 The DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware, makers of better things for better living through chemistry, presents the Cavalcade of America. Tonight's star, Richard Widmark, in The Man with a Cargo of Water. Tonight's DuPont Cavalcade, starring Richard Widmark as Frederick Tudor, takes us back some years to the middle of the last century. The place? A private dining room at the Staggs Head Hotel in Saugus, near Lynn, Massachusetts. A gathering of Boston businessmen and ship owners has met to honor one of their number. And now, gentlemen, we arrive at the purpose of our gathering, which is to hear from the man whose enterprise, imagination, daring, and determination to bring to his fellow men one of nature's great blessings have been so convincingly shown forth to all of us, his creditors, during the past 12 months. My friends, I give you the man who paid us back, Frederick Tudor. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Saltonstall. Gentlemen, the subject of my remarks is one very dear to my heart, and one that came close to being very dear indeed to all of you in another sense. I refer to ICE. Yes, yes to ICE. Sweet nature's gift to perspiring humanity. Now, let me begin by telling you about a hot August afternoon in 1804. On the porch of my father's home here in Saugus, there were four of us gathered. Elizabeth Sullivan, then my fiance and my employer's daughter was on hand, I recall. My brother William, just out of Harvard College, and the Reverend Jonathan Newbury on a pastoral call. Mr. Newbury expressed the sentiments of all present when he said... Dear me, it's certainly... Oh, it certainly is. Yes, indeed. I do believe our New England weather's changing. It's becoming positively tropical. Well, scarcely that. Trying as these temperatures are, I've known worse, and just this summer. And where was that, Mr. Newbury? In the West Indies, Frederick. Oh. I arrived at our mission hospital during a yellow fever epidemic. I assure you the trials of summer in Saugus are as nothing compared to that terrible experience. Well, fortunately, we have our blessings along with our trials. Thanks to the ice from Father's pond, for here comes Brother Will with a lemonade. Here you are, folks. Here you are. Ice-cold lemonade made in the shade by an old major. Elizabeth? Oh, Elizabeth, here you are. Thank you. Dominique? Thank you. Thank you, Will. Well, excellent. Excellent beverage. By the way, my poor friends and Martinique could have ice to cool their fevered brows. There indeed would be a work of mercy. Oh, yes, Martinique. Well, why not bring them ice, sir? What is that, Frederick? Well, the notion just occurred to me, sir. Why not export ice to the West Indies in ships? Why, Frederick, what a silly idea. Why? Ice would melt, of course. The ships would sink. My dear brother, have you had a touch of sun, perhaps? No, no, no. I'm quite serious, Will. Mr. Newbury says it would be a work of mercy. You'd better stick to Major Sullivan's counting house, old boy. Now, look, we keep ice here all summer packed in hay, don't we? Mm-hmm. We have ice houses. Why not ice ships? I declare, Frederick, if my father could hear you, he'd dismiss you from the bank. The idea! Now, I've labored in your father's service, my dear, for seven long years, and I'm still a clerk. No, if we're going to marry, I've got to strike out on my own account. What is your opinion, sir? Could it be done? Well, it never has been done, my boy. No, no, I'm afraid it's a bad idea. He's just too intense. It's too long sustained. There. You see? Well, just the same. I'm going to look into it further. If only it could be done. Ice for hot countries. Ice for the... Hot n' tots? Ice for the king of the cannibal isles? All right. You just specialize for the heathen Chinese, and ice for the jewelers of Charleston SC. Elizabeth, Elizabeth, I'm sure when you two are married, my brother will recover from these strange spells he has. Well, I'm sure he'd better. Well, I'm not so sure. I don't give up easily. The idea that first an idle notion grew and grew in my thoughts as the months went by. And when winter came, a stern New England winter... Mr. Studer, come over here. You've got to take the sparrow by the fire. Oh, boy. Certainly is cold. Well, can't get too cold for cutting ice. When she's cold, she don't snow. And when she don't snow... Yes, I know. When she don't snow, we don't have to scrape the pond. Snow, thaw, freeze, scrape. Snow, thaw, freeze and scrape over and over. I was better off in Sullivan's bank. Yeah, that's how it goes. As the following in the omnic says, if you don't like our New England weather, just you wait a minute. Well, if she holds off till nightfall, I figure we'll get out three more towns today. You hired us a ship yet? No, no, I haven't. Will's trying again in Boston. Oh, look, Yonder. Coming down the road there. We've got a visitor. Oh, wonder who it could be. Rich, folks, with a look at that wig. Yeah. Oh, it's Miss Sullivan. It's Elizabeth. Oh, yeah. Easy