At different points in the film, Barnabas states that the Collins family have "always" been in the fishing business, and says that his parents immigrated to expand the family "empire" to the New World, indicating that they had been prosperous in maritime ventures long before their arrival on the shores of Maine. Although Joshua says, and Barnabas reiterates, that true wealth lies in devotion to family, Barnabas does remark that his father "clearly was not opposed to the other kind" of material prosperity.