Gerry Clark

Gerald Stanley Clark (9 May 1927 – June 1999) was a New Zealand sailor, writer and ornithologist. He is notable for his ornithological research work on subantarctic islands and for his circumnavigation of Antarctica in his self-built yacht Totorore.

Early years Clark was born in Colchester, England, and educated at boarding school and later at the Thames Nautical Training College, then known as HMS Worcester. In 1944, unable to join the Royal Navy because of a visual defect, he joined the British Merchant Navy, serving with the Union-Castle Line on the Liberty ship Samflora, and completing his cadet training during a two-year cruise without home leave. Upon discharge from the Samflora he joined the Straits Steamship Company, based in Singapore, as a junior officer on small ships trading through the islands of South East Asia.

In 1951 Clark returned to England to attend the Warsash Maritime Centre at Southampton to sit for his Master's Certificate. While he was there he married Marjorie Ellen Bates who later joined him in Singapore, where the couple had four daughters. There Clark was promoted first to captain and then to assistant marine superintendent of a fleet of fifty vessels.

Clark also attended evening classes in boat building, building his first yacht, the 7 m Ketiga in 1968, in which he took part in the first Single-handed Trans-Tasman Yacht Race in 1970. In 1973 he sailed around New Zealand, including the Chatham, Auckland and Campbell Islands. 1988 – Tequila Propeller Award (Royal Akarana Yacht Club) 1988 – Fred Norris Medal (Devonport Yacht Club) 1988 – Stolberger Memorial Award (New Zealand Yacht Club Navigators Society) 1988 – Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society

For the next twelve years Clark continued his interest in seabird conservation and New Zealand's subantarctic islands by making numerous trips in the Totorore to assist researchers from the Department of Conservation to count, map, and study seabirds. It was in the course of an expedition to recover satellite transmitters, used to track albatrosses breeding on the Antipodes Islands, that the Totorore disappeared on about 12 June 1999 off the south coast of Antipodes Island, along with Clark and his companion Roger Sale.

Publications Clark wrote a book, based upon extracts from his diary, about the Totorore expedition "The Totorore Voyage'’ first published in 1988 by Century Hutchinson, Auckland. He also produced reports and published papers in various journals and bulletins on his research, including:

Clark, G. (1983). Totorore expedition to southern Chile. Australasian Seabird Group Newsletter 18: 20–21. Clark, G.S.; Meyer, A.P. von; Nelson, J.W.; Watt, J.N. (1984). Notes on the sooty shearwaters and other avifauna of the Chilean offshore island of Guafo. Notornis 31: 225–231. Clark, G.S.; Goodwin, A.J.; Meyer, A.P. von.. (1984). Extension of the known range of some seabirds on the coast of southern Chile. Notornis 31: 320–324. Clark, G.S. (1985). Cattle egrets near Antarctica in April. Notornis 32: 325. Clark, G.S. (1986). Seabirds observed in the Pacific Southern Ocean during autumn. Australasian Seabird Group Newsletter 23: 1–15. Clark, G.S.; Sale, C.S. (1986). Notes on the seabirds observed during the Totorore Expedition's voyage across the Drake Passage to the Antarctic Peninsula and return, April 1985. Australasian Seabird Group Newsletter 24: 5–7. Clark, G.S. (1987). Seabird observations between South Georgia and South Africa from a sailing vessel. Cormorant 14: 20–30. Clark, G.S. (1989). Cape pigeons breeding and Westland black petrels seen at Chatham Islands. Notornis 36: 51–52. Bourne, W.R.P.; Brooke, M. de L.; Clark, G.S.; Stone, T. (1992). Wildlife conservation problems in the Juan Fernandez archipelago, Chile. Oryx 26: 43–51. Clark, G.S.; Cowan, A.; Harrison, P.; Bourne, W.R.P. (1992). Notes on the seabirds of the Cape Horn islands. Notornis 39: 133–144. Tennyson, A.J.D.; Mayhill, R.C.; Clark, G.S. (1993). A visit to The Pyramid and the Murumurus, Chatham Islands. Tane 34: 171–179. Clark, G.; Amey, J.; McAllister, G. (1995). Unexpectedly large number of wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) breeding on Antipodes Island, New Zealand. Notornis 42: 42–46. Clark, G.; Robertson, C.J.R. (1996). New Zealand whitecapped mollymawks (Diomedea cauta steadi) breeding with black-browed mollymawks (D. melanophrys melanophrys) at Antipodes Islands, New Zealand. Notornis 43: 1–6. Clark, G.; Booth, A.; Amey, J. (1998). The Totorore expedition to the Bounty Islands, New Zealand, October 1997 to January 1998. Unpublished report to Department of Conservation, Southland Conservancy, Invercargill. 64 pp.