and docked first. Tudor's ship lagged far behind, its steering damaged in a storm around the Cape of Good Hope. What should have been a four-month voyage took five and a half. By the time Bacon and his ship limped into Calcutta, only two tons of ice remained, barely one percent of the original cargo. So instead of managing sales, Bacon turned his attention to his secondary mission, undermining the opposition. He presented Tudor's credentials to Calcutta's governor, and asked for Tudor to be granted the exclusive rights to import ice into the city.
25:05 Lindsay Graham? Bacon persuaded the governor that Tudor had a long and successful history as an ice trader, whereas Samuel Austen was an unreliable upstart who lacked experience. This argument worked. The governor granted Tudor the exclusivity he wanted, and Austen was barred from importing any more ice. With these exclusive rights secured, Bacon then commissioned a purpose-built ice house, and wrote to Tudor with the good news. For Tudor, the gamble of funding a solo Indian voyage had paid off. The loss of one ship's cargo was unfortunate, but he could afford the temporary setback. The promise of exclusivity was far more important. So Tudor immediately filled another ship with ice and sent it to India. This time, most of its cargo survived, and Indian newspapers celebrated the arrival from the man they'd
25:50 Lindsay Graham? started calling "The Ice King." Soon Tudor had multiple ships traveling to and from India. He had won the war with Samuel Austen, and it was a good thing, too, because he'd soon need all the extra income he could get.
26:06 Lindsay Graham? By the early 1800s, Americans had become obsessed with coffee. Ever since the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution, coffee had surged in popularity compared to tea, and the American taste for coffee received another boost when cheaper beans began to arrive from newer coffee-producing nations. By the 1820s, around 80 million pounds of coffee beans were imported from South and Central America every year. Dozens of new coffee houses sprang up in cities all along the East Coast, and demand was only expected to grow. Many merchants, including Tudor, saw a chance to make a fortune. But while Tudor saw a lucrative opportunity, he wasn't inclined to become a coffee importer himself, preferring to maintain a focus on his thriving ice export business.
26:50 Lindsay Graham? Instead, he saw a simpler way to make a profit from the coffee craze: in futures trading. Rather than handle the physical trading himself, Tudor promised to buy a coffee dealer's beans at a fixed price before the harvest, and then sold them on before they ever reached America. Assuming the price of coffee beans increased in the intervening time, Tudor would make a profit. But future tradings was a risky business. It only worked when the price went up. If the price went down, Tudor would take a loss. Still, with the demand for coffee exponentially increasing, coffee futures seemed like a safe bet. Tudor and his cousin William Savage both bought as much as they could, and they were so confident in the scheme that they paid for it using credit. For Tudor, that meant putting up his ice trading business as collateral, but since
27:35 Lindsay Graham? he felt confident the price of coffee would continue its upward trajectory, he didn't see it as much of a risk. But he was wrong. In late 1834, the bottom fell out of the coffee trade. A bumper harvest in Brazil flooded the market with beans, driving prices down. Tudor had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into coffee futures, and now the amount he'd promised to pay wasn't covered by the value of the coffee he owned. This crisis forced Tudor's cousin William Savage to declare bankruptcy, and it wasn't long before creditors came knocking on Tudor's door too. But this time, it wasn't just himself he had to worry about. Earlier that year, the 50-year-old Tudor had settled down, marrying a 19-year-old storekeeper's daughter, Euphemia Fennel.
28:19 Lindsay Graham? Despite their 31-year age gap, the pair seemed truly happy. But now Tudor's precarious financial position threatened to upend his newfound domestic bliss. Tudor's creditors demanded that he hand over ownership of his ice export business, telling him he could stay on as a salaried manager. But despite having agreed to put up his business as collateral, Tudor was not prepared to give up his life's work. Instead, he boldly made a counteroffer. If his creditors were willing to give him time, he'd repay the debt he owed as well as any interest that accrued, but he had one condition: they had to leave the business in his hands. Thankfully, they agreed. So in the space of only two years, Tudor's fortunes had blown hot and cold.
29:01 Lindsay Graham? It'd won a trade war in India only to turn around and lose the proceeds in a bad investment, leaving him now, a married man in his 50s, in over $200,000 of debt. Not for the first time, he'd have to rely on frozen water to pull him back from the brink. By 1779, Benedict Arnold had sacrificed more for the revolution than almost any other man in America. One of George Washington's most effective commanders, he had nearly lost a leg in the Second Battle of Saratoga. But in return, Arnold believed he had been humiliated by Congress and cheated of his glory by lesser men, so he decided to make them pay. Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of the podcast American Scandal.
