The Last Seaman

Publisher Marketing: Marty Leigh has wanted to go to sea ever since he was a boy growing up outside the Queen Victoria Markets. Despite his father's misgivings and insistence that Marty learn a trade, Marty is determined to see his dream come true. When he is nearly seventeen, Marty takes the first step and signs up to be a deck boy. Now all he has to do is wait. Two weeks later, Marty receives a call that he is to set sail on the SS Barwon immediately. With his young heart beating wildly, his blood racing through his veins, and his suitcase held together with a leather strap, Marty climbs his first gangway and begins a new life. All the union asks of him is loyalty in exchange for dignity, strength, and close association with his own kind. As Marty attempts to acclimate to life at sea, he has no idea that one day far into the future, he will walk down his last gangway as a bitter, disillusioned man irrevocably changed by the sea. In this historical tale, a teenager embarks on a remarkable coming-of-age adventure where he quickly learns that it is not he who controls his destiny, but the sea. Contributor Bio:  Ward, Wayne Wayne Ward went to sea as a boy; it made him what he is today, a seaman. It is an achievement he rests easy with. He has had one partner in life; from this marriage came three sons who all followed the pathway of their father. No greater pride has a parent than offspring who surpass them in life's accomplishments. With the odds stacked against them all three achieved their foreign-going masters certificates. He and Heather live in Wangi Wangi on Lake Macquarie, NSW. A woman close to the author said after reading The Last Seaman: ""You have done a good job of showing how rotten and degrading seamen are."" There are no doubts this particular lady has genuine credentials to make such a damning statement; her three sons are seamen, her three brothers were seamen, she is married to a seaman, her father and uncles were wharf labourers. It was deflating, the years of stitching it all together had been for nothing. Not rotten and degraded. The characters were meant to depict a strong, forthright section of society. Upstanding, honest, generous, caring, moral. The intent if anything was to glorify. In failing I hang my head among my fellows.