Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum

The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum tells the story of the Boston Tea Party (see below) and life in the colonies at the time through immersive audiovisual experiences, exhibits, and tours of actual ships moored next to the museum in Fort Point Channel by the Congress Street Bridge near South Station Transportation Center (map).

You see the museum by a guided tour that lasts about an hour. Tours start every 30 minutes from 10am to 5 pm, every day of the week.

On December 16, 1773, about 100 colonial citizens of Boston, some disguised as Mohawk warriors, boarded three ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 tea chests holding 90,000 pounds (40,823 kilos) of tea worth £9000 (about $1.3 million in today's money) into the sea.

They were protesting the Tea Act of 1773, along with other British government policies, principally taxation without representation.

Protesters in other British North American colonies had succeeded in having shipments of taxed tea returned to England, but Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson of the Massachusetts Bay colony refused to let the tea be shipped back. He was determined to uphold the law and force the colonists to pay the tax.

The protest was a milestone event in the years leading up to 1775, when armed rebellion would break out at Lexington and Concord, beginning the American Revolutionary War. More...

The museum is located only a few steps from the Boston Children's Museum. Both are great attractions for children. More...

Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum
Congress Street Bridge (map)
Boston MA 02127
Tel: 617-338-1773 or 1-855-TEA-1773