Three ships were boarded during the 1773 Boston Tea Party.
The ships were Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver, all carrying tea owned by the British East India Company. Protesters boarded them at Griffin's Wharf in Boston on the night of December 16, 1773, after colonial officials refused to let Dartmouth leave without unloading its cargo.
The protest opposed the Tea Act, which allowed the East India Company to sell tea directly in the colonies while retaining a tax. Many colonists viewed the arrangement as a threat to local merchants and as taxation imposed without colonial representation.
The protesters dumped the tea into Boston Harbor, but they did not generally damage the ships or steal other cargo. Reports differ over whether 340 or 342 chests were destroyed, so the number of ships is a more secure fact. Britain responded with the Coercive Acts, which helped intensify colonial resistance.