Our Road Trip to New England (Part IV)

The next morning, we drove to the site of the Boston Tea Party, the middle of the Fort Point Channel along Boston Harbor, to learn more about the 1773 act of resistance re-enacted by talented young Bostonians and holographic displays and films.

The waterfront views and the modern background of the city gave the two reconstructed ships, the Eleanor and the Beaver, full scale and historically accurate replicas of the 18^th century ships, the appearance of jewels from a past that time did not forget.

In a blatant move of taxation without representation, the British Parliament authorized the East India Company in May 1773 to export over half a million pounds of surplus tea to the American colonies without the usual tariffs and allowed them to choose their own consignees to receive and sell the tea, excluding all other colonial dealers.

The East India Company, facing bankruptcy due to corruption and mismanagement, would have had the privilege to undersell all American merchants and dominate the colonial tea trade. The Tea Act was thus unfair and dangerous to the colonists who were trying to make a living. It is no surprise that their discontent boiled into the now infamous destructive act of rebellion.

Before the Boston Tea Party, the colonists had asked the Massachusetts Governor, Thomas Hutchinson, to return the tea of the three ships, Beaver, Dartmouth, and Eleanor, but the Governor refused. Samuel Adams then organized “the tea party” with his underground resistance group, the Sons of Liberty.

Eleanor

Beaver

Under the cover of darkness, sixty members of the Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams, armed with axes, and allegedly disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded the three British ships at midnight and smashed the 342 chests, and one by one dumped the 92,000 pounds of tea (about 46 tons) overboard the Beaver, Dartmouth, and Eleanor into the Boston Harbor.

 The Robinson tea chest on display 

The only surviving [Robinson] tea chest from the Boston Tea Party is on display – its previous owners, although viewed the chest an important part of history, have used it for various domestic purposes before it reached the museum. For more than two centuries this tea chest was protected as a symbol of the iconic event on December 16, 1773, at Griffin’s Wharf.

The Harbor was shut down until the chests of tea were paid for. Obviously, so much tea caused the water to take on an odor, and it did not smell like a freshly brewed cup of tea. The value of the chests filled with tea dumped in the Boston Harbor was $18,000.

Strawberry Banke Museum

Saying good-bye to Boston, we traveled 62 miles via Salem, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The day was cloudy and drizzly, but it did not deter us from enjoying the lovely town with its rich history and the Strawberry Banke Museum.

Located in downtown Portsmouth, this 10-acre outdoor museum brings back 300 years of life through 32 original buildings, 8 vegetable, fruit, and ethno-botanical gardens, role-players dressed in period costumes, and well-documented traditional crafts, tools, and furniture.

Rationed items

Among the many lovely and well-preserved structures are Gov. Goodwin Mansion and garden, the 1814-1816 home of statesman Daniel Webster at the beginning of his law career, a carpentry shop, an apple and pear orchard which reminded me of my paternal grandma’s orchard in the hills, the victory garden from 1940 with its indoor collection of original posters and rationing cards from the period when everything was rationed for the war, the Dinsmore shop, a cotton tenant’s house, the Jackson house, the Jefferson house, Jones house with its discovery center, Penhallow house, Walsh House, Aldrich house garden, Patch house, Chase house, and many others. 

Some of the homes were furnished and well preserved while others were in the original state and empty. The Lowd house was an interesting lesson in carpentry skills, the home of cooper Peter Lowd with early craftsmen’s tools and trades, dating back to 1810.

We strolled through lovely green and flowery arcades; the flower gardens were still in bloom, and the trees were changing foliage to intense shades of orange, magenta, russets, and yellow. The governor’s garden was blooming with pink and maroon dahlias and a whispering water fountain was surrounded by bushes and a few evergreens.

The large green lawn overlooking the Gulf of Maine still bore evidence of the rock where the dock used to be when the ocean flooded the area 10-12 feet deep.

Portsmouth is also famous for the museum which houses the USS Albacore, a preserved research submarine, designed by the U.S. Navy to test experimental features for modern submarines. Top-secret (at the time) features tested led to the high-speed silent operation of modern submarines.

We crossed the bridge into Maine. We spent the night in the small town of Kittery, where the stores were cute trading posts along the highway. Arriving in Maine was a pleasant experience as the people were friendly and talkative, a difference of night and day when compared to the previous states’ New Englanders.

Kittery is known as the Gateway to Maine, the state’s oldest and southernmost town. Situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Piscataqua River, it is home to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey Island.

Robert’s Bar and Grill was a delight in fresh seafood, clams, lobsters, and lobster rolls. I think, I had three lobster rolls during our nine-day adventure through New England. The water outside the restaurant was at low tide.

Kittery also includes Badger’s Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, and seven islands at the Isles of Shoals 10 miles out to sea.

Maine is a state full of surprises. The city of York is the first chartered city in America in 1641. Maine has over 3,100 islands, is home to Paul Bunyan [Bangor] has a beautiful state insect, the honeybee, and boasts the coldest recorded temperature of -50 F in January 2009.

TO BE CONTINUED