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On the evening of December 16, 1773, three vessels lay at anchor in Boston Harbor. They carried 342 chests containing more than 90,000 pounds of dutiable tea worth about £9,000. Shortly after 6:00 p.m., between thirty and sixty men, calling themselves “Mohawks” and roughly disguised as American Indians, boarded the ships. Hundreds of silent onlookers at the wharf saw the men, organized into three groups, swiftly and systematically break open the tea chests and pour their contents into the sea. Because the water was only two or three feet deep, the tea began to pile up, forcing the men to rake it aside to allow room for the rest. In less than three hours, they had completed their work and disappeared into the darkness; to this day, the identities of most remain unknown.