Times of the Islands Spring 2020

Early life
Gustarvus Lightbourne (affectionately called Gus) was
born on January 27, 1921 to Mr. and Mrs. Emmanuel
Lightbourne of Blue Hills, Providenciales. He attended
the Blue Hills School in High Rock and was taught by Mr.
Aaron Gardiner. Boys usually attended school until they
reached the age of 14, when they would learn a trade or
go fishing for a living. Gus was brought up by his grandparents,
who made sure that he attended school.
Gus’s life was filled with challenges and hardships. On
November 30, 1934, the General Express, a boat carrying
his father, his mother and two sisters, disappeared from
his sight in rough weather, never to be seen or heard from
again. This must have been a horrifying experience for
this young boy who had just become a teenager, yet he
still managed to move on. Those who knew Gus say, “He
always prepared for the worse.” Perhaps this early experience
influenced that attitude.
Another attitude apparent in Gus and his sons was
confident self-reliance. In the 1980s, when the flight
instructor consistently failed to show, Gus’s younger son
taught himself to fly an airplane. Gus’s elder son taught
himself plumbing with the new materials marketed in the
1970s.
Young men look forward to owning a boat and in the
1930s, Gus took on the job of building one. Gus and
his “regarded” brother Livingstone Swann had gone into
the interior of Providenciales and found the branches
they considered suitable timbers for framing the size he
wanted. They had all the timber in the backyard when Gus
engaged a boat builder who was too busy to get to his
job. While waiting, Gus set the stern and transom into the
keel. When Gus’s grandfather Thomas Lightbourne (“Ole
Olemer”) saw what the boys had done he heaped encouragement
on them. Gus finished the boat and, at age 18,
was the owner of the G.L. Progress.
This boat made several trips to Haiti which was one
of the TCI’s main trading partners. Gus would take conch
and other marine products from the local fishermen to
Haiti to trade. In return, he brought back essential equipment,
food items, clothing, etc. His bold initiative opened
the gateway for a variety of goods and services to reach
the previously neglected Caicos Islands. During World War
II, when Turks & Caicos would otherwise be shut off from
the rest of the world, boats like the G.L. Progress made
several trips to Haiti to keep supplies coming in.
As it stood then, the bulk of the Islands’ international
trading activities took place at the ports of Grand Turk
and South Caicos. For people in the other Caicos Islands
to purchase items for their survival they had to travel to
South Caicos or Grand Turk by small sloops. With Gus’s
initiative, they now had direct contact with international
trading partners — The Bahamas, Dominican Republic and
Haiti.
Gus loved building boats. He built several and bestowed
on them fancy names such as the Glancing Shadow, the
Smack, K.C.M. Orlando (Livingstone Swann, Gus and
Livingstone’s brother Barrymore went on to marry three
of Edgar Howell’s daughters—Kathleen, Christiana and
Myrtle, and Barry spent time picking oranges in Orlando,
hence the boat’s name) and the Cassius (from the boxing
champion Cassius Clay). The Cassius was not a sailboat,
but was built for an outboard motor. Her faster speed
(from the same horsepower) and easier manoeuvrability
made her competitive for all-around efficiency with the
larger longboats built by Daniel Delancy. Gus not only
loved to build boats he also loved to race boats. He piloted
from the lee side and his competitors thought, “What nonsense”
until after the race.
Gus Lightbourne had a character larger than life. He is
described by many as a man who would tell you a piece
of his mind in a heartbeat. He was a no-nonsense fellow,
straightforward and plain-speaking, who did not stand for
foolishness. You knew where you stood with him because
he cut no corners. He was also described as being a sharp
fellow for his intellectual/engineering ability. This earned
him the nickname “Sharper.” He fell in love with Kathleen
“Katie” Howell and on September 28, 1944 they were married.
This union produced four children. Only two of them
survived past infancy.
Life’s challenges
Gus’s life was filled with challenges. He got shipwrecked
aboard the Lady Austin in 1941 while on a trip to
Mayaguana, Bahamas. In September 1945, while fishing
off Blue Hills on the G.L. Progress with a crew of five men,
a dangerous hurricane impacted the Islands. They were
totally unaware of the hurricane’s approach because, at
the time, they did not have modern warning systems.
Their mast broke and they drifted at sea for 12 days without
food and water. Through it all, God was with them.
Gus named the first land they sighted Atwood Cay
(Samana Cay is the more popular name today). With this
inspiration they struggled with wind and current, without
success, to get to Acklins. They finally ended up on
Crooked Island, Bahamas. They may have sold whatever
equity was left in the G.L. Progress to get themselves
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