Doctor Mal soft on seaborne junk (7)

I believe the answer is:

flotsam

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'seaborne junk' is the definition.
'flotsam' can be an answer for 'junk' (thesaurus). I'm not sure about the 'seaborne' bit.

'doctor mal soft on' is the wordplay.
'doctor' is an anagram indicator.
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'mal' put after 'soft' is 'softmal'.
'softmal' with letters rearranged gives 'FLOTSAM'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for flotsam that I've seen before include "The floating wreckage of a ship" , "Wreckage found floating" , "Goods lost" , "Vagrants" , "Rubbish on sea" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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