The Podium in the Sanctuary of the Epistolith

In The Hesperus Prophecy, on the night of Tobias Lear’s death, the podium he uses to give his final speech to the Clypeate is made from special wood. The roughly hewn podium is built from the reclaimed wood of a tea chest thrown overboard during the Boston Tea Party of 1773.

The idea for a podium made from Boston Tea Party chests came from Princeton University Chapel’s pews, made from oak wood intended for Civil War gun carriages. The gun carriage is the wooden frame supporting a large cannon, allowing the heavy artillery piece to be moved and aimed more easily.

During the Boston Tea Party, on December 16, 1773, 340 chestfuls of tea were dumped into Boston Harbor to protest British taxes and the monopoly of the British East India Company. The protestors dressed like Native Americans and used tomahawks to break the chests, tossing the wood and tea into the harbor. Most chests were thoroughly destroyed, with only 2 chests surviving.

I grew up 12 miles down Nassau Street (Route 27) from Princeton University. Of all the esoteric facts I learned about the town and campus, the history of the chapel pews is particularly meaningful. Wood reclaimed from weapons designed to spread destruction and death, now used by parishioners for introspection and spirituality, reminds me of Isaiah 2:4 turning “swords into plowshares”. In The Hesperus Prophecy, the podium serves a similar purpose, reminding the Clypeate how a small group with virtuous intent can change the world.