by Martin Haschka

Created on: August 18, 2009   Last Updated: August 19, 2009

Nobody in Boston envied Captain Hall for the position he was in on the evening of December 16, 1773. All he wanted was to set sail again and leave Boston Harbour with his vessel, the Dartmouth, which was owned by Francis Rotch, a Quaker from Nantucket Island. But the cargo of his ship still wasn't unloaded although they had been anchoring at Griffin's Wharf for 19 days now. 25 Bostonian Patriots stood guard to prevent that from happening. If the Patriots got their way his ship would never be unloaded. To complicate matters even more, British Governor Hutchinson threatened to destroy the ship if it left port with its cargo still on board. Armed British vessels were blocking the harbor exit to make sure Captain Hall and Francis Rotch would take the threat seriously.

Two more ships were trapped in the harbor of Boston: The Eleonor and the Beaver. Their combined cargo consisted of 342 chests of tea, owned by the British East Indian Tea Company. The ships were part of a fleet of seven vessels that transported the popular freight to the Colonies, yet none of them had been welcome.

Tomorrow would be that day, when according to British law, which governed the North American colonies, the Dartmouth's cargo could be seized by port authorities and auctioned off. Surely the Patriots standing guard would oppose any such action, but just as surely the British authorities would insist on the tea being unloaded. The situation was explosive and the fuse was already lit.

Night had already fallen when Captain Hall heard voices and footsteps boarding his ship. A man, badly disguised as a Mohawk Indian, approached him. Without a trace of an accent, the man asked him for the keys to the hatches. Then he asked for some candles. Captain Hall complied but asked that the ship itself would be left intact. The fake Indian assured him of that. Years later he identified himself as George Hewes, a Boston shoemaker.

Over the next three hours Captain Hall watched as the pale-faced Indians proceeded with their solution to solving the stalemate that kept his ship trapped in the Harbour. The soldiers aboard the British vessels guarding the harbor also did nothing but watch. The 'Indians' opened the hatches and carried the Dartmouth's cargo on deck. Using tomahawks or whatever tools they had brought along they cracked each and every of the 114 tea chests on board to subsequently throw them overboard with their content.

After the job was done the vessel was significantly lighter in weight,

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