You may be wondering why I've decided to call my boat 'Calbourne'.
Going back quite a while, I had stumbled across the name 'Caliburn', which I quite liked. Caliburn was, depending on which myth you believe, either the predecessor of the sword Excalibur, or a distortion of the same word.
My older brother, who intoduced us to the canals and boating, was also the 'founding father' - at the tender age of 16 - of the Isle of Wight Steam Railway. Their first achievement was to raise enough money to buy a locomotive and five carriages, just before they were chopped up for scrap.
The loco was called Calbourne No 24. Calbourne is of course, also a place in the Isle of Wight.
Last year, my brother sadly died of cancer and left me a modest sum in his Will. The amount he left was roughly the difference between a modern, high-revving engine and a restored vintage one.
So it seems entirely appropriate to call my boat 'Calbourne', a name which has so many memories and family associations tied up with it.
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| The late Ron Strutt, IoW Railway Member 001. |
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