I wonder how cold the water in Boston Harbor is in December?

Colder, probably, two hundred-plus years ago, I bet. You know. Global warming.

Anyway, that puts the Boston Tea Party into a little more perspective. They rowed out to those ships in December to throw all that tea overboard.

Oh, right. If you hadn’t already heard, today is the 236th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. The website EyeWitness to History has an account from George Hewes, who was there:

In about three hours from the time we went on board, we had thus broken and thrown overboard every tea chest to be found in the ship, while those in the other ships were disposing of the tea in the same way, at the same time. We were surrounded by British armed ships, but no attempt was made to resist us.

…The next morning, after we had cleared the ships of the tea, it was discovered that very considerable quantities of it were floating upon the surface of the water; and to prevent the possibility of any of its being saved for use, a number of small boats were manned by sailors and citizens, who rowed them into those parts of the harbor wherever the tea was visible, and by beating it with oars and paddles so thoroughly drenched it as to render its entire destruction inevitable.

Here’s a picture. “The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor,” by Nathaniel Currier, 1846:

The view from the ship:

Heh. I’ve no idea whether that’s an authentic Absolut poster or not, but it oughta be.

Relatively unknown historical fact, or something I just made up just now: the Boston Tea Party and subsequent boycotts of tea helped the future United States become a coffee-drinking, rather than tea-drinking nation. Thank goodness.