Salem's Friendship Ship, the Custom House, "Bewitched" Statue and the Salem Waterfront Hotel & Marina

The Friendship which is anchored in Salem, Mass.' harbor is a replica of the original Friendship. The Salem Maritime National Historic Site is actually where the ship is docked. The original 171 foot Three-masted Salem East Indiaman was built in 1797.

Touring the ship is most interesting. Below decks, in the belly of the wooden ship gives a glimpse into how the ship's crew lived and toiled. The officers had their own quarters while the enlisted slept in hammocks near the supplies and foodstuffs.

The Friendship is a fully functioning vessel which actually sails close to home from time to time. Additionally the National Park Service staff and volunteers help take care of her, working on the continual upkeep and maintenance that goes into caring for a ship.
 The Friendship is also one of the tall ships. The ship participates in the Salem Maritime Festival.

The Salem Custom House is nearby, where Nathaniel Hawthorne worked  as a surveyor, while writing his novel the Scarlett Letter. In the introduction to the novel, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows us around the Custom House and gives us a glimpse of the musty and dusty second floor where he discovered the records he fleshed out which formed the basis of The Scarlett Letter. We viewed his brightly lit office with the high ceilings which give the room an air of spaciousness.

The small fenced-in  cemetery close to the "Bewitched" statue is eerie near dusk and makes for an interesting site. The "Bewitched" statue depicts the late Elizabeth Montgomery sitting sidesaddle on a broomstick next to a crescent sliver of the moon. It's a fairly textured, even lumpy, statue. Even it has its controversy. Many of Salem didn't want more attention brought to the infamous Salem Witch trials of 1692. Yet there are plenty of shops for those who dabble in the old art. There is a good self-walking tour you can take around the town which showcases Salem's interesting and diverse history.

My husband, two kids and I stayed at the Salem Waterfront Hotel and Marina on the historic Pickering Wharf July 3 & 4, 2005. The hotel had opened in October of 2004 and was fairly new. We definitely got a deal, when while registering on such short notice. The hotel rooms are plush and spacious. We also didn't have to go out into the jam-packed crowd the eve of July 4. Instead we had a front row seat to the fireworks show out over the harbor with a birds-eye view from our hotel arm as we watched the fireworks from roomy overstuffed armchairs.

Salem is an interesting city with small town atmosphere, definitely worth touring. There's so much history to see and things to do. I'm glad we took the trip.