there. Well, Elizabeth, this is a surprise. I thought you said you... I've come to try once more, Frederick. I've driven all the way from Boston to try to persuade you to give up this insane idea. Now, look, I'm happy to see you, my dear. I'm very happy. But I've decided... Oh, Fred. Don't you know everyone in Boston is laughing at you? All my father's friends, all my friends, all the proper people. Well, I can't help that, Elizabeth. But you can help it. You can stop this nonsense. The man with the cargo of water, they call you. Oh, do they? Tell me this. Have you been able to charter a ship? Well, no, no, not yet. But my brother will. And you never will. Because every shipowner in Boston thinks you're a madman. And I'll not have a lunatic for a husband. A fool, a laughing... All right, now, you listen to me, Elizabeth. I've convinced my brother will, education and all that my plan will work. Nat, Nat, come on over here. Elizabeth, this is Nathaniel Wyeth, my foreman. Happy to meet you, ma'am. Nat knows ice, knows how to keep it in hot weather. Nobody knows more about ice than Nat Wyeth. And he believes in his venture, too. I don't care to meet any of your hired hands. Fred Tudor, either you give up this crazy thing or we're through. Well, then, Elizabeth, I guess you know the answer. Good. You was right. It is cold. Icy cold. She's pretty, though. She's beautiful. You're going to stick it out, boy? Till Hades freezes over. Good. What say we cut ice? My brother, trying his best, couldn't hire a ship for us, not one single ship. I tried myself in Boston and in Charlestown. All the answers were the same. As I told your brother, Mr. Tudor, the ship Pearl is not available for charter in this adventure of yours. Shipping ice to the tropics, indeed. But your ship is lying idle right here in the Charles, and my ice is stored on the next floor. I am fond of the Pearl, Tudor. She has made my fortune. I have no wish to see her found her with a hole full of water. I'm a busy man. Good day to you, sir. A cargo of ice? Did you say young man? Yes. I said ice, capital I-C-E-Ice. Sorry, I can't let you have the Slope Union or any other Slope. Briggs, Cooner, Ketch, Yall, Skiff, or Robo-Tion. Good day! You're right, Tudor. The Briggs favorite is not available for charter, but I'll tell you the favorite. How much, Captain Ward? How much? Of course, she's old, but she's sturdy, and well-found. $10,000? $10,000? Oh, no, Captain Ward. My brother and I and Mr. Savage, we've been able to scrape together only 6,500. Goodbye, Captain. Young man, wait a minute. Now, I'm a fool to do this. Yes, an old, soft-hearted fool. She's yours for 6,500. I'll take her, Captain Ward. And I'll sail before the week is out. But it was many weeks before we could scrape together a crew and a sailing master daring enough to sail south with a cargo of ice. But at last we were off with 130 tons of sogas ice bound for Martinique. And we thought for the beginning of great fortune. Surely the people of the hot countries who never had known the joys of ice would welcome us with open arms. And so we thought. I had even planned to donate some tons of ice to the hospital on Martinique to introduce my product. Shortly after we made port with our cargo just beginning to melt, I sought out the hospital superintendent, Mr. Jones. Mr. Tudor, we are indeed immensely grateful, but how are we to use this ice? How are you to use it? Yes, how are we to transport it to the hospital 5 miles inland? Surely it would melt. How are we to store it? Why, I supposed you'd build an ice house. Well, even if we could find the materials in the labor, Mr. Tudor, we just don't know how. You see, no one on this island has ever seen a cake of ice. No, I'm afraid, Mr. Tudor, our people just don't know what ice is. I'm the proprietor of the Hotel Atlantique, Mr. Achille Leblanc. Well, what can I do for you, Mr. Tudor? Mr. Leblanc, you, I'm sure, know what ice is, what ice is for. Ice? Yes. Yes, he's for skating over, very charming, very amusing. I've seen the pictures in a book, but why do you wish to discuss this chilly business? Look, better we have a drink. No, the point, Mr. Leblanc, is this. Out in the harbor, I have a cargo of 130 tons of... No, no, say 100 tons. Now, 100 tons of ice. 100 tons of ice? Yes. But why? Why, because I hope to sell it, of course. Mr. Tudor, no one in Martinique wishes to skate. Oh, no, no, no, no, man. It's not for skating, it's for cooling drinks. Surely you know how that's done. In Paris, yes, so I've heard. But in Martinique, no, it's too hot, much, much too hot. Well, look, look here, let me show you. I brought a sample along in this bag. Oh. Well, I guess it's all melted. I had to wait on the dock for a carry. How much cost this ice? Three cents a pound on the ship. So, so I pay three cents for it. I bring it back to my nice hotel at La Tique. I arrive back and, poof, it's gone. All melt. Well, Mr. Tudor, better we have a drink. No. Yes, Captain, I know it's melting faster. I