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Tasmanian Seafarers' Memorial
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James Bruni Kelly (1841)
Thomas Kelly (1841)
Thomas Raine
(1842)
The plaque reads ...
James Bruni Kelly (21)
Killed 16.08.1841 by blow from a whale
when on whaling voyage from Hobart
in the barque 'William The Fourth'.
Eldest son of Captain James Kelly.
Thomas Kelly (16)
Third son of Captain James Kelly
died 18.10.1842 after whaleboat upset
on Derwent River enroute to Bruny Is.
A seaman, Thomas Raine was also lost.
Captain James Kelly of Hobart Town was the first man to sail round Van Diemen's Land in a small boat, and was master of a whaling and sealing fleet in the early days of the colony. Tragedy struck the Kelly family when two of his sons were lost in two consecutive years.
His eldest son James Bruni Kelly was killed by a blow from a whale on August 16, 1841, during a whaling voyage from Hobart Town in the barque William the Fourth.
On October 18 1842, a whaleboat carrying Thomas Kelly, 3rd son of Captain Kelly, and three other crew, upset off Brown's River in the lower Derwent in a sudden squall when enroute from Hobart Town to Bruny Island. The four occupants clung to the upturned boat and drifted down the river for about three hours before being sighted by Mr. Lucas, the pilot, but seaman Thomas Raine drowned before rescue could be effected and Thomas Kelly died soon after.