When Dr. Edward Harris devoted his entire Heritage Matters Column last week to Captain Samuel (Eddie Blue) Lightbourne, he rekindled many of the thousand and one tales that abound about that colorful Bermudian.Eddie Blue sailed the seven seas surviving the Second World War, and the harrowing Korean War and Viet Nam conflict.He climaxed his 46-year career with an historic appointment as Chief Engineer of one of biggest and most sophisticated ships in the US Merchant Marine Service, the hospital ship USMS Comfort. He retired after serving three years aboard that 894-foot, 1,000-bed ship of 69,360 tons.Dr. Harris mentioned my name in his article, alluding to two features I did for the Mid-Ocean News on Eddie Blue, the first headlined, “How Eddie Blue Climbed the Ladder of Success”; and the second was “She was My Ship. I Brought her Up From Nothing.” The latter related how Captain Eddie Blue had full charge for converting what was an oil tanker into the Comfort.I knew Eddie Blue personally. Or at least I thought I did, until I got two intriguing weekend telephone calls.One, on early Sunday morning, was all the way from Seattle, Washington and Harriett Rosina Love (nee Swan). We highlighted Rosina in the Mid-Ocean, two years ago featuring her father, the late Eldon Swan. She enthusiastically voiced her appreciation, having read in The Royal Gazette’s online edition about “The Amazing Grace” (the late 93-year-old Helen Lambert) and about the retirement trip to the Panama Canal of former Somerset Postmistress Marita Bailey Thompson.Helen, she reminisced, had made the most beautiful gown she ever had, before leaving Bermuda 43 years ago, to reside in the US having married a former Kindley Air Force Base serviceman. The Swan’s homestead was yards away from Helen’s residence on one side of Cook’s Hill and on the other side the Swans overlooked the Baileys. “We were and still are good friends (with the Baileys),” Rosina recalled.My second weekend contact was with retired Marine and Ports Captain St. Clair Lightbourne. His first words were: “I like the story you guys (Dr. Harris) did on the Lightbournes.”As I said earlier, I thought I knew Eddie Blue. We were schoolmates at the Berkeley Institute. He was a senior whom we idolised. I was a junior, and a very puny, asthmatic one at that. Perhaps readers will see the contrast when reading the excerpts we reprint here from the article I dug from my archives about “How Eddie Blue Climbed the Ladder of Success.”In any case, I knew his proud father was Samuel Lightbourne, Sr., who operated his own print shop in Reid Street East, and who frequented The Recorder, my old newspaper. What I didn’t know was that St. Clair Lightbourne was Eddie Blue’s much younger first cousin and who turned out to be a real ‘soul brother’ and thee spitting image of the legendary merchant marine, with a fascinating story of his own.In fact there are five generations of Lightbournes, brothers and cousins who have proven to be the backbone of Bermuda’s in-shore marine services. I gathered from St. Clair how the mold for Eddie Blue and the rest of the seafaring clan was set during the late 1800s when their grandfather, William Jonathan Lightbourne migrated to Bermuda from the Turks and Caicos Islands.Jonathan was a skilled sailmaker and ship’s tailor who had spent his early years sailing ships up and down the eastern seaboard of the US and Africa. Ship’s maintenance was his forte after settling in Bermuda and learning carpentry. His Grenada-born wife, Anna Gardner and their son Copeland followed, taking up residence in the Robinson range in Princess Street.Also, a brother Samuel Lightbourne joined him from the Caribbean.His marriage into the Ratteray family produced Eddie Blue, a first cousin of the Alpheus (Cat) Ratteray clan.Meanwhile Jonathan, a strapping well-built man immersed himself in the social and cultural life of the island, becoming a prominent member of the Independent Order of Oddfellows, Manchester Unity. His three other sons were born in Bermuda. They were Leroy, William Noel (the father of St. Clair) and Albert who made his mark in history by becoming the first Bermudian to be commissioned a Major in the Salvation Army. He was the father of well-known journalist and musician Ron Lightbourne.Jonathan was father of four girls and six sons. St Clair was the second eldest.All the Lightbournes seemed to have strong nautical streaks and were business minded. Leroy was a marine engineer. St Clair’s father was a ferry boat pilot, drafted by the Royal Air Force as a leading hand for their fast boats servicing sea planes operating out of the old Darrell’s Island airport.Seemingly, St. Clair was just naturally attracted to a nautical career. He got his ‘C’ Class licence, qualifying him to pilot boats anywhere in and around Bermuda waters. He had previously gained his engine driver’s licence. At the old Technical Institute he qualified in celestial navigation courses under the late Capt Ian Clarke, who was Warden of Pilots and a former chief navigator of the Queen of Bermuda.Sinclair will be remembered as the flamboyant captain of such ferries as the old Triton and Corona. He worked on the original tug-tender ‘Bermudian’ servicing rigs drilling 600 miles east of Bermuda; and also crewed on the tugs Justice, Sea Venture, Patience and Deliverance. (This was in the days before the now famous Fast Ferries.)The big thing in Capt St Clair’s progression was when he married the love of his life, the former Alva Leverock of Spanish Point.Guess what? Her father and St Clair’s grandfather worked together as maintenance engineers at the old Pitts Bay Boat yard near Princess Hotel. It proved to be the perfect nautical match, in June 55 years ago, at the Bermuda Cathedral, where the two sang together in what was then known as “The Black Choir”’What was most pertinent about that couple was the fact that Alva Leverock was a Sea Ranger, and a leading one at that, (the girl’s counter part of the Boy Scouts.) She was skilled in Morse Code, pitching tents, setting camp fires without the use of matches, rowing boats and climbing Jacobs Ladders, thanks to the late Pilot Bob Kennedy, her Spanish Point neighbour. He was Scout Leader, and one of the heads in the Government Branch Pilot Service.There are two sons and two daughters of the marriage. They are Lesline, wife of Larry Williams and Eva-Lynn Baxter. The two sons are qualified pilots, being Anthony (who now works as an insurance underwriter), who reached the rank of Lt. Commander in the Sea Cadets. His son, Anthony Jr, has the distinction of being the youngest certified pilot in Government’s Branch Pilot Service. And there’s son Ascot Lightbourne Sr. a pilot who deals with maintenance and rotation of Marine and Ports high speed boats.Captain St Clair retired in 1998 after 36 years in the Government Marine and Ports Service.At the time he was Supervisor of Ferry Services. He and Alva devote much of their spare time to community work and in St. James Anglican Church, Somerset, where he’s a Licensed Lay Worker, and like his wife, served as president of the Guild.