A Steady Trade: A Boyhood at Sea

by Tristan Jones

A Steady Trade is the story of a childhood in Whales 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, a 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.

Genres: Nonfiction

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Arthur Jones, pen name Tristan Jones was a prolific English author and mariner. His stories, mostly about sailing, are a combination of both fact and fiction, and it is rather difficult to tell these apart.
He was an illegitimate child, and was raised mainly in orphanages. He joined the Royal Navy in 1946, and served for 14 years. After ending his career in the Navy, he bought a sailboat, became a whiskey smuggler, and scraped a living sailing the Mediterranean Sea.
After his left leg was amputated in 1982 (a result of health problems and accidents), he resumed sailing and sailed the trimaran Outward Leg from San Diego to London, then across central Europe by river and canal to the Black Sea, and then around south Asia to Thailand.
After the amputation of his right leg in 1991 he only returned briefly to sea, and he lived in Phuket, Thailand, he converted to Islam and took on the name 'Ali'.

Reviews

[Cecelia Hightower]

Tristan Jones was a Welshman that was a solo sailor and help pay for his journeys by writing and giving presentations about his adventures. This book tells about his childhood in Wales and his start in the sailing trade. Thanks to his father he was able to get a berth on sailing vessel crewed by the captain and three hands that did coastal hauling and trips between England and the continent. He was fourteen years old when he received this berth. This book ends as WW II has started he resigned his berth to enlisted in the British navy.

I have read many of his books and I had the honor and pleasure of meeting him in downtown Seattle when I was about nine or ten, or there about. It was in the late evening after all the stores were closed and he had a display set up showing his journeys, giving oral presentation, asking for donations, and trying to sell a book he had written to raise funds to continue with his journeys. I had a few cents I tried to give him and he was graceful in his suggestion that I keep my few coins for myself. As I recall, there weren't too many people paying attention to him when I was there, but he talked to me and didn't make me feel like I was just another bothersome kid getting in the way. Needless to say he made a major impression on my life, even if I didn't emulate him I think a lot of things I do or think, somehow, would lead back to my meeting with him.

Needless to say this book will be in my library along with the other books of his I have.

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tristan Jones (1929-1995), one of the great world-sailors, was a terrific writer and an engaging speaker. This fine book recounts his early family life in Wales and his leaving home at age 13 to join a series of boats in the commercial fleet shortly before WWII.

I met Tristan in Seattle at his lecture and signing for this book.
At that time he was clearly in discomfort from his leg amputation, necessitated by an old wartime injury suffered when yet another ship was blown from beneath him. How I regret not having invited him out for a pint after his lecture, and half of the riveted audience of sailors would surely have joined in.

Tristan lived on the edge of danger his whole life. Having narrowly survived the war, he went on to log more single-handed sailing miles than any contemporaries, mostly in monohulls, but eventually in a trimaran as a concession to his prosthesis.

He recounts some of these epic voyages in an engrossing series of seven books, written with his inimitable Welsh concision and charm.

[R.Bruce Macdonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

By far my favourite of Tristan Jones' books. In this memoir of growing upon a working sailing ship the author describes perfectly the feeling of life at sea as a young person doing hard work, having adventures and learning at the hand of a master seaman. Highly recommended for those about to put to sea.

[R.Bruce Macdonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far my personal favourite of all of Mister Jones tales. If you spent any time on a traditionally rigged sailing ship as a teen then you will find lots to enjoy here.

[Lynn Calvin]

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