22 replies to this topic

[rickruddell]

Hi - Am a long-time lurker - Ran across this today (Hope it isn't a dupe - I did a search) - Ernest Hemingway shooting his Thompson.

http://antiquefishin...ig/MVC-085L.JPG

There is a story about his favorite shark weapon (1935-1936) was a TSMG.

http://www.saltwater.../backcasts.html



Rick

[Zamm]

Hi rick,
Welcome aboard.
Yep, that's a famous one. There is another with him sitting in the boat dozing while cradling
the Colt ( sounds oddly fishy )
Z

[anticus]

Does anyone know what became of Papa's chopper ?

[Hawkeye_Joe]

Anyone know what happened to it??

[full auto 45]

If you go to Bimini, don't take the sea plane, you can see some original photos of Hemingway shooting on the docks. They are a the Complete Angler Hotel and Bar.

[ACARLG]

Found an interesting elaboration on the old Hemingway, Sharks & Thompson Gun tale.

http://www.cim.mcgil...book/papa1.html

How did a Thompson submachine gun cause a big rift between Hemingway and Mike Strater during the summer of 1935 in Bimini?

Hemingway acquired the submachine gun from the International Sportsman, William B. Leeds, who was in Bimini aboard his yacht MOANA. Mike, nicknamed the `President,' fishing aboard the Pilar, hooked a 12-foot marlin. While moving the fish towards the boat, the sharks zeroed in on it. Ernest, with his new toy, began to give the sharks bursts from the machine-gun on the pretext he had to defend the marlin from them. The effect was just the reverse. A feeding frenzy ensued. It took another hour to boat the marlin. What was left weighed 500 pounds. A photograph showed over half of the marlin was gone, and what was left was a hollow shell. Hemingway even wrote an article in Esquire Magazine in July, 1935, titled "The President Vanquishes," where he estimated the weight of the fish at near two thousand pounds. But he failed to mention a Thompson sub-machine gun or a shark frenzy. Strater was enraged. Ernest had helped to destroy the biggest marlin Mike had ever hooked.

[Z3BigDaddy]

QUOTE (full auto 45 @ Dec 24 2005, 07:36 PM)

If you go to Bimini, don't take the sea plane, you can see some original photos of Hemingway shooting on the docks. They are a the Complete Angler Hotel and Bar.

Which sadly in now gone....

[full auto 45]

Burned to the ground. With all the original pictures and some original papers he wrote to the owners of the hotel, and some poems and manuscripts.

[philasteen]

Two things you can't get anymore these days:

- a new from the factory Colt Thompson SMG; and

- a 2,000 lb marlin anywhere near Bimini.

[SecondAmend]

Was this, perhaps, the inspiration for "The Old Man and the Sea"?

[ACARLG]

QUOTE (SecondAmend @ Apr 20 2006, 06:43 PM)

Was this, perhaps, the inspiration for "The Old Man and the Sea"?

No, Gregorio Fuentes was...

Monday, 14 January, 2002, 11:40 GMT
Hemingway's 'Old Man' dies in Cuba

The Cuban fisherman who was the inspiration for Ernest Hemingway's novel, The Old Man and The Sea, has died at the age of 104.

Gregorio Fuentes was the captain of Hemingway's boat Pilar during the years that Hemingway lived in Cuba, and he developed a strong friendship with the author.

It is thought that Hemingway modelled the central character of his Nobel prize-winning 1952 novel on Fuentes.

"Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same colour as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated," Hemingway wrote of the The Old Man.

Nautical bond

The classic novel tells the tale of an old Cuban fisherman's colossal struggle to catch the perfect fish.

The climax of the book is a gruelling three-day battle with a marlin that he has hooked.

Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway's love of the outdoors featured in much of his work

He eventually loses the fish to sharks, but the physical suffering he endures is portrayed as a spiritual triumph of integration with the world around him.

In reality, Fuentes was Hemingway's captain and cook for nearly 30 years, steering his ship and preparing his favourite cocktails.

He died in the house he had always lived in as he was preparing to go to church. He had been suffering from cancer.

The fisherman was born on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands in 1897. He was travelling to Cuba when his father, who was a ship's cook, died on board.

Fuentes, then only six years old, was taken in by other Canary island migrants.

He met Hemingway in 1928, and in 1930s the celebrated author hired Fuentes to look after his boat.

Fuentes recalled the moment when Hemingway finally returned to the United States in 1960, a year before he committed suicide.

"Take care of yourself as you have known how," he recalled the author as saying.

Tourist attraction

The fisherman later donated Pilar to the Cuban Government.

It is displayed outside Hemingway's former home on the outskirts of Havana.

In recent years, Fuentes had become something of a tourist attraction in the village of Cojimar, east of Havana, where he lived most of his long life.

"He was a symbol of Cuban fishing and of human brotherhood, thanks to all of his years of friendship with Hemingway," said his friend, Jose Miguel Diaz Escrich.

[John Jr]

I once heard Hemingway was a flaming butt pirate... any truth to that?

[philasteen]

Full Auto 45, I'm saddened to tell you the bimini Angler burnt to the ground earlier this year and all the papa stuff was lost.

John Jr., thanks for your shining example of tolerance and sensitivity. If Papa was a "flaming butt pirate", as you so eloquently put it, he still accomplished more in his life than you and all your descendants ever will.

[SecondAmend]

ACARLG,
I was not clear - I was referring to the plot not the character in "Old Man and the Sea" - sorry about that.

John Jr,
I believe that Ernest Hemingway is now considered to have suffered from bi-polar disorder by some psychologists.

[John Jr]

QUOTE (philasteen @ Apr 20 2006, 09:21 PM)

John Jr., thanks for your shining example of tolerance and sensitivity.

I am not tolerant or sensitive. You can count on that.

[anticus]

I still want to know what happened to Papa's Thompson. Is it mentioned in Gordon's book (assuming it's a Colt) ?

[ron_brock]

A quick scan of the index did not show one listed to Hemingway. Funny, I was just discussing his gun with a Panda over the weekend.

- Ron

[jim c 351]

A quick scan of the index did not show one listed to Hemingway. Funny, I was just discussing his gun with a Panda over the weekend.

- Ron

Ron,
OK,--What about a TSMG sold to William B Leeds???
Jim C

[1921A]

Does anyone know what became of Papa's chopper ?

I read somewhere that the family still has the gun. It may have been a thread on this board.

[ron_brock]

A quick scan of the index did not show one listed to Hemingway. Funny, I was just discussing his gun with a Panda over the weekend.

- Ron

Ron,
OK,--What about a TSMG sold to William B Leeds???
Jim C

No luck.