Recent temperatures in the teens, and a potentially huge snowstorm being forecast in the United States, has me thinking about the warm weather in St Kitts, and what was done in the past to provide ice to keep things cool. At one point, I was doing some quick look ups on the beginnings of telephone service on the island, and found some old Kittitian newspaper articles on a man usually referred to as “Mr. Blattau” (sometimes spelled Blatteau). He was John A. Blattau, an American engineer and entrepreneur who was involved in early implementation of phone systems in the US. As it happens, he also spearheaded introduction of ice manufacturing in St Kitts in the late 1800s.
An ice making machine was patented in 1851 by John Gorrie, a physician working in Florida who believed that cool temperatures could help patients with yellow fever. Prior to that time, ice had to be cut out from bodies of fresh water in colder climates and shipped to warm regions, an expensive and problematic process. Ice in a place like St Kitts was useful for medical reasons and for luxury food items like ice cream and cold lemonade. A notice in the 1877 St. Christopher Gazette announced that a “first class freezing & ice making machine” had arrived on a mail steamer, which would supply the teetotaling Good Templars with “iced lemonade and sweet water”.
John Blattau was involved in the ice manufacturing business in 1887, when he brought ice making equipment to St Kitts. While the venture started out on a positive note, things apparently got more complicated as time went on. It was reported in February of 1887 that Blattau had personally sailed with the new machinery to the island, accompanied by Francis V. DeCoppet, an engineer from New Orleans who had invented a type of ice machine that utilized an ammonia compressor. The factory was built on the bay in the capital city of Basseterre. An article printed in August of that year on the island of Dominica discussed the possibilities of inducing Mr. Blattau to build a factory there, so their people would also have access to reasonably priced ice.
In another piece published in May of 1887, a Frederick, Maryland newspaper described John Blattau’s representation of the American Ice Company in St Kitts. He had just arrived back in Maryland from the island, and stated he was “delighted with the West Indies and reports leaving the business of his company there in a a prosperous condition”. He had brought with him a Kittitian named John Seaton as a manservant who was apparently “so anxious to come to the United States that he shipped before the mast as a sailor on Mr. Blattau’s vessel”.
The ice business seems to have taken a downward turn by the time another article was printed in St Kitts in late 1887. The text stated that the island had been ‘jubilant” over the introduction of Blattau’s American Ice Company machine earlier in the year, and inhabitants of neighboring islands were “covetous”. It explained that the company was granted an annual £200 subsidy to supply the people and hospitals of St Kitts with ice, with some shipments also made to Antigua. The Kittitian government even supplied fresh water at no cost. A major problem developed because the company’s contract was exclusive, so that if insufficient ice was produced, no other ice manufacturers would want to step in. Apparently lack of steady production was an ongoing situation, and the paper complained that “… the manner of the contract for the subsidy is one of the most idiotic pieces of business that ever entered into the brain of an idiotic Crown Official.” The writer suggested that a fine should be imposed on the American Ice Company every day that no ice was delivered, and the contract canceled after two weeks of no ice.
Blattau seems to have courted the Kittitian locals, perhaps to smooth over the bumps in ice production. It was reported in July that he made good on a promise to the Roman Catholic church, by providing the church a pipe organ. The notice mentioned that “the Ice Machine is at work again”. His ambitious public relations efforts went beyond telephones and ice – in another article he was quoted as saying that “the prospect of the Islands becoming a popular winter resort is assured”, and Kittitians were “a pleasant class of people, well governed, obedient and ruled by the best administration … in the world”. He further said he would take orders for stoves, sewing machines, and carpenter’s tools from America, and was planning to bring ice makers to the islands of St. Lucia and Antigua.
The fate of John Blattau and his ice making business in St Kitts isn’t clear after the flurry of newspaper articles in 1887. By 1900, ice manufacturing was being done by Augustine Mondesire, with ice sold to the public for one penny per pound, with preference given to patients with a doctor’s certificate of need. Mr. Mondesire complained at the time that the annual subsidy for ice making in St Kitts had been reduced to £100, while Antigua’s continued at £200. He strongly hinted that the reduced funding was because of racial differences, and personal relationships with government officials. He threatened to stop production if the subsidy wasn’t brought back to its original level. Ice production was apparently a hot button issue for decades, with political, economic, and racial entanglements brought into the mix.
Sources
- Discovery Magazine, The History of Human-made Ice by Amy Brady, 2023
- American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Timeline
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