"That first trip, I was looking forward to Melbourne and Brisbane, but we went to Yampi Sound [off the northern coast of Western Australia] to load iron ore," he recalled.

That maiden voyage on a BHP ship, Iron Kimberley, may have diluted the romance of cruising to a great destination, but it was the beginning of quite a journey through life for Tom Jones.

For more than 40 years, until his retirement in 1998, Mr Jones worked on merchant ships around Australia's coastline and crossed the seas, including a voyage to Vietnam in 1966, carrying supplies for Australian troops serving there.

During his career, he learnt life on ships was not so much about the destination, but the community that existed on board.

"More than just sailing with people, you became friends with them," the 83-year-old said.

That sense of community and maritime history flow through the hundreds of artefacts, papers and photos in a Maritime Union of Australia exhibition at the Hunter Unions Building.

The exhibition is celebrating 150 years since the first waterside workers' union was formed in Australia.

The exhibits were sourced from the union's archives and storerooms, and from members' own collections, including Mr Jones'.

He pointed to a glass commemorating the union's centenary that he "collected" while attending a dinner in Sydney 50 years ago.

Lynda Forbes is one of the exhibition's organisers. More than help collate the exhibits, she has contributed to what is on display.

Her late husband, John Forbes, was a career seaman, working on ships around his native Britain and Australia, including out of his adopted port of Newcastle.

John Forbes' life at sea was dotted with adventures, from wild storms to being shipwrecked. He was also a shipmate of Tom Jones. They worked together on a number of ships, including the Newcastle-built tanker, John Hunter. The exhibition has a collection of Mr Forbes' documents, including pay slips. For about seven weeks' work on the BHP ship Iron King in the 1960s, he walked away with $214.

"It's the essence of John in a way," said Mrs Forbes, as she flicked through her husband's documents. "Because that's what he was. He was a seaman."

Mr Jones and Mrs Forbes said the exhibition was a reminder of how much Newcastle as a port and the Australian shipping industry had changed. Both lamented the demise of Australian-crewed and -operated ships.

"You see all the foreign ships loading coal, which is good for keeping the port going, but it would be lovely to see some of our ships here," said Mr Jones.

To Lynda Forbes, this exhibition is about more than a particular union or industry.

"This, to me, is Newcastle," Mrs Forbes said. "It's their [Novocastrians'] story, because, somehow or other, they have a connection to this, whether through industry, shipbuilding, mining.

"This is just the story of Newcastle really, because, without the work of the seamen and the wharfies, it would not have grown."

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