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Cover
Custom art
Title + dedication
Sheet 1
Story spreads
12
The real story
5 quotes · 1 photos
Back cover
Blurb + brand
Fleet at the Edge of the World
Fleet at the Edge of the World
This story belongs to
— — — — — — — —
Fleet at the Edge of the World
KindredPages
Spread 1
The ship moved slowly across the Pacific, and the ocean went on forever in every direction. Wayne Wilberg stood at the rail and watched the horizon - flat, blue, and perfectly empty.
1
Below decks, the air smelled like salt and metal. Men wrote letters home, played cards, and climbed into their hammocks as the ship rocked them gently back and forth. Wayne pulled off his boots and lay down. Through the porthole beside him, the world was nothing but black water and an empty sky.
2
Spread 2
Spread 3
In the middle of the night, Wayne woke up. Something was wrong. The whole ship was shaking - the walls, the floor, the hammock itself - shuddering and trembling like something enormous had grabbed hold of it. The engines were ROARING.
3
Wayne sat up and gripped the ropes on both sides of his hammock. Men around him were wide awake now, eyes finding each other in the dark. From the passageway came an officer's sharp voice: "Stay below. Stay where you are." Nobody moved. The ship only went faster.
4
Spread 4
Spread 5
Hours went by. The engines did not slow down. Wayne lay on his back and stared up at the ceiling, listening to the roar and the rush of the water - and through the porthole, the horizon was still just black. Still nothing. Still no answers.
5
Then - at last - a thin gray line appeared along the edge of the porthole. Dawn. Wayne sat up so fast his hammock swung wide. He grabbed his boots, yanked them on, and headed for the ladder.
6
Spread 6
Spread 7
Wayne pushed open the heavy hatch. Cold salt air rushed over him. He stepped out onto the deck - and stopped. His boots stopped moving. His hand stopped pushing. He stood very still, staring.
7
Ships. Ships to the left of him. Ships to the right of him. Ships ahead and ships behind - when they got up on the deck in the morning they could see "an enormous fleet of American ships as far as the eyes could see from horizon to horizon."
8
Spread 8
Spread 9
Other Marines came up through the hatch behind him. One by one they stepped onto the deck and stopped, just like Wayne had stopped. Nobody said anything. They just looked - left, right, ahead, behind. The horizon that had been empty all night was full.
9
The man beside Wayne finally whispered, "Where did they all come from?" No one answered. They had all been sailing through the same dark night - and the darkness had pulled them together.
10
Spread 10
Spread 11
Word moved along the deck from man to man, quiet and certain: Okinawa. That was where they were going. Wayne said it to himself - Okinawa - and this time it wasn't just a name on a map. "This was to be the invasion force of Okinawa."
11
Wayne stayed at the rail as the sun climbed higher and the fleet held its shape - ship after ship after ship, all of them pointed toward the same horizon, all of them moving forward together. He was one part of something enormous. He did not look away.
12
Spread 12
Behind the story
The real words behind it
Wayne Wilberg was a real Marine, and this really happened to him. He wrote it down himself: the ship barely moving in the dark, then suddenly shaking and surging forward in the night. When he climbed up on deck in the morning, there they were - American ships covering the water from horizon to horizon, as far as he could see. That was the invasion fleet headed for Okinawa. Turn the page and you can see the photographs and read Wayne's own words, just the way he wrote them down. The story in this book came straight from there.
The real story · photographs
Wayne Wilberg
Wayne Wilberg
Behind the story · 1 of 1
Page 1
Page 1
"they ended up in the Atlantic, just cruising along at no more than two or three knots per hour"
Page 3
Page 3
"In the middle of the night they felt the ship really starting to shake and shudder like it was really going somewhere fast"
Page 8
Page 8
"when they got up on the deck in the morning they could see an enormous fleet of American ship as far as the eyes could see from horizon to horizon"
Page 11
Page 11
"This was to be the invasion force of Okinawa"
ABOUT THIS RECORD
This book was drawn from the journals, kept 1944-2013.
KindredPages
Made with care · 2026
The Pacific stretches dark and endless around Wayne Wilberg's ship, too big to imagine, too quiet to sleep. He is just a young Marine - a truck driver, really - crossing an ocean in the middle of a war.

But dawn is coming. And some mornings change a person forever.
Created with KindredPages
kindredpages.studio
 
Cover
direct Verbatim from the journal paraphrase Same meaning, child-friendly wording bridge Connective tissue we wrote
Page 1
Page 1
The ship moved slowly across the Pacific, and the ocean went on forever in every direction. Wayne Wilberg stood at the rail and watched the horizon - flat, blue, and perfectly empty.paraphrase
Page 2
Page 2
Below decks, the air smelled like salt and metal. Men wrote letters home, played cards, and climbed into their hammocks as the ship rocked them gently back and forth. Wayne pulled off his boots and lay down. Through the porthole beside him, the world was nothing but black water and an empty sky.bridge
Page 3
Page 3
In the middle of the night, Wayne woke up. Something was wrong. The whole ship was shaking - the walls, the floor, the hammock itself - shuddering and trembling like something enormous had grabbed hold of it. The engines were ROARING.direct
Page 4
Page 4
Wayne sat up and gripped the ropes on both sides of his hammock. Men around him were wide awake now, eyes finding each other in the dark. From the passageway came an officer's sharp voice: "Stay below. Stay where you are." Nobody moved. The ship only went faster.bridge
Page 5
Page 5
Hours went by. The engines did not slow down. Wayne lay on his back and stared up at the ceiling, listening to the roar and the rush of the water - and through the porthole, the horizon was still just black. Still nothing. Still no answers.bridge
Page 6
Page 6
Then - at last - a thin gray line appeared along the edge of the porthole. Dawn. Wayne sat up so fast his hammock swung wide. He grabbed his boots, yanked them on, and headed for the ladder.bridge
Page 7
Page 7
Wayne pushed open the heavy hatch. Cold salt air rushed over him. He stepped out onto the deck - and stopped. His boots stopped moving. His hand stopped pushing. He stood very still, staring.bridge
Page 8
Page 8
Ships. Ships to the left of him. Ships to the right of him. Ships ahead and ships behind - when they got up on the deck in the morning they could see "an enormous fleet of American ships as far as the eyes could see from horizon to horizon."direct
Page 9
Page 9
Other Marines came up through the hatch behind him. One by one they stepped onto the deck and stopped, just like Wayne had stopped. Nobody said anything. They just looked - left, right, ahead, behind. The horizon that had been empty all night was full.bridge
Page 10
Page 10
The man beside Wayne finally whispered, "Where did they all come from?" No one answered. They had all been sailing through the same dark night - and the darkness had pulled them together.bridge
Page 11
Page 11
Word moved along the deck from man to man, quiet and certain: Okinawa. That was where they were going. Wayne said it to himself - Okinawa - and this time it wasn't just a name on a map. "This was to be the invasion force of Okinawa."direct
Page 12
Page 12
Wayne stayed at the rail as the sun climbed higher and the fleet held its shape - ship after ship after ship, all of them pointed toward the same horizon, all of them moving forward together. He was one part of something enormous. He did not look away.paraphrase
Trim
8.5″ × 8.5″
Pages
32
Spine
0.250"
Format
Print-ready
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