Taste of Life: When ice was transported to Poona from Bombay in bullock carts
A fire in Bombay had destroyed a large ice factory and disrupted bread supply of the city. Poona, Madras, Allahabad and other cities were asked by telegram to send assistance to the sufferers
In September 1883, people gathered at the Poona Railway Station to witness an unusual sight. Blocks of ice were loaded into a special train to be carried to Bombay. Poona then was accustomed to trains bringing in ice from Bombay and Madras. But this was the first time that ice manufactured at a factory in Poona was transported to Bombay.
A fire in Bombay had destroyed a large ice factory and disrupted bread supply of the city. Poona, Madras, Allahabad and other cities were asked by telegram to send assistance to the sufferers.
The ice factory in Poona worked overtime for a fortnight to fulfil the extra demand.
Ice has been used to preserve food and make drinks cooler for millennia. However, it was a luxury limited to the wealthy.
Around 1820, Frederic Tudor, an American businessman, who eventually earned the nickname “Ice King of the World”, devised a brilliant way to insulate ice aboard ships by packing it in sawdust and established a supply chain, distributing it as a commodity from New England to the hotter parts of the country and the world eventually.
Ice from Boston reached Bombay in 1836. The Marathi newspaper “Durpun” reported on September 12, 1836, that the “Corro” left from Boston on May 21, 1836. She introduced quite a novel import to the island of Bombay – a quantity of ice. At the time, there was no place on the island adapted to its reception. The cargo consisted of about 370,000 lbs of ice in pieces of about six inches thick. The ice was taken up from the Boston River, and piled at the lower part of the vessel, previously prepared for its storage. A huge room was constructed with double walls of plank and the hollow space between them was filled with cotton, through which heat penetrated with great difficulty. Still, notwithstanding these precautions, it was impossible but a portion of ice should waste away by melting into the water; and accordingly, out of almost 188 tonnes, between 40 and 50 were supposed to have been lost. Yet, a very large portion remained for the use of Bombay community when the ship reached the island.
Most Europeans hated Indian summer. The outer doors of their houses were closed as early as seven in the morning to shut out the heated air, and the windows were shaded. Life within doors was made comfortable by closing all the outer doors after early morning and keeping in motion a kind of a large fan suspended from the ceiling.
With wealth at command to bring within reach all that may be procured to alleviate the ills of life, one could be physically comfortable even in India, was generally believed in the European circles.
Those Europeans whose employments and whose means would permit such an indulgence fled to the mountains, and delightful it certainly was to exchange this stifling heat and pestilence-laden air for cool breezes. Even animals suffered much, and valuable horses and dogs were sometimes sent to the hills, to remain during the heated term.
For those who remained on the plains during the excessive heat, the use of ice was a great relief.
Ice-laden ships arrived with their cargoes in Bombay three to four times a year. The ice was removed as rapidly as possible, first, in native boats to the bunder, or landing place, and thence in bullock carts to the cooler regions of the ice-house.
There was a time when ice was scarce in Bombay and was almost unknown in Poona. It was carried to Poona from Bombay in bullock carts.
India had been almost entirely dependent on the supply of ice on importations by the Tudor Company from America to the principal ports; and, although the quantity imported into these amounted to thousands of tonnes annually, yet, on account of the heavy expense for freight, insurance, landing, and other charges, cartage and storage, together with the large percentage of waste that took place, the wholesale prices at the three principal ports of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, were seldom lower that 2d (pence) and often reached as high as 3d, when stocks in the ice stores were low, which was frequently the case through the irregular arrival of cargoes.
These high prices had in several instances been largely exceeded, for during the existence of what was known as the “ice famine”, when the importation of ice for a time altogether ceased, through shipments relied upon not coming till many months afterwards, prices as high as from 8d to 1s (shilling) per pound were charged by dealers who happened to hold small stocks at the time or were able to obtain supplies from cities like Madras.
The non-arrival of an ice-ship had been the cause of an ice famine on a few occasions. The consequent discomfort had to be understood by anyone who was acquainted with Deccan, its heat, and the intense thirst caused thereby.
The worst ice famine happened in the 1870s. The ice famine in 1875 in Bombay lasted several months and it of course affected Poona. Ice was brought to Poona from Madras by paying three times the usual price for it. Another ice famine occurred the next year when Poona could get only a limited supply of ice. Thanks to the railway system, Poona Club got ice regularly from Madras and was able to use it at all regular meals, as well as for special needs.
An article in the “Deccan Chronicle”, published on August 20, 1876, held out hopes of the “ice famine” coming to an end, in the expectation of ice ships arriving soon, and stating that even the sick could not get supplies, and wishing that the “disastrous suffering of the community” might lead to competition.
The captain of the “Aftoon” which arrived in the harbour on April 19, 1876, reported that he passed a lightly laden ship, bound for Bombay – once near the Cape, and again on that side of the equator. He could not ascertain her name but said from her light burden he had little doubt that she was the long-expected “City of Boston” as ice ships were the only ships that came so lightly laden to Bombay. The “Poona Observer” hoped that in two or three days, therefore, at the latest, she might be expected in Bombay. There were only a “very few” pounds of ice left in stock, and sick people were then unable to get any supply.
The diseases rife in summer were fevers of various types, smallpox, and cholera. Ice, by then, was used to comfort the sick and ice famines affected the hospitals too.
Ice famines put immense pressure on authorities to regularise the supply of ice. Several corporations like the General Ice Company from Chicago approached the government to seek permission for starting ice factories in Bombay and Poona.
In the early 1880s, ice factories were established in many large Indian cities, thus bringing luxury to people of modest incomes.
The fascinating stories of the ice factories in the Bombay Presidency are for some other time.
Chinmay Damle is a research scientist and food enthusiast. He writes here on Pune’s food culture. He can be contacted at chinmay.damle@gmail.com
