About our boat name...Invictus

Linda and I bought "Invictus" from a very nice man in Naples, Florida who had owned her for 13 years.  He, like me, was a former sailor.  He was 82 and wanted to move down in boat size and complexity.  He had named the boat "Freedom," as you can see in the picture.  

Previous owner, Jim, and me at the Naples Yacht Club

Linda and I had been thinking about boat names for a long time.  Early in our relationship we had discovered that we had both chosen the same poem to memorize for our high school poetry class.  (Remember when everyone had to memorize a poem!)  We both chose "Invictus" by William Henley because we liked the message about self reliance.  So, it was an obvious choice for us for a boat name.  Henley published the poem in 1888 in Scotland.  Here it is:

Out of the night that covers me, 

      Black as the pit from pole to pole, 

I thank whatever gods may be 

      For my unconquerable soul. 

In the fell clutch of circumstance 

      I have not winced nor cried aloud. 

Under the bludgeonings of chance 

      My head is bloody, but unbowed. 

Beyond this place of wrath and tears 

      Looms but the Horror of the shade, 

And yet the menace of the years 

      Finds and shall find me unafraid. 

It matters not how strait the gate, 

      How charged with punishments the scroll, 

I am the master of my fate, 

      I am the captain of my soul.

Henley gave his poem a Latin title which we liked because we both studied a lot of Latin in high school.  The poem has been called the "atheist's anthem" by some but we don't read it that way.  To us it states our believe that you are responsible for your own fate, you make your own luck, and when you get knocked down you get up and move ahead.

And we are not alone in choosing it as a boat name -- the Coast Guard has over 80 "Invictuses" listed in the documented boats list.  There is at least one movie titled Invictus and one men's cologne.  Oh well, we still like it.

Linda christening "Invictus" in 2013 while I wince