“Three ill-fated tea-ships rode”

It’s a Boston 1775 tradition to start the new year with poetry. So far most of these verses have come from the handbills that newspaper carriers created to solicit end-of-year tips.

This year I’m deviating slightly from that approach to share lines that appeared in the Pennsylvania Packet newspaper on 3 Jan 1774.

A NEW SONG.
To the plaintive tune of Hosier’s Ghost.

I.
As near beauteous BOSTON lying
On the gentle swelling flood,
Without jack or pendant flying
Three ill-fated tea-ships rode:
II.
Just as glorious Sol was sitting,
On the wharf a numerous crew,
SONS of FREEDOM, fear forgetting,
Suddenly appear’d in view.
III.
Arm’d with hammer, axe and chissels,
Weapons new for warlike deeds,
Towards the herbage freighted vessels,
They approach’d with dreadful speed.
IV.
O’er their heads aloft in mid-sky
Three bright Angel forms were seen;
This was HAMPDEN, that was SIDNEY,
With fair LIBERTY between.
V.
“Soon, they cry’d, your foes you’ll banish,
“Soon the triumph shall be won;
“Scarce shall setting Phoebus vanish,
“Ere the deathless deed be done.’
VI.
Quick as thought the ships were boarded,
Hatches burst and chests display’d;
Axes, hammers, help afforded;
What a glorious crash they made!
VII.
Squash into the deep descended
Cursed weed of China’s coast—
Thus at once our fears were ended:
British rights shall ne’er be lost.
VIII.
Captains! Once more hoist your streamers,
Spread your sails, and plow the wave!
Tell your masters they were dreamers
When they thought to cheat the BRAVE.

BRITTANNO-AMERICANUS.
Philadelphia, Jan. 1st, 1774.

John Hampden (1594–1643) and Algernon Sidney (1622-1683) were two champions of the Parliamentarian side in the English civil wars of the seventeenth century, both dying for that cause and extolled as martyrs by British Whigs and republicans.

By the end of January 1774, this poem was proudly reprinted in the Massachusetts Spy and Boston Evening-Post.

The printer Judah P. Spooner (1748–1807) included the verses on a handbill with three other “Excellent Songs,” not on specific political events, when he was based on Norwich, Connecticut, in the 1770s. As an apprentice at the New-London Gazette, Spooner had been known for writing the new year’s verses, so he knew topical poetry when he saw it.

In addition to sharing images of two publications of this song, the Colonial Society of Massachusetts has provided sheet music for those who want to sing along.