29:46 Lindsay Graham? We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US history: presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, Benedict Arnold turns his back on his comrades in the Continental Army and secretly defects to the British. With the help of his wife, he plots to hand over the most important colonial fortress to the enemy and doom the revolution he once served. Follow American Scandal wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes of American Scandal early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.
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30:59 Lindsay Graham? By the late 1830s, Frederic Tudor was once again deeply in debt, and his ice export business was stuck in a rut. His ice houses in Cuba, Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans did steady business and continued to turn a profit, but with creditors scrutinizing his every move, Tudor couldn't risk any new ventures that might jeopardize his ability to repay his considerable debts. And with Tudor's business stalled, rivals quickly stepped in to fill the gap. Other merchants began shipping New England ice to nearly every port in America. Before long, ice was also heading to Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru. So while Tudor had once been hailed as the Ice King, now, as competitors thrived, he felt his crown slipping.
31:45 Lindsay Graham? Imagine it's 1840. You sit at a long table in the hotel owned by your old friend and associate Nathaniel Wyeth on Fresh Pond near Cambridge, Massachusetts. A handful of smartly dressed men have already taken their seats, and you can't help but notice that you're the oldest by at least a decade. A few years ago, a new generation of ice traders began collecting ice from Fresh Pond, sparking fierce disputes over territory. Even Wyeth, your own chief ice harvester, quit your employment and branched out into direct competition with you. But today, you've gathered with him and your other rivals because you've heard they have big plans: a railroad linking Fresh Pond to Boston Harbor. You look up as Wyeth rises to his feet. Well, gentlemen, thank you for coming.
32:28 Lindsay Graham? The first topic of discussion is the railroad. The ice traders bang their hands on the table to show their assent, but you keep your arms firmly by your side. Wyeth notices your reluctance. Well, Mr. Tudor, do you not agree that Fresh Pond should join the rail network? No, I don't. It's a waste of money. It's only four miles. How expensive can that be when it's shared between all of us? Well, easy for you to say. I have the right to more Fresh Pond ice than any of you, but you want to split the cost of the line proportionately. That means I'll foot the lion's share of the bill for this new track. And you'll benefit the most from the quicker transport, too. Less wastage, more ice bound for the tropics. Well, there's nothing wrong with the carts and wagons we use now. The wastage is minimal, and it certainly won't offset the cost of building a rail line.
33:13 Lindsay Graham? Mr. Tudor, we mustn't get stuck in our ways. New technology can help our business to grow. May I remind you of the effects of my horse-drawn ice machine had more than 20 years ago? Oh, there's a world of difference between an adapted plow and a railroad. Tens of thousands of dollars of difference. Well, if this is because of your financial situation, I'm sure we can come to some arrangement. We can front the costs in return for some of your ice rights, perhaps. You feel your cheeks redden. Although your losses in coffee speculations are well-known, you don't want your rivals to know how bad your financial situation actually is. And you certainly don't want to give up your ice to them. So instead, you rise to your feet. Ah, build the railroad if you want, or don't. It makes no difference to me, because I will have no part of it.
33:58 Lindsay Graham? As you leave the room, you slam the door behind you, although you almost immediately regret letting your temper get the better of you. It's not the other ice traders' fault that your financial situation is a mess. Truth be told, you do see the value of a new railroad. But right now, your priority is keeping your head above water. So while you're still prepared to take advantage of the railways, it'll be only when it suits you and you alone.
34:24 Lindsay Graham? In the 1840s, America was in the middle of a railway revolution. At the beginning of the decade, there were 2,800 miles of track in the United States. 10 years later, that had more than tripled to 9,000 miles. Among the new destinations added to the network was Fresh Pond, which linked to Boston Harbor by a four-mile line completed in December 1841. The traders who harvested ice from Fresh Pond immediately reaped benefits. Less ice melted on the journey to warehouses at the docks, increasing profits across the board. But Frederic Tudor had refused to pay a cent toward the railroad's construction. However, he ultimately recognized that new technology brought new opportunities, and he wasn't about to pass up the chance to increase profits.
35:07 Lindsay Graham? So he apologized to Fresh Pond's other ice traders for his outburst. Then quietly, he began using the new rail line too. And the rapid pace of rail expansion across the country meant that when the first steam train pulled up at the new Fresh Pond terminus, there were already plans in place to extend the line further. The residents of nearby Fitchburg had begun raising funds to continue the railroad to their town, forty miles to the west. This new line was scheduled to open in 1846, but Frederic Tudor wasn't interested in joining the hordes of businessmen investing in railroads, and even if he was, he remained mired in debt. But when he studied the plans for the railroad extension to Fitchburg, Tudor noticed that the line would pass Walden Pond near Concord.
