I grew up in the Angola Bay swamp area in eastern North Carolina. My father helped me build my first boat when I was 12 years old. It was a 14-foot wood boat locally known as a creek boat and powered by paddle. A friend of mine and I practically lived on the water in that boat. There was little difference between us and a couple of swamp rats except that the rats were cleaner.

My sister got me out of the swamp (where I would have been glad to stay) when I was 17 years old. She told me that if I was to amount to anything at all in life I must do three things. First, I had to leave the sw...

I grew up in the Angola Bay swamp area in eastern North Carolina. My father helped me build my first boat when I was 12 years old. It was a 14-foot wood boat locally known as a creek boat and powered by paddle. A friend of mine and I practically lived on the water in that boat. There was little difference between us and a couple of swamp rats except that the rats were cleaner.

My sister got me out of the swamp (where I would have been glad to stay) when I was 17 years old. She told me that if I was to amount to anything at all in life I must do three things. First, I had to leave the swamp. Second, I had to go to college. Third, I had to start using deodorant. I did the first two and sometimes remember the third.

My work--steel animals and plants--has evolved from my experience building steel tugboats. Working by myself over a 24-year period, I've built 5 ocean-going tugs, 3 small cruising tugs, and a barge. In the process I burned down one shop when an acetylene tank exploded. I delivered the last steel boat I will ever build (at least in this lifetime) to its new owner in Minnesota in 1995. The work I do now evolved from my cutting animals and plants out of scrap steel left over from boat building.

Although I still maintain my tug boat and charter boat captain's license, I am no longer an active commercial captain. This most likely comes as a great relief to the coast guard, since I have a condition that causes me to reverse right from left--to say nothing of the fact that I have been on three boats that sank.

Craft work is now my full time occupation.

Water, and the creatures in, on, and above it, have always been important to me. I built a small steel tug boat (the "Lepton"). Arlene and I take frequent trips into the swamps and rivers of the east coast, sometimes being out for weeks at a time. I still enjoy the sights and sounds of the waterways, even on routes I've been on many times. Most of the ideas for the pieces I make come to me while on the water.

If I smile when I make something, and you smile when you see it, I've done my job.

Fred Kessler
Email: kessler@vnet.net