Devonport’s
Historic Tall Ship
A ship of significance to Australia’s Maritime Heritage.
Enjoy a unique experience and embody the spirit of adventure on board the Julie Burgess as you sail out of the Mersey River and into the Bass Strait.
Feel the boat move to the forces of the sea, listen to the wind in the rigging and be refreshed by the sun and the bracing clean air.
Get close to nature and admire the scenic beauty of the North West Coast from the deck of a working wooden boat.
History
The Julie Burgess was originally built as a fishing ketch and was the brainchild of Harry Burgess, whose family had pioneered the crayfishing industry in the 1890s.
Captain Harry Burgess commissioned Launceston Shipbuilder Ned Jack to build the new fishing boat to replace the Ada Burgess which had been wrecked in 1934. Ned was unwilling to venture from the normal design but Harry finally convinced him, and the ketch named the Julie Burgess, after Harry’s wife, was launched in the Tamar River in 1936.
She was built from blue gum, Huon pine and other Tasmanian timbers and some of her original timbers were able to be used in her reconstruction.
She contained a ‘wet well’ amidships, where she could hold 4000 crayfish in seawater. With this amount of moveable cargo below deck, the extra width made her extremely stable in the Bass Strait conditions, which due to its average depth being only 50 meters, can produce a treacherous sailing environment.
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