LAST week we wrote of the sudden death in New York of the old sea dog known far and wide as Great Eddie Blue Lightbourne. A funeral service was held for him at Allen Memorial AME Church in Brooklyn last Saturday.

The church had become the focal point of Captain Lightbourne's interest following his retirement after decades of sailing the seven seas.

He was a trustee of the church and, among other things, sang in its senior choir. He had attended choir rehearsal on Friday, November 7 and the following day, his wife Ethel found him dead at home.

Next to the ocean waves, singing was one of Eddie's second loves. He preferred anthems, hymns and the classicals. So, a fitting tribute was paid to him at the service conducted by the Rev. Benjamin Singleton, who is well known in Bermuda.

Eddie (pictured)was born in Hamilton on April 12, 1922, a son of Samuel and Almayne Lightbourne. At age 20, he was one of six Bermudians who signed up as stokers aboard a coal-burning Canadian ship that put into Bermuda for repairs and a new crew after being damaged by a Nazi German submarine.

That was the start in September 1942 of a fascinating career that ended with his retirement three years ago, as one of the top Captains in the whole of the US Navy's maritime service.

His last command was chief engineer aboard one of the Navy's largest and most sophisticated vessels, the 150,000-ton hospital ship USS Comfort.

Mr.Lightbourne had complete oversight over its conversion from an oil taker into a 1,100-bed hospital with 12 operating rooms and accommodation for 64 nurses, a like number of doctors plus navy crew.

Attending the funeral from Bermuda were his two sisters, Leonore Whitter of Pembroke, and Dorothy Lottimore of Khyber Pass, Warwick, as well as his daughter Edwina Trott of Hamilton Parish. She was from his first marriage to a Bermudian; Edwina's sons Mitchell and Marvin Trott, Jr., their father Marvin and the latter's wife Betty Ann; also sister-in-law Gloria Lightbourne; cousin Elroy Ratteray and many former Bermudians living in New York and New Jersey, including Mrs. Ivy Simons.