Captain Edward "Bra" Saunders

Captain Edward "Bra" Saunders. Born in Key West, a Conch, "Bra" Saunders began his career as a commercial fisherman. As the demand for sport-fishing guides increased, he became a charter boat fisherman. In the 1930's he was fishing guide for Ernest Hemingway, taking him and his “gang" fishing to the waters around the Dry Tortugas. Captain “Bra” by teaching Hemingway saltwater fishing, was instrumental in international publicity for Key West fishing. In addition to being a fisherman, Captain Saunders was an expert boat handler and navigator who knew the waters of the Florida Keys, from Miami to the Dry Tortugas like the back of his hand. Hemingway was to use Captain Eddie "Bra" Saunders in his Key West novel To Have and Have Not as Captain Willie Adams, “ an old man in a felt hat and windbreaker." He also provided Hemingway the story of the sinking of the Spanish liner Valbanera during the 1919 hurricane Hemingway used the story in his article “After the Storm.” When the 1935 hurricane devastated the upper Keys, Captain Saunders used his skills to take Hemingway to the scene of the disaster which resulted in his article “Who Killed the Vets?” Captain "Bra” Saunders was one of the men who would make sportfishing a major industry in the Keys. One book described Saunders as “Old Bra knows the peculiarities of all the finny tribe in the salty sea. He is probably more at home among them than on shore with the boy’s.” Donated by , T.I.B. Bank of the Keys .