Captain Paul Adolph Hurlston: A life shaped by the sea

The Cayman Islands is mourning the passing of Captain Paul Adolph Hurlston, one of the nation’s most accomplished and respected mariners, whose life at sea spanned more than four decades and carried him across every ocean of the world.

Hurlston passed away on 29 Dec. 2025, aged 94, just days short of his 95th birthday on 11 Jan. With his death, Cayman has lost not only a master mariner of international standing, but a living repository of the islands’ seafaring memory.

Early life in South Sound

Born in South Sound on 11 Jan. 1931, Hurlston was the youngest of 10 children.

His early education took place in a one-room schoolhouse in South Sound, where children attended barefoot, without slates or exercise books. For several years he was taught by his sister, before later attending a private school in George Town run by Jamaican teacher Edwin Percival Ferguson, at considerable sacrifice to his family.

Reflecting on those years later in life, Hurlston once said, “I take pride in my career, because I had very little education, but I had a lot of ambition, and I pulled myself up by the boot strings.”

That ambition would soon find its outlet at sea.

First voyage and a lifetime afloat

Hurlston’s connection to the sea began at just 14 years old, when he sailed to the Miskito Cays off Nicaragua aboard the Cayman schooner Antarus, owned by H.O. Merren.

Under the command of Captain Cadien (Cadie) Ebanks, the crew caught 200 large green turtles around Tyra Cay. Recalling that voyage years later in an interview with the Cayman Compass, he said, “I still remember Captain Cadie’s wonderful and infectious laugh.”

By 1946, aged just 15, he officially began his professional seafaring career as a deckhand. A year later, he left Cayman for Tampa, securing work on banana boats with the Suwannee Fruit & Steamship Company, the start of a career that would take him around the world.

Rising through the ranks

Over the next 41 years at sea, Hurlston sailed on almost every type of commercial vessel imaginable: fruit ships, general cargo ships, oil tankers, bulk carriers, container ships, heavy-lift vessels and roll on-roll-off (RO-RO) ships. His progression was steady and disciplined; from ordinary seaman to able-bodied seaman, boatswain, third mate, second mate, chief mate, and, finally, captain.

“When I became a captain, I didn’t need to ask anybody what to do,” he once said. “I was already trained. I knew what to do.”

Among the highlights of his career was commanding some of the largest ships afloat, including supertankers owned by National Bulk Carriers, the fleet of shipping magnate Daniel K. Ludwig, at one time the richest man in the world.

Peril, survival and loss

Life at sea was never without danger. Hurlston experienced fires, collisions, groundings, shipwrecks, stowaways and even armed conflict.

On one early voyage, a converted yacht carrying bananas caught fire in the Pacific Ocean, forcing the crew into leaking wooden lifeboats, where they drifted for around 10 hours before being rescued by a Spanish vessel.

In 1955, fate intervened in a particularly poignant way. Suffering chest pains, Hurlston left a ship in New York to seek medical treatment. The vessel later sailed into heavy weather and was lost with all hands, including two Caymanians. He had stepped off just 14 days before it went down.

As a 16-year-old on a banana boat out of Guatemala, he also once helped save a chief engineer who fell overboard during a night watch, a life-saving act that was remembered with gratitude years later.

Historic voyages and rare distinctions

One of Hurlston’s most extraordinary assignments came aboard the Inagua Sound of the West India Line, commissioned to transport a nuclear reactor from one US port to another.

To allow this, the US government waived the Jones Act, making Hurlston the only non-US citizen or permanent resident since 1929 to command a foreign vessel carrying cargo between two American ports.

A guardian of Cayman’s maritime memory

Beyond his professional achievements, Hurlston was a passionate historian of Cayman’s maritime past.

He vividly remembered standing on South Sound’s shore as a schoolboy on 14 May 1942, watching black smoke rise from the horizon after the United Fruit Company ship Comayagua was torpedoed by a German U-boat.

He also spoke often of the mysterious disappearance of the motor vessel Nunoca in 1936, which vanished with 22 people aboard after departing George Town for Tampa in fair weather.

In 2013, the Cayman Islands National Museum honoured him with the exhibition ‘Voyages: A Sea Captain’s Legacy’, celebrating his life and the wider seafaring tradition that helped build the modern Cayman Islands.

Heritage, home and community

Hurlston’s love of heritage extended beyond ships.

After 2004’s Hurricane Ivan damaged his family’s historic South Sound home, which was originally built in 1937, he refused to see the old Cayman-style home demolished.

Instead, with friends, he painstakingly cut the house in half and ensured it was moved to another location, earning praise from the National Trust for preserving Cayman’s architectural heritage.

He was a founding member of the Cayman Islands Catboat Club and of the Cayman Maritime Heritage Foundation, and worked tirelessly to protect and promote the traditional Caymanian sailing vessel and Cayman’s seafaring heritage.

His contributions were widely recognised. He was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award for seafaring in 2003; he was given the National Heritage Award on National Heroes Day in 2025, and he was also featured in a government-produced documentary, ‘The Maritime Odyssey of Captain Paul A. Hurlston’.

Wisdom for future generations

In later interviews, Hurlston encouraged young Caymanians to consider maritime careers, urging them to work hard, be honest, and take responsibility.

“While it was one of few options available to men of my generation, I would not trade my experience for the world,” he said.

“Caymanians were the best and most disciplined seamen in the world.”

Despite having sailed across the globe, he often said he would never want to live anywhere else, joking that he had sailed halfway around the world before truly seeing East End.

An enduring legacy

Tributes following his passing described Hurlston as a pillar of Caymanian values; a man of authority, integrity and deep love for his islands. His stories, wisdom and achievements remain woven into Cayman’s national fabric.

Hurlston’s life stands as a testament to courage, discipline and the enduring bond between Caymanians and the sea. His passing truly marks the end of an era, but his legacy stretches far across the oceans he once commanded.

He is survived by his son, Captain Paul W. Hurlston, his daughter, Dewayne Bennett, son-in-law Robert Bennett, and grandson Jake Bennett, along with many other relatives and close friends.

A funeral service will be held on Saturday, 10 Jan., at 2pm at Seafarers Hall, with viewing from 1pm. Interment will follow at South Sound Cemetery.