Amazing Shells

By Wendy Tucker

At age 6, Jack Lightbourn entered the world of ocean molluscs through his relationship with his grandfather, who took him shell hunting and coral collecting in the shallow bays of Bermuda. Two of the richest areas were Castle Harbour and Harrington Sound. His collection grew at a modest rate until the end of World War II, by which time Castle Harbour was no longer the rich haven of previous years because of the extensive dredging to build the U.S. Army airfield. In the early 1950s, Lightbourn collected shells seriously with his close friend, Arthur Guest, who was also a keen collector specialising in the smaller varieties referred to as micro-shells.

By 1965, their collections had grown considerably; Guest's to 450 species and Lightbourn's to 300. Three years passed without them finding one additional new species, and this inspired them to try dredging and trapping in deep water — in depths of 300 to 400 feet, and in depths of 800 to 1,500 feet. Their efforts were immediately successful to the extent of adding 300 new species to the Bermuda listing during the next 20 years — 10 of which were new to science. Three of these were named after Lightbourn as follows: Pterynotus lightbourni, Fusinus lightbourni and Conus lightbourni. It was during this same period that Lightbourn started to collect foreign shells comprising cones, cowries, murexes and many other miscellaneous species.

From the beginning, Lightbourn and Guest had decided to pool the Bermuda species, which resulted in a collection numbering some 756 species — the largest ever, in Bermuda. Lightbourn's foreign collections now consisted of 5,000 species, of which 20 percent were collected in foreign places such as the Caribbean, New Caledonia, Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines. The remainder was acquired by purchase and trading.

In his will, Guest left his entire collection to Lightbourn. Lightbourn presented a quantity of his magnificent collection — comprising 1,200 shells of 1,000 species — to the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI), where they are displayed in a room named after him, The Lightbourn Shell Collection. Of these, 110 are from Bermuda; the remainder of the shells are foreign.

In his private life, Lightbourn worked for the Bank of Bermuda, spending his last nine years at the bank as general manager. He retired at the end of 1990 after 50 years as a banker but still pursues his lifelong hobby of shell collecting. As a life trustee of Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, Lightbourn can frequently be found on the premises, where he enjoys meeting and talking to visitors about his lifelong hobby. (292-7219, www.buei.org)

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