Tribute to the Incomparable Captain Paul Hurstone

If you were born in the Cayman Islands in the 1940s, as I was, and raised by a mother who walked everywhere and knew everyone, you had no choice but to cross paths with the incomparable Captain Paul Hurstone — the sea-faring icon of the Cayman Islands, a true master of our cultural and heritage history. His passing leaves an indelible mark on all who knew him and on our collective memory of the sea .

To know Captain Paul was to know the sea itself. In those days, every man in my family — whether from George Town, West Bay, or East End — had sailed with him or at least known of him. I never went to sea myself, but through my mother and her many encounters with him, I came to know his spirit well. He would often stop by our home, sometimes with Mr Baxter, Mr Val, or Mr Leon Bush, under the pretence of bringing seafood for my mother. But we all knew that when they arrived, it was not just food they were bringing — it was a journey of tales from land and sea alike that my eager ears could not wait to hear and should not hear .

Captain Paul was a born storyteller — a natural comic and a historian without pen or paper. His memory needed no notes; every name, every voyage, every wave was alive in his mind. As I grew older and recognised myself as a student of history, he was patient with my curiosity about his journeys and the geography of the seas. Through his stories, I learned to see the world as he saw it — vast, beautiful, and deeply connected. His storytelling was so vivid that you could almost feel the sea breeze and smell the salt air; it made learning geography effortless, as if you could pass any exam your teacher set before you .

Later in life, when I ventured into public service and community work, Captain Paul again was there — offering wisdom, advice, and even helping me draw maps of George Town, marking where families, living and dead, had their homes along SHEDDEN Road, Mary Street, Rock Hole, South Sound, North and South Church Street Smith road and Crewe Road. When we were done, he made sure I knew every house to visit and every person to greet. His knowledge of the land was just as precise as his knowledge of the sea. He was not educated at Oxford, but if he had gone, he surely would have graduated with first-class honours .

I did not first meet him in Cayman Brac, but when I went there as a young teacher, the love for the sea that he had planted in me was further deepened — especially through fishing. It was there that his teachings truly came alive, proving themselves as the lessons of a great teacher in my own life. I remember vividly, years later, taking a cruise to Alaska and sitting in my stateroom as the ship travelled from Vancouver to Anchorage. In those moments of rough seas, it was Captain Paul’s stories of his own journeys and how he coped with bad weather that came back to me, steadying my mind and guiding my thoughts across those cold northern waters .

As I sit on my boardwalk now, most mornings, studying the sea and its many changes, I often find myself reminiscing on the journeys, real and imagined, that I took through his words and on all that knowing him has taught me. Captain Paul Hurstone — mariner, storyteller, and Caymanian legend — has left a legacy beyond compare. I am honoured and humbled that I can truthfully say I have known this mariner who has created a history incomparable to anyone else on the journey of Cayman. He will always stir my emotions whenever thoughts of him come into my mind .

I must go down to the sea again, for there his stories still live on in every wave .

By Lucille. Seymour