Hemingway Project Sailing Along Smoothly: Watercraft Expert Says Cubans Doing Good Job Of Preserving The Pillar? Mystic
April 4, 2006
When Dana Hewson traveled to Ernest Hemingway’s former estate in Cuba last week, he was pleasantly surprised by what he found.
As 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.
It was aboard Pilar that Hemingway conceived such novels as “The Old Man and the Sea” and “Islands in the Stream,” hunted for German submarines during World War II and hooked world-class game fish.
Hewson said Monday that the Cuban government is funding the restoration of the boat, which is expected to be finished in about three months. He hopes to return to Cuba before the work is completed.
“We had a lot of discussions about the scope of the work and what they were planning to do. They have a good, sound plan in place,” said Hewson, who took numerous photos of the boat