One day Michael and I went to the derelict Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyards. We found a piece of heavy rope, probably used to tie up a big ship, sitting among the detritus we were walking over and around. I picked it up and persuaded him to take his shirt off for this shot. When I saw the result I thought of the Steely Dan song « Home at Last » and of the practice of old ship captains it referred to, to tie themselves to the mast so that they wouldn’t be swept off the deck during a terrible storm.