Oceans To

Some men of the Islands

Capt. Edmund French Clay (pictured), just retired from the Torres Strait Pilot Service, is a seafarer of wide Pacific experience. He has won affection and respect in his years of service.

A Brett Milder

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From The

Oceans To

The Land

IN his 26 years as a licensed pilot Ted Clay piloted over 800 vessels, in excess of eight million tons gross.

Owing to his specialised knowledge of New Guinea waters he spent most of his time during the war in pilot ing allied merchantmen and warships in those waters under the aegis of the Torres Strait Pilot Service." During the Milne Bay campaign he served for seven weeks as pilot of USS Selfridge, a task force flotilla leader.

Captain Clay was born in Sydney on December 26, 1897. youngest of five children of Dr. and Mrs. W. R.

Clay. In 1911 the family found itself in England, but as Ted didn’t want to stay there he took a job as a deck boy in the small steamer Opouri, landing at Hobart, Tasmania, just after his 14th birthday.

Then he went back to school at Barker College, Hornsby, and at the Monaro Grammar School, Cooma.

In 1915 he tried to enlist in the AIF, but being a small lad was told to “go away and grow up”. He joined the AUSN as an apprentice in the SS Levuka, and spent a year in the banana trade between Sydney and Fiji.

He was then transferred to the Australian Hospital Ship Kanowna, carrying wounded between England, the Middle East and Australia. He passed for Second Mate (Provisional) and became a watchkeeping officer.

In 1920 he transferred to the British India Company, and spent 18 months trading between Africa, India, Burma and the East Indies, before returning to Australia and the Pacific.

He passed for First Mate in Sydney and joined the mission ship John Williams.

In this ship he called at hundreds of mission stations in Papua, Ocean Island, Nauru, the Samoas, Niue, and the Gilberts, Ellice and Tokelau Islands. He then joined the family firm of Handley and Clay (later J.

R. Clay & Co. of Papua), and took charge of four ketches fishing for beche-de-mer.

In 1923 he passed for Extra Master in Sydney, and returned to Papua as master of the auxiliary ketch Varoe , trading and recruiting and freighting along the coast of Papua

and in the intricate waterways of the Fly Delta. There is a reef near Dedele marked “Clay Reef” in his honour.

In 1924, entering hospital at Moresby with tropical ulcers, he met and married Sister Gladys Hutchin.

In 1926 they made a holiday tour of England, Scotland and France, before returning to the Papuan trade.

During the next years Ted served as master of two steamers, seven ketches and the lovely schooner Royal Endeavour.

He and his wife now have three married daughters, Robin (Mrs. Geoff Davis of Canberra); Varoe (Mrs.

Legg of Wahroonga); and Jenny (Mrs. Wanless). In 1935 Ted moved his family to Sydney and joined the Burns Philp Line, serving as second mate and mate of the Macdhui, Mangola, Marella, Neptuna and the old Montoro.

He left the firm at the end of 1940 to begin his long service with the Torres Strait pilots, from which he and two other ex-Burns Philp officers have just retired. The other two are Captain “Tommy” Thompson, pre war master of the Maiwara, Muliama and the first Tulagi; and Captain Jim Campbell, who was master of the Macdhui when she was wrecked by Japanese bombs in Port Moresby in 1942.

Ted Clay has always been a serious student and it is hoped that he will devote his retirement to some literary work on shipping in the Pacific.