Police helicopter photo of a police vehicle using a boom to look insde the boat where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was hiding.

Police helicopter photo of a police vehicle using a boom to look insde the boat where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was hiding. Photo: Massachusetts State Police Air Wing

A 1980s boat riddled with bullet holes and smeared with blood has become a major attraction as Boston recovers from the trauma of the deadly bomb attack on its marathon.

Freed from a police order to stay in their homes, people from Watertown and further afield want to see where marathon bomb suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hid and was caught.

They have been going to Dave Henneberry's house on Franklin Street. Television crews from around the world, tourists and onlookers have been pressing against the yellow tape proclaiming "Police Line Do Not Cross".

Crime scene: Dave Henneberry's boat in the backyard of his Boston home.

Crime scene: Dave Henneberry's boat in the backyard of his Boston home. Photo: AFP

Mr Henneberry has gone into hiding and the boat he is so proud of is being kept under wraps by police as they collect evidence against Tsarnaev.

Neighbour George Pizzuto said that Mr Henneberry was "in shock" and "totally distraught" at the events of Friday night.

Henneberry left his house when police hunting Tsarnaev ended a stay-at-home order that affected hundreds of thousands of people in the Boston area.

"He looked and noticed something was off about his boat, so he got his ladder, and he put his ladder up on the side of the boat and climbed up," Mr Pizzuto told ABC News.

"And then he saw blood on it, and he thought he saw what was a body lying in the boat. So he got out of the boat fast and called police."

The rest is history.

Tsarnaev surrendered after a gun battle and tense negotiations. The teenager accused of planting bombs which killed three people and wounded about 180 is now in hospital. His brother died in another gun battle in a nearby street that has also become an attraction for the curious.

The local Fox 25 television channel showed a picture of the boat with dozens of bullet holes and blood smeared on the side.

Dave Lawrence came to Boston from New York for a convention. "I just had to come here. This man is a hero for what he did. I would like to shake his hand," Mr Lawrence said.

Watertown resident Greg Turner was out jogging and decided to divert to Franklin Street. "The bombs were already shocking. But what has happened here is unbelievable," he said as a police officer tried to keep crowds from getting into the normally quiet street of white wooden homes.

Other neighbours came out on to the street to tell their stories, a kind of catharsis from the bloodshed.

"We looked out the window and down in our driveway and realised there was a SWAT team in our driveway with their guns pointed," said Rebecca Heavey, whose home in Birch Road is at the back of Mr Henneberry's.

"All of a sudden shots were fired and we just hit the ground and didn't know what was happening.

"I looked out the window, I saw police on top of our car, well on top of my car holding their guns over it taking cover behind it. Then the police officer saw us in the window and told us to grab our shoes and run, and so that's what we did. It was just terrifying.

Ms Heavey said she spoke to her mother on the phone earlier saying how much she wanted Boston's nightmare to end. "And to know he was hiding out here not even five hours later is just - it's chilling and it's frightening and I still feel very shaky and weak."

Mr Henneberry may be a hero but he is not happy about the damage to his prized boat.

"That boat's his baby. He takes care of it like you wouldn't believe. And they told him it's all shot up," Mr Pizzuto said. "He's going to be heartbroken."

A Facebook campaign has already been launched to help Mr Henneberry buy a new boat.