told you never to leave the hatches off. I had to take the hatches off to fit the extra pumps. Ices have gone now. We're just holding even. Got four pumps in there. Well, keep on pumping. Thank you. Have to. We want to keep this tub afloat. Mr. Shortleaf. Yes, sir. Come on, Matt, let's go. Well, Mr. Tudor, I guess we're finally... No, not yet, Matt. I sent Will ashore to see the governor. Maybe we can beat some sense into the officials here. He should be back any minute. Here he comes over the rail. What did you find out, Will? No, you tread. These people are set in their ways. Never had ice, don't want ice. All right, then we'll have to teach him. Let's go to the ice melts. Oh, Fred. I did pick up a piece of news ashore. You did? Yeah, he won't like this either. Well, can't be any worse than what I've heard. There are vessels in with the Boston papers. Fred Elizabeth Sullivan was married two weeks ago to young Winthrop the banker's son. All right, that settles it. I can hear her laughing at me now. We can't give up, Will. I'll show her if it takes the rest of my life. Are you with me? That I am. And you, Nat? Here, Martinique freezes over, Mr. Tudor. The DuPont cavalcade continues starring Richard Whitmark as Frederick Tudor. Back in the middle, 1800s, Mr. Tudor is addressing a testimonial dinner being given by his creditors in his honor. But not all was lost on that first voice, gentlemen. No, no, not quite all. I taught the proprietor of the Tivoli Gardens in Martinique how to make ice cream. And we rescued the last few tons of our cargo. And I learned a great deal. What I learned was the truth of the late Thomas Jefferson statement. It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good. You see, I'd been rash, impetuous, naive. I learned caution and persistence. Our greatest problem was to find an insulating substance for our ice crop. We tried rice and wheat shav, more and more hay, tan bark, even cold dust. Then one day, Brother Will burst into our office. Fred? Yes, Fred. Fred, I think I found it. Look here. What, another book? Another book. The Most Eligible Construction of Ice Houses by Thomas Moore. And what does Brother Moore allow? Well, the usual stuff. Old Matt, of course, knows more than he does. But look, look at this footnote. Now listen. It is said that in the forests of Scandinavia, pine sawdust is used for the storage of ice and that ice so insulated has been transported safely to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Well? Fred, up in Maine, I've seen mountains of pine sawdust. They only use it to sprinkle on taproot floors. Get a bag pack, brother. We're going to buy us some sawdust. A mountain of it. Well, gentlemen, the sawdust worked. We built the ice trade. We strove to bring its healthful benefits to our fellow man. And as a result of our efforts, we prospered and we blossomed forth in the Green Bay tree. And then, uh, then you gentlemen know what happened. I forgot the lessons I'd learned. I became too bold. I deserted ice, my true love, and I invested heavily in coffee. But my speculation failed. I was even threatened with jail for my debts. But you gentlemen came to the rescue. I remember the day I've been waiting here since noon, Fred. What did they say? They'll advance the money. We'll stay out of jail for a while. They'll let you have the full amount? All of it, $200,000. I have three years to pay. Oh, but the time's too short. Yes, well, I know. Somehow, somehow we've got to find more ships, more ports. Well, we can try. I suppose we can try. We always do. Mr. Tudor. Yes. Mr. Bradford to see you, sir. Well, now, who could that be? He seems to be an Englishman, Mr. Will, and quite a swell. Show him in, Bob. Right this way, Mr. Bradford. Well, good afternoon, gentlemen. Good afternoon. My name is George Bradford. You, sir? Frederick Tudor? That I am. And this is my brother, William. Delighted, gentlemen. Mr. Tudor, your fame has penetrated to the farthest corners of the earth. All of us who live under the tropic sun are in your everlasting debt. Well, I'm glad to know that someone is in debt to me. I thought it the other way around, sir. You are in business difficulty, Mr. Tudor. Well, to put it mildly, yes, I am. I believe your difficulty is over, Mr. Tudor. What? I've been sent to you as a representative of the Anglo-Indian trading company. I've journeyed from Calcutta, sir, to ask you to send us your ice. Your from India? Yes, from India. Mr. Tudor, I am prepared to offer you all the worldwide facilities of our firm in return for all the ice you can cut and send us in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. Well, you, uh, you can provide us with return cargoes. Pepper, sir, sugar and spice, ginger and Indian cottons, escarer sheeting, pallicate handkerchiefs, madras, chints, emitters and seersuckers. Just send us the ice. Can we make a deal, Mr. Tudor? That we can, sir. That we can. We could. And we did. Before long, Will and I were deep in the India trade, day and night, night and