Tea Party Ship Dartmouth

About Tea Party Ship Dartmouth

The Boston Tea Party targeted three ships carrying East India Company tea: the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver. The Dartmouth arrived in Boston on November 28, 1773. Colonial authorities required the ship to unload and pay duties within 20 days or the cargo would be seized. A mass meeting at the Old South Meeting House resolved to prevent unloading. On December 16, the last day before seizure, approximately 150 men boarded the three ships. They were loosely disguised as Mohawk Indians. In three hours, they dumped 342 chests of tea, weighing 92,000 pounds and worth 9,659, into the harbor. The participants swore secrecy and the identities of many remain unknown. The event was called the destruction of the tea until the term Boston Tea Party was coined decades later.