A boat’s name can say a lot about its owner, its location, or its current state of being. I have seen boats that are named for former flames or former pets. Boats that carry on the tradition of the past and ones that convey the present and the future. I have seen boat names that could not be repeated in the company of children, and boat names that are poetic, beautiful, and evocative.
Some are crude, some are dirty, and some are downright nasty. Some are informative and funny, while others are direct verbal extensions of their owners. One day, a few summers ago, I was walking the shores of Stonington Harbor, snapping my faithful Nikon. I noticed a small white skiff poking out of the bushes next to a lobster pound. I smiled when I saw its name, “Shit Happens,” on the front of the hull. It was the perfect boat name, I thought to myself.
Who knows what can happen out on the ocean, and when something does happen, there can only be one thing to say — and that little white skiff said it all.
Photos of The Name Game on Maine’s Working Boats