day. We had very little sleep and neither had Bob our bright young clerk. Did you call me, sir? Yes, yes, Bob. And you know, you've got to learn to stay awake even after midnight. I do my best, sir. Yes, I'm sure you do. I, uh, want you to take down another letter, Bob. To Captain Littlefield, on board the Brig Tuscany at Charlestown. My dear Captain Littlefield, you will sail as planned with the tide on Friday next, the first of my new fleet. As soon as you have arrived in latitude 12 degrees north, you will have carried ice south as it has ever been carried before. And your ship becomes a discovery ship. A happy voyage. Signed, Frederick Tudor, merchant of ice. Oh, uh, spell the word ice with a capital I. Will you, Bob? Yes, sir. And, uh, when you're done, get some sleep, boy. Well, brother, it appears we've saved our necks once more. Yes, thanks to ice. Well, what do you think of our business and all from a night in? Yesterday, if you can believe it, I actually stopped worrying for three minutes straight. Good boy. You know it's a funny thing, this business of worrying. You remember last winter when we were cutting ice on Walden Pond up near Concord? I could hardly forget those wild Irishmen we had on the job. What a crew. There was a man up there named Thoreau who lived in a log cabin all by himself. I got to know him pretty well, and we talked a lot. A wise man, Will. I was worried sick then. It was just before the Tuscany made port at Calcutta. What shall I do, I asked this man, Thoreau? Do what you love, Tooty. Do what you love, he said. Well, I suddenly realized that that was what I had been doing all along. Oh? A long time ago, brother, Elizabeth was your love. I haven't forgotten it, Will. She's changed, that's all. Changed to, uh, ice. And so, gentlemen, the story has a happy ending. And it has a moral, too, or rather two morals. The first, you know, you've heard me say again and again. He who gives back at the first repulse and without striking the second blow, despairs of success has never been, is not, and never will be a hero in war, in love, or in business. Yes, but there's much more to it than that. There's more to ice than the pleasant coolness we all enjoy. How many of you have ever heard of what is called the strange nature of water? Yes, brother William, of course, and the rest of the Harvard contingent. Well, I never was fortunate enough to attend Harvard College, but I can recognize God's grace when I see it. And I see it in frozen water. Now, maybe I'm blind to all else after so many years, but nevertheless, none of us could live. No life would be possible. Had not providence in wisdom, or love, or otherwise made water to behave as it does behave under low temperatures. Gentlemen, alone, of all the myriad forms of matter, water does not continue to contract as it nears the freezing point, but instead it suddenly expands. For if ice contracted, as all other substances do, all other substances underchilling, then ice would become heavier than the same volume of water, and therefore it would sink to the bottom of every cove, inlet, lake, and pond from coast to coast. And it would lie there, insulated from the sun and unmelted, adding a layer each year until all the seas and all the lakes and all the ponds would be filled with ice. Enough ice to upset the balance of nature and chill the marrow of mankind to the point of extinction. But that doesn't happen. Why else should water alone be different? By God's mercy, I say. And now let us give thanks for all of God's mercies and for all the opportunities we have before us in this good, this free, and this blessed land. Richard Widmark and the Cavalcade Players for tonight's story. The man with a cargo of water. Richard Widmark will return in a moment. Our star, Richard Widmark. Thank you. Thank you very much. As a former Cavalcade player, I always look forward to returning to do one of these broadcasts. A number of us who now work in Hollywood began our careers on this program, and naturally our interest in all things Cavalcade continues as keenly as ever. My own leads me to recommend next week's show. It's an exciting story called Golden Harvest, and Cavalcade's star will be one of Hollywood's finest young actors, Lon McAllister. Now how about joining me in listening then, huh? Thank you, and good night. Tonight's original Dupont drama, The Man with a Cargo of Water, was written by George Hates Faulkner and was based on material in Lost Man of American History by Stuart Holbrook, published by Macmillan. Richard Widmark appeared to arrangement with 20th Century Fox Pictures in a production no way out. Music for the Dupont Cavalcade is composed by Arden Cornwell and conducted by Donald Boris. The program is directed by John Zoller. Don't forget, next week, Lon McAllister on the Dupont Cavalcade of America, which comes to you from the Belasco Theater in New York and is sponsored by the Dupont Company of Wilmington, Delaware, makers of better things for better living through chemistry.