Gregorio Fuentes, captain of Hemingway's boat dies

(14 Jan 2002)

Havana, Cuba, - July 21, 1999
1. Wide of Casa La Vigia, Hemingway's residence
2. Shot of the interior of the house from the window
3. Hemingway's bedroom in his house
4. Shot of Hemingway's desk
5. Shot of the dinning room
6.. Details of furniture etc
7. Close of Gregorio Fuentes, owner of the yacht 'El Pilar'
8. UPSOUND: (Spanish) Gregorio Fuentes, sailor friend of Hemingway
"When he died he left it in writing - 'take care of my Pilar' - he left it to me and I took it with me, thats why it's here."
9. Wide of the yacht
10. Close on sign of the yacht 'El Pilar'
11. Interior of the yacht
12. UPSOUND: (Spanish) Gregorio Fuentes, sailor friend of Hemingway
"An incredible friendship - from the moment that we met because we were honest with each other in everything."
13. Various shots of paintings of Hemingway
14. UPSOUND: (Spanish) Gregorio Fuentes, sailor friend of Hemingway
"The only suffering I have in this world is of having lost him."
15. Shot of flowers being given to Gregorio Fuentes

STORYLINE:

Gregorio Fuentes, who was boat captain to Ernest Hemingway when the late American writer lived in Cuba, died early on Sunday at the age of 104.

Fuentes had suffered from cancer.

He had lived in Cojimar, a coastal city about 15 kilometers (10 miles) east of Havana since arriving in Cuba as an orphan at age six.

For nearly 30 of his long years, Fuentes was captain, cook and friend to the American writer.

Many say he was the inspiration for the protagonist in Hemingway's classic "The Old Man and the Sea."

Born on July 11, 1897 in Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, Fuentes was traveling to Cuba when his father, the ship's cook, died on board.

The young orphan was taken in by other Canary Island immigrants in Cuba who cared for him until he reached adolescence.

Hemingway and Fuentes met in 1928, and in the 1930s the writer hired the mariner for 250 U-S dollars a month to care for his boat, El Pilar.

Before returning to the United States in 1960, Hemingway stopped by Fuentes' Cojimar home to say good-bye.

Fuentes later inherited El Pilar and donated it to the Cuban government, which displays it outside Hemingway's former home, now a museum on the outskirts of Havana.

Fuentes was married for 70 years to a distant cousin, Dolores Perez, who died in 1990.

He is survived by two of the four daughters they had together, seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

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