town as a "mad project." He had made his
calculations too carefully, however, to be disturbed by a little
ridicule; and that same year he sent out his first cargo of a hundred
and thirty tons, to the Island of Martinique.

The result justified his confidence. The ice arrived in perfect
condition, and he was encouraged to follow up his single cargo with many
others larger and more profitable. During the war of 1812 business was
somewhat interrupted by the English cruisers, which were ever on the
alert for prizes in the West Indian waters, but, after peace was
declared, his trade increased rapidly. He supplied ice to Charleston and
New Orleans also, those cities at first requiring but a ship-load each
per annum, although the demand increased so rapidly that a few years
later New Orleans alone consumed thirty cargoes.

Almost from the first, Mr. Tudor had believed that ice could be
transported as safely and profitably to Calcutta as to Havana; but he
could not bring others to share this opinion--at least, not to the point
of risking money upon it. It was not, therefore, until 1834, twenty-nine
years later than his Martinique experiment, that he sent his first cargo
of one hundred and eighty tons of ice to India. Notwithstanding a waste
of one third of the whole cargo during the voyage, he was able to sell
this Massachusetts ice at one half the price charged for the
artificially frozen ice formerly used in Calcutta by the few families
who could afford such a luxury.

The cold commodity which he provided met, therefore, with a warm welcome
from the English inhabitants. They recognized the boon afforded them,
and expressed their gratitude by raising a subscription and presenting
to the enterprising Yankee merchant a fire-proof building in which to
store his ice. He met them in the same spirit of wise liberality, and
sold the article at no more than a reasonable profit--about three cents
a pound--which enabled the great body of English residents to use the
ice habitually. Mr. Tudor used to boast that in Jamaica he sold the best
Wenham ice at half the price which an inferior article brought in
London; and even at Calcutta he made ice cheaper than it was in London
or Paris. On the passage to the East Indies, ice is four or five months
at sea, traverses sixteen thousand miles of salt water, and crosses the
equator twice; and on its arrival it is stored in massive double-walled
houses, which are covered by four or five separate