A Steady Trade: A Boyhood at Sea

A Steady Trade is the story of a childhood in Wales and a boyhood on the arduous "sail-in-trade" of northern Europe before World War II. It is a charming, nostalgic reminiscence of a lost world, of childhood in a Welsh countryside still in the 19th century, of a time when chantey-singing sailors fought the weather to deliver bricks, coal, even animals around the world, and of a young boy who wanted to experience it all.

Peopled with unforgettable characters from Tristan's sailor mentor "Goodness Gracious" Jenkins to the ageless "Tansy" Lee, captain of Second Apprentice, the book is filled with the sights, sounds, and smells of the sea, an unbelievably real evocation of a remarkable coming of age.