Preserving the Pilar, Ernest Hemingway’s fishing boat

The Day (New London, CT.) has noted that preservation work is well under way in Cuba on the Pilar, the 40-foot fishing boat on which Ernest Hemingway conceived such novels as “The Old Man and the Sea” and “Islands in the Stream.” It was noted that:

Hewson, vice president for watercraft preservation and programs at Mystic Seaport, toured the grounds of Finca Vigia, he found that Cuban officials had implemented recommendations he had made three years ago and had begun to preserve Hemingway's 40-foot fishing boat, Pilar.

Hemingway had bought the Pilar, a Wheeler Playmate, in 1934 from a shipyard in Brooklyn, New York. He then sailed it it to Cuba where he lived from 1939 until 1960. In his will, he left the Pilar to his boatman who then gave it to the Cuban government.