Sunday January 13 7:35 PM ET

Hemingway's 'Old Man' dies aged 104 in Cuba

By Andrew Cawthorne

COJIMAR, Cuba, (Reuters) - Gregorio Fuentes, the weather-beaten captain of U.S. novelist Ernest Hemingway's boat in Cuba and
inspiration for ``The Old Man And The Sea,'' died Sunday aged 104 in the fishing village of Cojimar.

``He was a symbol of Cuban fishing and of human brotherhood, thanks to all of his years of friendship with Hemingway,'' a friend,
Jose Miguel Diaz Escrich, who runs Havana's Hemingway International Nautical Club, told Reuters.

Born on July 11, 1897, Fuentes became captain of Hemingway's boat ``Pilar'' at the end of the 1930s when the U.S. author lived on
the Caribbean island. The American developed a strong bond of friendship with Fuentes, who as well as steering Hemingway's boat
also prepared his favorite cocktails.

In recent times, Fuentes had become something of a tourist magnet in Cojimar, just east of Cuba's coastal capital Havana, where he
once used to embark on marlin-fishing trips with the adventure-loving Hemingway. Foreign journalists could usually get an
interview in exchange for a bottle of rum.

``My grandfather was loved by everyone,'' his granddaughter, America Aguas Fuentes, told Reuters outside Gregorio Fuentes'
simple house in Cojimar. ``He used to really enjoy recounting stories, especially about the wonderful times he had with
Hemingway, whom he always carried with him in his mind.''

Fuentes died at his home Sunday morning and was buried at a cemetery in the nearby village of Guanabacoa in the afternoon,
friends said. Although still lucid, he was suffering various ailments associated with old age.

``He was a humble man of the people, who showed great mastery in the arts of the sea and left a legacy of friendship which is an
example to us all,'' Escrich added.

Hemingway's Nobel prize-winning 1952 masterpiece modeled its central character, and his colossal struggle to bring in the fish of
his life, on Fuentes. ``The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck,'' Hemingway wrote in his opening
description of the fisherman.

``EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM WAS OLD'' - HEMINGWAY

``The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords.
But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert.

``Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated,''

Last November, the writer's niece, Hilary Hemingway, presented the International Game Fish Association's (IGFA) ''Captain'' award
to the cigar-smoking Fuentes at the Havana yacht marina named after her uncle.

``I'm delighted. It's a very important prize for my people,'' Cuba's most famous mariner said then after joining the IGFA's exclusive
club of 197 ``Captains.'' ``I would like to honor a great fisherman,'' Hilary Hemingway said in her speech giving the prize.

Of late, Fuentes, whose local fame was also based on his survival of several hurricanes at sea, was said to have been getting tired of
the tourists flocking to his door and frequently expressed nostalgia for his heyday with Hemingway.

``Since he died, life hasn't been the same for me and I haven't been fishing like the old days,'' Fuentes, his blotched and craggy face
shaded by a cap marked ``Captain'', said in a recent interview with Reuters.

Hemingway, who left Cuba for good after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, shot and killed himself in 1961.

Fuentes was born in the Canary Islands, but his parents emigrated to Cuba when he was a young boy.

Reuters/Variety REUTERS