The Ice King | No Joke | 1

In 1801,a young Boston merchant named Frederic Tudor made a life-changing visit to Cuba. There he had a wildly ambitious idea: he would ship New England ice to the sweltering Caribbean, where no one had ever seen frozen water – let alone tasted a cold drink or ice cream. 

Lacking experience and money, Tudor was mocked by seasoned ship captains who called his plan foolish. Still, by 1806he’d scraped together enough funds to send a shipment of ice to the island of Martinique. But once it arrived, Tudor would have to convince island residents to buy a product they’d never imagined – before any hope of profit melted away.

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