page_title: Pilar (boat)
section_title: Bimini trips
hierarchical_section_title: Pilar (boat) / Bimini trips
caption_attribution_description: English: American author Ernest Hemingway with Pauline, Gregory, John, and Patrick Hemingway and four marlins on the dock in Bimini, 20 July 1935.
context_page_description: Ernest Hemingway owned a 38-foot fishing boat named Pilar. It was acquired in April 1934 from Wheeler Shipbuilding in Brooklyn, New York, for $7,495. "Pilar" was a nickname for Hemingway's second wife, Pauline, and also the name of the woman leader of the partisan band in his 1940 novel of the Spanish Civil War, For Whom the Bell Tolls. Hemingway regularly fished off the boat in the waters of Key West, Florida, Marquesas Keys, and the Gulf Stream off the Cuban coast. He made three trips with the boat to the Bimini islands wherein his fishing, drinking, and fighting exploits drew much attention and remain part of the history of the islands. In addition to fishing trips on Pilar, Hemingway contributed to scientific research which included collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution. Several of Hemingway's books were influenced by time spent on the boat, most notably, The Old Man and the Sea and Islands in the Stream. The yacht also inspired the name of Playa Pilar on Cayo Guillermo. A smaller replica of the boat is depicted in the opening and other scenes in the 2012 film Hemingway & Gellhorn.
context_section_description: Hemingway spent three summers in Bimini, starting with the first voyage in April, 1935. During the initial attempt at the crossing, he accidentally shot himself in the leg while attempting to boat a shark he caught. On a subsequent trip, he fished with Bror von Blixen-Finecke, with whom he had been on a safari and whose former wife was Karen Blixen, author of Out of Africa. There are ties to him and Hemingway through Hemingway's books Green Hills of Africa and Under Kilimanjaro.
  
  During the Bimini trips, Hemingway perfected fishing techniques for tuna.  He was the first person to land a giant tuna unmutilated. Known as "apple-coring", it had been common for sharks to attack fish as they tired and were near to the boat. His technique involved applying constant pressure, "pump and reel", to the fish wherein previous techniques allowed the fish to run in an effort to tire it.  He would attempt to boat the fish as soon as possible.  He experimented with using a skiff whereby he would transfer to the smaller boat with the intent of having the fish pull the boat and then tire.  He also discovered marlin had a defense mechanism in their swords and noses that made them unattractive to sharks but that tuna lacked such a defense. 
  He found a tuna's primary defense against the sharks was speed and as the fish tired they became easy targets. He carried a Thompson sub-machine gun which he used to shoot the sharks as the tuna tired and neared the boat.
  The photo to the right depicts Hemingway and Henry ("Mike") Strater with a half-eaten ("apple-cored") marlin. This fish weighed more than 500 lbs in its half eaten state.  It was projected to be more than 1,000 lbs when whole. During the landing of the fish, Hemingway used a Thompson machine gun to shoot the sharks in an attempt to ward them off. The effect of the shark blood in the water was to attract more sharks, which eventually did their damage to the fish. In the end, the state of the marlin recalls somewhat that of the monster marlin in Hemingway's later masterpiece The Old Man and the Sea.
  The incident greatly compromised his relationship with Strater because Strater believed Hemingway's bloody use of the machine gun against the sharks to be the primary cause of him losing the largest fish he ever caught.
  While on Bimini, Hemingway wrote magazine articles for Esquire and worked on his novel, To Have And Have Not.  His reputation as a big game angler began to grow. He landed many large tuna and marlin. He also staged boxing matches with the locals, offering $100 (this amount ranged upward to $250 based on various accounts) to anyone who could last a few rounds with him. His fighting was not contained to the ring. During a dockside brawl, he punched and knocked out Joe Knapp, a wealthy magazine publisher. Hemingway at first lived on Pilar. He later moved to a cottage near Brown's Dock and eventually a room at the Compleat Angler Hotel, staying in Room Number 1.
caption: Ernest Hemingway with his wife and children, Bimini, 1935
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