Former Boat Captain Patrick Brown
By ALISON LOWE
Former boat captain and dockmaster Captain Patrick Brown was laid to rest in Alice Town, Bimini, on Saturday, aged 82.
A legendary fisherman, Brown competed in fishing tournaments and took tourists out on charter trips. In later life, he operated Capt Pat’s Golf Cart Rentals from the Seacrest Hotel and Marina.
Speaking to The Tribune, his younger brother Tom described him as a “nice, hardworking person” who would be remembered above all for his generosity.
Another Bimini resident recalled Capt Pat simply as “the kind old man who used to hail everyone on the road”.
Brown also found himself at the centre of an extraordinary international story in 1969, when his marriage to American beauty queen Corinne Huff made headlines in the New York Times and other leading newspapers.
Huff was the first black woman to compete in the Miss USA pageant, representing Ohio in 1960. She had also been the companion and secretary of Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Jr, the influential Harlem congressman and civil rights campaigner.
Powell chaired the powerful House Education and Labor Committee but came under scrutiny over allegations of misconduct, including the misuse of congressional travel funds. In 1967, the House excluded him from Congress pending an investigation. After being re-elected, he spent much of the period away from Washington in Bimini, where fishing became a favourite pastime.
Brown captained Powell’s boat, Adam’s Fancy, and it was through this association that he met Huff.
The pair married in October 1969 at Our Lady and St Stephen’s Anglican Church in Bimini, reportedly before about 200 guests. Brown was 25 at the time.
The relationship also brought the island into the spotlight of a congressional investigation. Huff had been named president of Huff Enterprises, a Bimini-based company linked to property associated with Powell. The firm became a subject of inquiry as investigators examined whether congressional funds had been used for private or commercial purposes.
Contemporary reporting noted that the committee was racing to establish the company’s activities as it considered Powell’s status in Congress. Then Bahamian prime minister Lynden Pindling was also mentioned in reports about the company’s incorporation and ownership.
Brown came from one of Bimini’s well-known families. His uncle, Harcourt Brown, owned The Compleat Angler hotel and bar in Alice Town, a celebrated gathering place for local and visiting anglers that became closely associated with the legendary American writer Ernest Hemingway.
The historic establishment was destroyed by fire in January 2006. The blaze also claimed the life of its caretaker, Julian Brown, a former Bahamian Olympian and a cousin of Patrick Brown’s.