During the Tea Party days, a fellow Tea Party member, Glenn Lord, informed the First Coast Tea Party he was going to build a replica of The Dartmouth — one of the ships sitting in Boston Harbor in 1773 carrying tea from England before American patriots tossed the cargo overboard in protest of British taxation.
Read about the original Dartmouth here: https://nha.org/research/nantucket-history/history-topics/ships-of-the-boston-tea-party-eleanor-beaver-and-dartmouth/
At first, we thought Glenn might be a little crazy.
Then he showed up with the finished product.
And there she was.
Magnificent.
The replica was stunning, patriotic, and impossible to ignore. Glenn had taken an idea rooted in American history and turned it into something people could touch, stand beside, photograph, and experience. During those years, The Dartmouth became more than a float. She became a symbol of the movement itself.
We used The Dartmouth replica as a stage at Tea Party rallies and events across Florida. People gravitated toward her. Children climbed aboard for pictures. Veterans saluted her. Grandparents explained to their grand kids what happened in Boston Harbor and why freedom mattered.
Then came the 2009 Tea Party March on Washington.
The organizers were not exactly prepared for a replica ship rolling into the middle of one of the largest grassroots protests in modern American history. Glenn and I had to convince them to allow The Dartmouth to “march” alongside the estimated 1.5 million Americans who showed up to protest government overreach and runaway spending.
Thankfully, they finally agreed.
And what a sight it was.
The Dartmouth rolled slowly through the streets of Washington as crowds surrounded her. People standing near the ship would hand their cameras and phones up to us so we could capture photos above the sea of people. Glenn carefully drove while First Coast Tea Party leaders snapped pictures and handed devices back down to grateful patriots wanting to preserve a moment they instinctively knew was historic.
There was joy that day. Hope too.
Americans from every walk of life stood shoulder to shoulder because they believed their voices still mattered. Watch the video link of the march here:
Years later, Glenn moved away and donated The Dartmouth to the St. Augustine Tea Party. We were grateful she had found another patriotic home where she could continue telling the story of liberty and citizen involvement.
But like many things involving politics and passion, trouble eventually surfaced.
A fight broke out over who owned The Dartmouth. What should have been a shared appreciation for a piece of Tea Party history instead turned into a painful legal dispute that dragged through the courts. According to court records, the issue centered around possession and title ownership of the iconic replica.
This week, the courts finally ruled that The Dartmouth belongs to the St. Augustine Tea Party organization and ordered the return of the vessel.
Read more here: https://www.saintaugustineteaparty.org/
That is good news.
Not because anyone “won” politically, but because The Dartmouth deserves preservation, respect, and care after years of service reminding Americans what citizen action can accomplish.
Our hope was always that one day this replica of The Dartmouth might find its way into the Smithsonian as part of the story of the modern Tea Party movement and the millions of Americans who peacefully rose up to demand accountability from their government.
Maybe one day it still will.
Until then, we trust the remaining members of the St. Augustine Tea Party will take good care of her.
After all, she served America well.
For more insight into the Tea Party Movement, watch this 2010 video featuring Senate Candidate, Marco Rubio. (Now America’s Secretary of State). Back then, he explained the movement’s concerns and hopes for America remarkably well — and today, many would say he’s still working to help straighten out the mess in Washington that sparked the movement in the first place.
