Angler, complete

I went to Bimini in 2003 to swim with wild dolphins.

While there, we spent one evening at the Compleat Angler bar, listening to a local band and admiring the Hemingway memorabilia stationed in a separate room, and even danced a bit. Now, sadly, that seems to all be gone.



I was never much of a Hemingway fan, but -- RIP Mr. Brown. You had a fine establishment.

From the AP:

Fire razes Hemingway's bar
Mon Jan 16, 9:55 AM ET

A fire destroyed the Ernest Hemingway museum and The Compleat Angler bar on Friday on the Bahamian island of Bimini, one of the American novelist's 1930s haunts during the days he stalked big game fish.

The early morning blaze leveled the wooden inn in Alice Town and destroyed photographs and Hemingway memorabilia, police said.

They said the caretaker of The Compleat Angler, Julian Brown, was presumed dead. Brown, said to be in his 60s, alerted the inn's sole guest, who escaped though a window, but then disappeared.

A neighbor, Katherine Weech, said Brown's remains were found in the debris. Brown's father, Harcourt Brown, built the inn.

The destruction of the tiny island's biggest tourist attraction was the second major blow to hit Bimini in a month. On December 19, 11 residents were among 20 people killed when a Chalk's Ocean Airways seaplane plunged into the sea in Miami's shipping channel.

Hemingway drank at The Compleat Angler between fishing trips in his vessel Pilar in search of marlin, wahoo and sailfish in the pristine waters around Bimini.

His novel "The Old Man and The Sea" was said to be inspired by his fishing exploits in the Bahamas and Cuba, and he worked on "To Have and Have Not" in Bimini.

The Hemingway legend became a major draw and The Compleat Angler created a museum which included hundreds of photographs and artifacts of the author.