During our visit to Stonington, Maine, I ran across this boat tied to a dock. I didn’t see the owner, but Sherlock Holmes clearly could have drawn some significant inferences from the state of his vessel.
The owner clearly wouldn’t be pretentious, given the appearance of his humble, battered craft. He didn’t load the boat with creature comforts or fancy gadgetry, and indeed did not even treat himself to a seat cushion to make the ride a bit more bearable, so he obviously wasn’t a slave to luxury. And given the simple contents of the boat — a buoy, some oars, a life jacket, a beaten tool box — the owner clearly was focused on function, nor form.
I imagined a working man who had a vessel he had used for years and trusted completely, and who saw no need to mess around with something that was working just fine, even if it was somewhat the worse for wear.
Webner House 