Fishermen Honour Radio Operator

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32394, 5 September 1970, Page 2

Fishermen Honour Radio Operator

(From Our Own Reporter) TIMARU, Sept. 1. Fishermen on the North Otago-Canterbury coast have a soft spot in their hearts for the

operator of the shore-

based radio for the Timaru fishing fleet (Mrs M. E. Clausen).

Conversely, Mrs Clausen has the utmost admiration for the men engaged in this potentially hazardous occupation.

The respect in which Mrs Clausen is held by fishermen generally was evidenced last week, when she was presented with a canteen of cutlery in appreciation of her services over the last 21 years. The presentation, fittingly enough, was made at a social function after the annual conference of the New Zealand Federation of Commercial Fishermen in Timaru. Mrs Clausen is as much a part of the sea as “the men who go down to the sea in ships.” Her late husband was a fisherman and so was her son. Now her son-in-law is carrying on the family tradition.

Mrs Clausen is no mere frequency on the radio net-, work. She is the link between fishermen and their families —as vital a component in the Search and Rescue Organisation as the "rear link” is to armoured vehicles in the field. Such is her dedication to the task that she is directly in touch with the trawlers while they are at sea, and she maintains a listening post nine hours a day. She is known as the “eyes and ears of the fleet,” but more affectionately as the “mother of the fleet” The kitchen of her home

in Waimataitai Street was designed to accommodate the radio.

Mrs Clausen sleeps, eats and breathes the fishing industry, and the protection of her “brood.”

Her task is mainly routine, but there have been moments of intense drama, dramatic rescues, agonisingly slow tows, and day-to-day incidents, some humorous, some sad, which have forged strong links between Mrs Clausen and those whose spirit when anyone was in trouble at sea was “wonderful.”

“They never think of the danger, but go immediately to help. Time is the essence, and the main thing is to get a message through quickly to the air-sea rescue organisation in the harbour,” she said. Modest in so far as her work is concerned, Mrs Clausen denies that it is of a spectacular nature. But trawlermen place great emphasis on her voice, her decisiveness in times of danger, her sympathy and understanding, her easy familiarity with themselves and their families. She Is “May,” a dominant factor in their' lives, a vibrant personality at the Port of Timaru.