Page 43 - D:\AA Warsash Association\Journals\2020\AH2020-1\DEK\

All Hands 2020-1 (UK Spring) P a g e 41

Despite his father wanting Tony to join the RAF he stuck to his ambition to
run away to sea and ended up in April 1946 at The School of Navigation
then based at South Stoneham. The School moved to Stubbington in January
1947. During his time at the School formed a lifetime friendship with Bob
Walton and Claude Brook. All three were infamous for their pub-crawls
during their intermediate term but made amends by all three be promoted to
Cadet Captains in their final term. The three maintained a close friendship
throughout their lives although one lived in Canada and the other two in
Australia.
On leaving the School of Navigation Tony joined Common Brothers and
spent his apprenticeship trading in the Far East and Australasia. As part of
his apprenticeship due to the demise of the ship’s carpenter Tony was
appointed as carpenter and many of the skills he perfected during this time
stood him well in his future endeavours!
On obtaining his 2nd Mates Ticket and marrying his wife Billie in Sydney,
Tony joined BHP, serving on various iron ore carriers.
Whilst studying for his Mates Ticket in Sydney he enhanced his building skills working as a stone mason and
plumber and during the next few years while gaining sea time to obtain his Masters Ticket he also built the family’s
home in Allambie Heights in Sydney.
With an eye ever open to new opportunities or should I say challenges, on a road trip from North Queensland to
Sydney he spotted a partially built trawler on the Clarence River in northern New South Wales. So the family
moved to Maclean, where in two years, he completed the 55 foot trawler Pipon and promptly set sail for
Mooloolaba in 1968 where he formed part of that port’s initial prawning fleet.
With his contacts in Maclean Tony was kept busy with delivery jobs for the Ballina Slipways and during one such
job to New Guinea he sighted a Japanese long-liner, the Kinea Maru marooned on Elizabeth Reef, some 300 miles
from Ballina. He decided that a quick six-week salvage job would be just the thing, but it took a long nine months
to finish!!

Never one to stay in one spot, in 1974 he bought a small container ship, the Vicki K in the Netherlands intending
to sail for New Guinea waters. With a crew of New Guinea seamen augmented by his wife “Billie” as cook and
eldest daughter Jude as a deckhand. The vessel sailed to and from Cornwall to European ports carrying a variety
of cargoes. Eventually the vessel loaded a cargo of dynamite for the Persian Gulf. That was as far as the “Vicki
K” got and she was eventually sold to the King of Bahrain.
Returning to New Guinea he obtained the Yuar Maru and sailed round the New Guinea coast for some time before
deciding to return to Australia where it was then back to sea in a more conventional pattern serving as Master on
Weather Ships and coastal Gas Tankers servicing the Pacific Islands, eventually settling down as Master serving
on Queensland Cement and Lime vessels on the Australian coastal trades until his retirement.
Retirement however was not to be spent taking it easy. Throughout his life Tony had spent much of his time ashore
renovating or building houses and this grew into a new business of making outdoor settings, bookcases, standar d
lamps etc. all of which in true Tony fashion weighed a ton.
After fifty happy years together Tony’s wife Billie died in 2003. He is survived by his three daughters, Jude, Pam
and Sue and his four grandsons, Che, Ky, Sharndor and Travers.

A life well lived and rich in adventure, he will be greatly missed by all.

Click the telegraph to hear a sound of yesteryear.