Woman photographing birds inadvertently captured a sailor’s last moments
Through the lens of her camera, Ange Tedling watched the small boat heel over the rough waves; The boat’s lone sailor was so determined to cross the dangerous bar beyond the Yamba breakwater that his gaze never left the horizon.
The ramshackle boat, weighed down by multiple engines and missing a mainsail, set off alarm bells in Tedling’s mind. But he had no idea that he was photographing the man’s final journey.
That evening, Matthew Clayton’s yacht would hit the Ballina breakwater and sink, triggering a tragic emergency operation that resulted in the deaths of two rescuers and marking the “darkest night” in Sea Rescue history.
Tedling, originally from Western Australia and a traveler who had been living on the yacht for more than a year, had walked onto the Yamba breakwater at around 11am on May 4 to photograph seabirds.
He was talking to a fisherman when they saw a 20-meter yacht named Orion speeding towards the open sea.
“It was going pretty fast for a small boat,” Tedling said. “I said to the fisherman, ‘This guy isn’t going to go out today, is he?'”
The ship was a “trailer sailboat”; It was a boat small enough to be towed with a trailer.
It wasn’t the ideal tool for dealing with the big, messy swell or crossing the Clarence River bar where a ship had been two months before. a man and a woman drowned after their boat capsized.
Tedling said of the yacht: “The first red flag was not the mainsail, the second red flag was three outboards.” He later learned that two of the outboard motors may not have started.
“Three outboards on a small boat like this… that’s a lot of weight.”
Tedling followed Orion until the boat disappeared. “I basically said to the fisherman: ‘Damn, I’m really worried about him. Like, I don’t know if I should contact the authorities.'”
The next morning Tedling heard about the incident in Ballina on ABC radio and called the coastguard to report what he had seen in Yamba.
Tedling said he met people who knew Clayton in the weeks that followed. He was originally from Caloundra and had been living on the yacht near Calypso Caravan Park for nine months.
“He was down on his luck, he didn’t have much money and he was experiencing serious difficulties so he chose to live on his boat,” he said.
Whatever his circumstances, Clayton was a man of character. A local takeaway business owner identified only as Dave said: Ballina News Daily He said he would feed Clayton and return to pay the man as much as he could.
Dave told the local news outlet that Clayton was talking about sailing north to Brisbane and bought a cheap 14-horsepower engine online.
“He shook my hand and said, ‘I’m leaving today; I’m leaving now,'” Dave said on the morning of May 4.
“He said, ‘I’ll be right, I’ll call you when I get there.’”
Water police allegedly took Clayton elsewhere. NSW Police refused to answer questions about their interactions with Clayton because the matter was before the coroner.
“He didn’t really have a safe haven, and he ended up leaving because he felt like he didn’t have many options,” Tedling said. “But the day he chose to leave probably wasn’t the wisest day.
“It doesn’t matter anyway, because the ship wasn’t actually an offshore type of oceangoing ship. It was more of a riverboat.”
Bill Ewen, 78, and Frank Petsch, 62, died while responding to a call for help from a citizen who saw the Orion yacht in danger off the coast of Ballina on the evening of May 4. Rescue boats capsized in 2.5 meter waves.
Clayton, in his 50s, was found dead after washing ashore. Tedling was not wearing a life jacket, although photos show he was wearing an old, baggy one when he set off from Yamba.
Clayton did not signal for help. He may have already been dragged off the yacht when the alarm went off.
“He probably didn’t have a radio,” Tedling said. “There may or may not be flares. I don’t really know because it depends on what the wreckage shows. But if the boat was blown to bits, I doubt they’ll find much.”
NSW Police said there was a strong possibility the yacht had been broken up or moved under persistently harsh conditions.
Police said in a statement: “Expert divers from the Naval Area Command will assess the situation when conditions allow. However, further actions will depend on safety considerations.” he said.
“At this stage it seems unlikely that the ship will be salvageable.”
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Angus Dalton is science correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect with: X or email.
