Edye John

John Edye was a shipwright and navy man who worked as Master Shipwright at the Royal Navy Dockyard at Trincomali (modern Trincomalee, Sri Lanka) for five years coinciding with 1829. He then worked at the Chatham Dockyard by at least 1832 before moving to the Department of the Surveyor of the Navy in 1834. Edye was made Chief Clerk at the Surveyor of the Navy's office and worked with Surveyor William Symonds on his many new designs for the Royal Navy's sailing fleet.

Edye's experience in Southern India gave him an expertise and interest in the region's maritime context which continued even after he returned to Britain. He contributed papers reporting on the state of Southern India's ships, ports and natural products to the Royal Asiatic Society's journals in 1834 and 1835, and was approved as a member of the society in 1835 before retiring from the Society's affairs in 1843.