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On the right, with grey eyes and a small grey beard, Ben the bargee sits squarely in the stern of the barge, his left hand resting on the tiller as his gaze confronts the viewer. He wears a grey sweater, dark trousers and a flat cap placed far back on his head. His hands and features are large and his ruddy complexion indicates a man used to working outside in all weathers. His wife sits on the left, her hands folded in her lap. She wears a green apron over her dress, a blue knitted hat, and stares ahead through brown eyes to meet the gaze of the viewer. The cranes of Hull docks are visible in the background, with grey-painted ships, one clearly an armed merchantman, present on the left and the right, with barges alongside. The barges probably conveyed coal and other cargo and thus they could have belonged as equally in the nineteenth century as in the twentieth.