Fore and Aft

Foreword by Greg Combet, Secretary, ACTU and Paddy Crumlin, National Secretary MUA

Ships and the sea, people and ports were Tas Bull's guiding enthusiasms from his early childhood until the end of the great voyage of his life. He would have stood proudly amongst the generations of his Norwegian forebears - seamen, ship builders and ship owners, explorers and traders.

In their age of sail, living for the sea all too often meant dying in it. Those seafarers and their ships helped build the global trade that made the Australia we know, and which continues to shape the opportunities for our nation's future.

Going further than his ancestors, Tas Bull communicates his insights in permanent form, leaving us with a timeless vision into those workers, who make ships and the sea their lives. Tas's love of history and the empathy and curiosity he held for all around him again opens the world to us here. The seafaring experiences of his early life not only opened up new oceans and lands with their people and culture, it opened up a lifetime of passion and love for the sea, but also for for the long history of those that went before. He journeyed the world as compulsively as any of his forebears, often in their very wake. He remained determined to preserve their impressions and his own so that we might see the world as he did.

The well being of his fellow travellers was Tas Bull's other great preoccupation and inspiration, that included friends who shared the adventurous encounters of his youth; his family and his workmates. As his commitment and involvement in the Trade union movement developed, that same fellow ship broadened to embrace seafarers and wharfies and their industrial an political needs everywhere. And so ultimately in his travels Tas Became a campaigner for his fellow humanity in causes that continue to unite workers and their families internationally.

Fore and Aft is a book of sea stories, personal encounters and nautical history by an author who was known for the understatement of his own achievements, his anecdotal and accessible style and his inherent good humour and optimism. But this book as extra value for many as the record of someone who was prepared both to make a stand to conciliate; to mobilise people in a cause and to insist on standards and principles. Even many of his contemporary adversaries now reflect that the basics which he and his comrades fought for - whether in pursuit of decent safety working conditions or rewards for one's labour - were a good thing for their world.

This legacy of vigilance, compassion and determination continues to inspire those that want to nurture and protect the rights and needs of their fellow human beings and as they read Fore and Aft those people will also share in the great adventure that is the wonder of ports, seas and far away places and the unique people that go there.e

The Maritime Union of Australia and the AUstralian COuncil of Trade Unions are delighted to have assisted in the final instalment of Tas Bull's literary contribution.

Tas Bull was the former General Secretary of the Waterside Workers Federation.

Fore and Aft is now available from branch and national offices for $25.