azboater Posted August 10, 2015 Report Share Posted August 10, 2015 (edited) Forgive me if this link from guns.com was already posted in the past, but it is a great article about Ernest Hemingway & his Thompson on his boat, the Pilar, circa 1935with some great photos....... http://www.guns.com/2013/07/06/the-old-man-and-the-sea-and-his-tommy-gun/ Edited August 10, 2015 by azboater Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cubguy Posted August 10, 2015 Report Share Posted August 10, 2015 Enjoyed the article! Thanks for the link! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
full auto 45 Posted August 11, 2015 Report Share Posted August 11, 2015 Years ago, I use to go to Bimini a couple times a year. I would hang out in the Complete Angler. This was where Hemingway lived while there. On the wall were original photos of Papa firing his Tommy off the docks in Bimini at the sharks as they would swim by. Hanging out around town with his Tommy and on the boat. Few years ago, the Angler burned to the ground. Destroyed all the originals and lots of original letters Papa wrote. I spent many hours, and Beck's beers, in that room reading and just thinking of what it would have been like to have been there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roland the Thompsongunner Posted August 11, 2015 Report Share Posted August 11, 2015 Where did his Thompson end up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelkih Posted August 12, 2015 Report Share Posted August 12, 2015 Better times..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Hammer Posted August 12, 2015 Report Share Posted August 12, 2015 The Thompson wasn't the gun of choice for his suicide, the double barrel shotgun did the trick, very messy but effective. Mike Hammer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anticus Posted August 12, 2015 Report Share Posted August 12, 2015 Good question, Roland; what did happen to Papa's chopper ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Posted August 12, 2015 Report Share Posted August 12, 2015 Well story has it he won it in a game of chance from W.B. Leeds. The Leeds family was associated with U.S. Steel so when they (USS) gave up their Thompson's' one of them may have been spirited away from the company by Mr. Leeds and that may be the one...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anticus Posted August 12, 2015 Report Share Posted August 12, 2015 Assuming it's transferable, imagine what it's value-historical and $$-would be ! Does anyone know the serial number ? Maybe in Gordon's book ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bounty1 Posted August 29, 2015 Report Share Posted August 29, 2015 "Papa" was a real character for sure. During WWII, he'd take the Pilar out from Cuba and look for German subs. He apparently took a hard knock to the head while covering the Spanish Civil War in the 30's and it did something permanent. Got worse as he got older. Bought a foreign sports car and would not let his mechanic change the oil in it, because he said that it "wouldn't be a genuine foreign car if he did that." i.e. put American oil in it. I guess all of these sorts of things led up to his eventual suicide.BTW - If you can't get to his house in Cuba, you can check out his "crib" in Key West if you get there. He had a urinal taken out of Sloppy Joe's to be used for his many 6-toed cats watering hole on the property.( Sloppy Joe's, where it is now, is not the original location. The "real" Sloppy Joe's is where Captain Tony's is now, and it's a much better bar if you make it down there.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunhistorian Posted August 30, 2015 Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 I went down to Captain Tony's to get out of the heat . . . (LOL) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bounty1 Posted August 31, 2015 Report Share Posted August 31, 2015 Gunhistorian,Don't you have to admit that "Captain Tony's" where the original "Sloppy Joe's" was located, is a much better bar than where the supposed "Sloppy Joe's" is now?Now you know a bit of the "true" history.BTW - If you ever go to EYW (Key West), take the trip to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. Great trip. And while on the way there, by boat or seaplane only, the least visited US Park in the US, you will pass the Marquesas Islands, where Mel Fishcher found all the gold and silver, etc., from the "Nuestra Senora de Atocha". If you ever go to his museum down there, which I would recommend, they had a gold bar that was enclosed in a plastic/lucite case where you could reach in and hold it in your hand, but couldn't get it out. Homo Sapiens, being the rather intelligent species that we are, one of them figured a way to get it out, and absconded with about 4 pounds of gold.BTW - The "Nuestra Senora de Atocha" went down in a hurricane in 1622. I asked some of the curators whether they were through with all the lawsuits about who owned the treasure in 2002, and was told, they fought off the United States first. Then they had to fight off the State of Florida. (Keep in mind that none of these existed when the ship went down.) And now they were fighting off lawsuits by Spain, and the descendants of the people who were on the "Nuestra Senora de Atocha" and hoped they would win the lawsuit. Does that tell you what governments will do do "get you" when there are $ in the balance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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