35:50 Lindsay Graham? Since there were no decent roads to Walden Pond, it had never been used for ice harvesting, but the new railroad would make it accessible for the first time. Tudor moved quickly to take advantage of this opportunity. He paid the landowners around Walden Pond for the exclusive rights to harvest its ice. And after the new railroad extension became operational in December 1846, Tudor hired laborers from Concord and taught them how to use ice-cutting machines. When temperatures dropped low enough to begin harvesting ice in January 1847, they set to work. By the end of the winter, Tudor had a few thousand tons of Walden Pond ice on top of his harvest from Fresh Pond. Tudor shipped this extra ice to his global network of ice houses in the American South, the Caribbean, and India.
36:35 Lindsay Graham? So despite the emergence of competitors, the addition of new stock from Walden Pond gave Tudor a fresh edge. He remained the world's most successful ice trader, shipping around 50,000 tons every year, and earning annual profits of $50,000, roughly equivalent to more than $2 million today. So that by early 1849, the revenue from the booming ice trade allowed Tudor to finally pay off his coffee debt, an obligation that had hung over him for more than 15 years. In the end, he'd done it with an uncharacteristic determination to rein in his expenditures. Although Tudor was still prepared to pounce on an opportunity, he was no longer the reckless risk-taker he had been in his youth.
37:16 Lindsay Graham? Instead, he'd been forced to slowly and patiently build his fortunes back up after hitting rock bottom. So in the 1850s, with his income no longer directed towards paying off debts, Tudor decided it was time to enjoy the success he'd worked so hard for. He began purchasing land on Nahant, an island north of Boston. There, he built a mansion surrounded by gardens and a large estate, spending a happy last decade wandering the coastal paths from his home. He even paid for a pleasure park, which became a favorite destination of day-tripping Bostonians. In 1864, Frederic Tudor died in Boston at age 80, leaving behind his widow Euphemia and six children, though the once-booming trade he established didn't survive him for long.
37:59 Lindsay Graham? By the middle of the 19th century, ice had become an everyday necessity, and that meant people weren't willing to leave its supply to chance. As Tudor had experienced over his many years in the trade, an unseasonably warm winter could cause an ice drought in New England. Ships could sink or be delayed, and as America's population rapidly expanded, many of New England's lakes and rivers became too polluted to harvest ice from. By the time Tudor died, engineers had already created the first artificial ice-making machines. From small-scale beginnings, man-made ice gradually became the most common source of commercial ice. Mechanical ice factories could be built anywhere, even the hottest climates. And by the end of World War I, artificial ice was dominant.
38:42 Lindsay Graham? Natural ice slipped into insignificance, along with Frederic Tudor, the pioneer of the New England ice trade. From the beginning, Tudor had been a consummate risk-taker. On the cover of his first Ice House diary, he wrote a phrase that he looked at every day: "He who gives back at the first repulse without striking the second blow despairs of success and will never be a hero in love, war, or business." Frederic Tudor had suffered many repulses in his quest to make a viable business selling ice, but he never hesitated in striking back. And thanks to his unrivaled determination, he had lifted himself from the squalor of a debtor's prison to become the world's first ice tycoon.
39:24 Lindsay Graham? From Wondery, this is episode four of our four-part series, The Ice King, from American History Tellers. In our next season, in the first half of the 20th century, Americans were terrorized by an unpredictable infectious disease, polio. Every summer, it struck without warning, killing thousands, many of them children, and paralyzing many more. But bold leadership and a bitter rivalry between two scientists would soon pave the way for one of the 20th century's greatest medical breakthroughs.
39:55 Lindsay Graham? American History Tellers is only possible because of listeners like you, so thank you. And don't miss an episode. Be sure to follow American History Tellers on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts. And to find out more about me, including my other podcasts, my live show, the history tours I'm arranging, and all sorts of other things, go to historyishuman.com. That's historyishuman.com.
40:31 Lindsay Graham? American History Tellers is hosted, edited, and produced by me, Lindsay Graham, for Airship. Audio editing by Mohamed Shazib. Sound design by Molly Bach. Music by Thrun. This episode is written by Scott Reeves. Managing producer, Desi Blylock. Senior producers, Alida Rosansky and Andy Beckerman. Executive producers are Jenny Lauer-Beckman and Marshall Louie for Wondery.
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