Simms Brothers Boat Yard
No. 14846 Subchaser at Simm’s Boat Yard
William E. and Eric J. Simms started this fine yachtbuilding yard on Freeport Street, in Dorchester, in 1933, on the site previously occupied by G. F. Lawson & Son. Unfortunately, it had to close in 1957 when the site was compulsorily acquired by the D.P.W. to make room for the Southeast Expressway
The firm was located at 242 Freeport Street, approximately opposite the end of Beach Street, where the parking lot of the IBEW is located today.
For a list of vessels built by Simms, see
http://shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/emergencysmall/simms.htm
No. 14878
WILLIAM SIMMS, AT 89;
COFOUNDER OF BOAT BUILDING AND YACHT YARDS
Author: By William P. Coughlin, Globe Staff
Date: 06/09/1986 Page: 57
Section: OBITUARY
EXETER, N.H. — William E. Simms, cofounder of boat building and yacht yards in Massachusetts and builder of a race-winning yawl, died of heart disease yesterday in the Exeter Health Care Nursing Home in Exeter, N.H., after a long illness. He was 89. He and his brother, Eric, operated one of Boston’s most respected shipyards and turned out scores of wooden crafts for the Army and Navy, as well as such ocean class yachts as the 89-foot motorsailer Versatile for Harold Vanderbilt of the New York Yacht Club.
Born in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Mr. Simms apprenticed under master craftsmen in Marystown, Newfoundland and later in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. When Canadian shipbuilding slumped in 1922, Mr. Simms found work at the George Lawley Corp. in Dorchester’s Neponset section. The company built and designed some of the most noted wooden and iron vessels. By 1927, Mr. Simms was promoted as Lawley’s assistant foreman of the wooden boat division. He then worked as a builder foreman for McCloon’s yacht yard in Mystic, Conn. The financial crash of 1929 forced the yard to close.
“He took any job he could get,” his wife of 62 years, Ruby (Pentz), said in a telephone interview yesterday. “Once he came home with only $12 in his pocket. He said, “Well, we can’t do any worse, so we might as well start our own business.”
In 1933, Mr. Simms and his brother launched the Simms Brothers Boat Yard on Freeport Street in Dorchester. During World War II, the Simms yard built 110-foot long submarine chasers (adopted after the war as trawlers by Boston and Gloucester fishermen), small Army transports and high speed air-sea rescue crash boats.
According to his son, Harold, of Norwell, Mr. Simms “built on speculation” the 58-foot yawl Argyle, designed by Sparkman and Stevens of New York. It was purchased by yachtsman William Moore, who wrote her name in the record books by winning the 1948 race from Newport to Bermuda. Mr. Simms moved his business to Jacksonville, Fla., in 1957 after the Department of Public Works took his property to build the Southeast Expressway. But after four years there, he returned to Mass. to open Simms Brothers Yacht Yard in Scituate. He built his last boat in 1962, his son said. It was a 28-foot long Friendship sloop for Joseph Plumb of Rochester. “It probably was the most expensive Friendship ever built,” Simms said. “It had a Mercedes diesel, all teak brightwork, mahogany planking, a lead keel, nothing but the best.” “No original Friendship was ever built that way,” he said. Mr. Simms retired in 1972, his son said.
Beside his wife, son and brother, he leaves another brother, Herbert Simms of Creston, Newfoundland; a sister, Madeline Parsons of St. John’s, Newfoundland; four grandsons and two great grandchildren. A funeral service will be held in the Remick Funeral Home, 811 Lafayette Road, Route 1, Hampton, N.H., Wednesday at 11 a.m. Burial will be in High Street Cemetery, Hampton.
. No. 14881 Schooner Tyrone built by Simm’s