Spring 2010 (Issue No. 47)

FRED'S BOAT SHOP

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FRED'S BOAT SHOP   (Page 1 of 7)

I had crossed the North Street Bridge in Salem, MA, hundreds, if not thousands of times, and every crossing left me thinking to myself, and sometimes aloud, "Man! Would I love to get a look inside that boatyard!" You see, down below and off to starboard is a boatyard where some of its visible collection of old wooden boats appear to be literally slipping off of the back of the yard escaping into the North River. This place just screams out, "I am an old boat time capsule. Open me. I beg you!"

Well, about a year ago, when curiosity got the better of me, I hung a sharp right after crossing the bridge and stopped at one of the two buildings that fronted the yard. The painted wooden sign above the door read simply "FRED'S BOAT SHOP." The slightly graffitied sign on the adjacent building touted "Used Marine Parts At Junk Yard Prices." Okay, who wouldn't want to get a look inside this place! Unfortunately, my attempts at entry were thwarted. Fred's was locked up tight and seemed like it had been for years. Thinking that scaling the fences was not necessarily in my best interest, I held my camera up over the fence and took a few shots, some of which I actually put on the BYB website. Before leaving, I slipped a few copies of the Bone Yard Boats newsletter through the mail slot in the door in the hopes that Fred would one day reach out to me, and in a way he did.

On a rainy Sunday afternoon in March, I received an email -- out of the blue -- from Deb, Fred's daughter. Fred had passed away in February at the age of 90, and Deb was now in charge of handling the boatyard and its contents. Deb wrote, "Since the recent death of my father, Fred Kozlowski, who founded Fred's Boat Shop on 10 Franklin Street in Salem, MA, many years ago, I have been inventorying the 2 or 3 dozen boats located there. Some of them might be good candidates to be listed on your website or in your newsletter. Do you have any suggestions? There is also some marine hardware at Fred's Boat Shop - do you list that or only whole boats? I will be in Salem next week, and if you would like to meet me at Fred's Boat Shop to look at boats that would be a good time." The old boat time capsule was opening. 

(Story continued on page 2.)

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