How to go about getting clay in Wurm Online?

I've just started getting into Wurm Online and I've done some exploring, hopefully trying to find a relatively quiet place to settle and figure out the ins-and-outs of the game without an established civilisation around me (personal preference).

However, I've found it remarkably hard to find any source of clay. Without clay I can't build pottery bowls, and without bowls I can't make food, which makes everything really quite complicated. I've seen a few merchants in my travels who can sell pottery bowls, but at this stage I'm also completely broke.

What's the best way to find clay? I'm in Freedom, around the Silent Hill area (heading north-east from there).

I can't give you specific directions regarding your location, as I don't have the game installed anymore, but I can give you some general tips.

• Clay is found mostly below water level. A shovel's limit is 7 tiles below water level, so to dig more than 7 tiles below water level, you will need a dredge and have to be on a boat/ship.
• When dredging on a ship, you should probably moor your boat first so you don't drift.
• Raw clay decays fairly quickly, so make sure you have a Bulk Storage Bin to put it in, or else everything you dig up will disappear after a few days.
• I don't think your intent is to terraform the tiles really, but something of note is that corners of clay tiles don't lower unless they're close to a tile that you can terraform.

There are clay patches all over the coast. If you follow the water line, you'll find one in fairly short order. If there are people around then you'll probably find one that's been flat-raised out of the water to an accessible spot. You could also just ask around about the nearest good spot. I don't know that part of the map well enough to direct you to a specific location.

Another thing, if you're settling inland (which makes it more likely that you won't have civilization all around you), then you can take trip out to the clay patch, and fabricate your bowls on the spot. Also, I'm pretty sure you can skip casseroles and jump right to goulash which might be easier if you're smithing iron.