Seaman Dan was born in 1929 on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait region of tropical far-north Queensland, Australia. His grandfather was a boat captain from Jamaica and his great grand mother a chief's daughter from Great New Caledonia.
In the late 1940s and 1950s, he worked in maritime industries as a boat captain and pearl diver - gathering pearl and trochus shells in the Coral, Arafura and Timor Seas.
Seaman Dan's music portrays a mixture of Blues, Hula, Slow-Jazz and Pearling songs, reflecting the many cultures and traditions found in the Torres Strait, and various other places where he lived, including Darwin and Broome in Australia, and Papua New Guinea - absorbing the beautiful island's music.

He describes his music as: "Thursday Island is a multi-cultural society, and through the pearling industry there were songs from all over the world. You listen to all these elderly people as they sing and you add bits and pieces to your own song as you go on".
Seaman Dan combines the traditions of Australia, America, Africa and Polynesia into a truly unique musical style.
Today at 77 years of age, Seaman Dan continues to write songs about life, love and work in tropical Australia, and performs at concerts, festivals, community events and cultural programs in schools and museums around the country.