Boston Tea Party Ships

The Beaver, Eleanor and Dartmouth…

To fully tell and understand the story of the Boston Tea Party, a flotilla of all three ships is necessary. With only the Beaver at the site of the museum for so many years, many people have the impression there was only one ship that was off-loaded during the Boston Tea Party. The new Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum will illuminate the importance and the significance of this historic event with replicas of all three ships involved. On the night of the Boston Tea Party, three ships that had sailed from London carrying cargoes of British East India Company tea were moored in Boston Harbor. The vessels were built in America and owned by Americans. The Beaver and the Dartmouth were whalers, and the Eleanor was a full rigged ship.

• The Beaver, a whaleship
• Dartmouth, a whaleship
• Eleanor, a full rigged ship

The Boston Tea Party Ships’ Arrival

The Dartmouth arrived in Boston on November 28, 1773, the Eleanor on December 2, and the last to arrive was the Beaver, which came into port on December 15. Each of the three ships carried more than one hundred chests of British East India Company tea.

Destruction of the Tea

340 chests of British East India Company Tea, weighing over 92,000 pounds, were dumped overboard the night of December 16, 1773. All of the chests were smashed open with axes and the tea dumped into Boston Harbor. The cargo was worth more than $1,700,000 dollars in today’s money. Historical accounts record that no damage was done to any of the ships except a broken lock which was replaced the next day. The event was witnessed by thousands, and the implications and impact of this action were enormous, ultimately leading to the sparking of the American Revolution.