Dear Dr. Harris,It has always been my regret that I have not had enough information on black Bermudians, especially during times of conflict.The Bermuda Maritime Museum has gone some way to correct the dearth of information in this regard. But as time moves on, those who have lived and been a part of those experiences are passing away and as a result their part in what was world conflicts are lost to history. The picture I have sent you is of my friend's father, which I recently had restored.His name was Samuel (Eddie Blue) Lightbourne. You have his story in your military room at the museum, but here he is in full military uniform. I thought you might find some use for it. Your museum fulfils an important role in Bermuda's history: I hope you will continue to develop it further.Best regards, Alvin Williams, Warwick, 22 December 2010Dear Readers: With the opening of this new decade, at least according to the Gregorian, that is to say, Christian calendar, in January 2011, my first “Heritage Matters” article of the New Year attempted to reflect a little on the past achievements of some people in Bermuda connected with the historic Bermuda dockyard. Others have also been reflecting, which is perhaps the most natural of human activities, when considering matters of heritage and history.Several kindly gave me their musings on that first article and as always I am grateful for readers' remarks, especially if they correct or chide me for some oversight. Such was one Bermudian who has lived in the United States for many years, but with love for his homeland, he tracks its comings and goings over the Internet, as do many thousands of interested souls, native and otherwise. Such tracking by so many on the Web should indicate to us that we perhaps should be going almost totally digital in advertising to the world for tourists and new friends for the island.That Bermudian gave me a friendly grilling about neglecting this and that in my articles, which now enter their seventh year of production, a concept that was developed at the suggestion of Sheila Nicoll, formerly chairwoman of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Alvin Williams also wrote to me in December last, but I regret that I cannot write about everything, because in the way of history not everything gets recorded, or the information is unavailable.It is regretfully in the nature of history that it contains black holes of non-information. However, it is perhaps the essence of history that it does contain such blank areas on its great disc of data. If it were otherwise, history would not exist, as all would be known about everything, including (heaven forbid) every single thing about you and me in our imperfect lives.History, its capture and preservation by various forms, in particular writing and image-making, is driven by a need to know about what happened in the past. The study of history is one of the seminal markers that sets us apart as a species from all other sectors of the animal kingdom. The pursuit of history, however, is much akin to the aftermath of a crime: evidence must be evident in order to compile the story by facts and make a conviction, in the case of an historical event, an article or treatise on a given subject or person.The historian is obliged not to make up history nor to present his or her opinions about the past as if such were true reflections of former events. Thus the Bermudian columnist, Alvin Williams, noted his regret at not being able to present the facts about some black Bermudians who were directly involved in the major wars and skirmishes of the last century. Like any professional writer of history, Mr. Williams needs evidence in order to compile a new picture of a thousand words on what happened in the past. Most people, however, are not very obliging in that process, as may be illustrated by the countless old family photographs, which regretfully are not signed nor captioned to identify the handsome or beautiful persons captured within. While the image survives, its associated name has been lost, largely forever, to history.So in presenting matters of history or heritage, one can only project a capsule of time and personalities if the evidence is at hand. In the same way, a museum cannot make a display of the past without artifacts, many of which have been lost to the mists of time. Of both sets of my grandparents, for example, I possess only a small silver box with my American granny's initials engraved thereon: no exhibit can thus follow about my lineage: thus history, through the loss of its material evidence, voyages into oblivion.Mr. Williams kindly gave the Museum a photograph of Samuel (Eddie Blue) Lightbourne, some facts of whose life are known and were recorded in an article by columnist, Ira Philip, some years ago in The Mid Ocean News, now itself another artifact of history.In that photograph, ‘Eddie Blue' is a man of mature age, standing a proud Bermudian in his uniform of a Chief Engineer of the United States Maritime Service, in which he served near half a century. Samuel shipped out in 1942 on a Canadian version of the American “Liberty Ships”, which were known as the ‘“Park Ships”, in this instance the freighter, Prince Albert Park, the British equivalent being the “Fortships”. His career spanned the Second World War, the Korean and the Vietnam conflicts, and unlike other Bermudian merchant mariners, he was not consigned to the deep blue by an enemy torpedo, the fate of thousands of defenceless merchant mariners on the high seas of the 1939-45 engagements with Germany and Japan. ‘Eddie Blue' completed his seabound life of almost 50 years (perhaps that oceanic career is what gave him his nickname) on the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship.The moral of this story is that if you want to be remembered, get it on the record. The moral of this tale is that if you want to be remembered, get engaged with museums and other heritage organisations whose sole purpose is the preservation and presentation of the Past: in many instances, they cannot do it without your input. But if you don't get involved with history and heritage matters, don't entirely blame the messengers if you think your history is voyaging into oblivion.Yours in hope for better heritage days for all, Edward (Sprocket, Ali Ben Barak) HarrisEdward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Executive Director of the National Museum of Bermuda, incorporating the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Comments may be made to director[AT]bmm.bm or 704-5480