There's a moment of magic that happens when the restored Tasmanian ketch, Julie Burgess, sails out of the Mersey River.

The asphalt carpark at the mouth is a popular place to eat takeaway in the car but as her topsails catch the sun beyond the breakwall, cars could momentarily be carriages and chip bags a picnic.

The raw history was even more tangible onboard.

Volunteer crew and passengers gripped ropes and stays as the little ship nodded approval at a small, oncoming Bass Strait swell.

The Julie Burgess languished on the shore of the Mersey river for more than 20 years before Federal funding acquired by the Devonport Council saw her restored and returned to service. ( Supplied: Rick Eaves )

From a nautical mile off the coast, Devonport started to look new again, a small settlement against the backdrop of a big, wild island and the wholesome loaf of Mt Roland.

"On the right day out here you can even see Cradle Mountain," said the ship's master, Graham Kent.

"When you head west past Mersey Bluff, you see right up through the valleys and you can pick Cradle out, especially when she's snow-capped."

Volunteer Mark Gooley helps to adjust the sails on the Julie Burgess off Devonport. ( ABC Northern Tasmania: Rick Eaves )

The 83-year-old Julie is the last of over 100 vessels built by five generations of the Burgess family across Northern Tasmania.

Some were even built on remote Three Hummock Island in western Bass Strait.

From that improbable outpost, Richard Burgess and his family pioneered commercial crayfishing, delivering the fish to Melbourne markets at the end of the 19th century.

Ship's master, Graham Kent, waves to a passing boat from the stern of the Julie Burgess. ( ABC Northern Tasmania: Rick Eaves )

The Julie Burgess is a classic example of the type and size of ketch that serviced early Tasmanian settlements with fishing and trading.

"A lot of Melbourne was also built with palings cut along this coastline and delivered by ships just like this," Master Kent said.

"They went in and out of the small rivers along the north-west coast, even up to Latrobe. There are great photos of trading ketches tied up at Bells Parade."

The Julie Burgess is exactly the kind of vessel once relied on for trade and fishing in Tasmanian waters. ( Supplied: Rick Eaves )

Last of their kind

Very few working vessels built in Australia at the end of that sail-era are still in survey.

In fact it is possible the only two of that ilk are in Tasmania; the Julie Burgess in Devonport and the Rhona H in Hobart — both of which do chartered cruising and day sails almost a century on.

Both were originally built for fishing in Launceston at Ned Jack's Shipyard and both nearly have to ride up on a swell to be classified tall ships. But they scrape in!

A rarely-seen view of Devonport from two kilometres out to sea. ( ABC Northern Tasmania: Rick Eaves )

The Julie Burgess was built in 1936 for Captain Harry Burgess as a crayfishing ketch.

The Rhona H followed in 1942 for Frere Youl of Symmons Plains who sold her soon after to the famous Hardy fishing family at Stanley.

The curator for historic vessels at the Australian National Maritime Museum, David Payne, said the two vessels might be the only surviving examples of the once ubiquitous Tasmanian trading ketches that could be brought back to sailing condition.

"Those two are potentially the only vessels like that in the country — Australian working boats dating back to World War II," Mr Payne said.

Skipper Brenton Jones manoeuvres Julie Burgess out of the Mersey River. ( ABC Northern Tasmania: Rick Eaves )

"Having said that, you just never know what's lurking, what someone might be working on. Trying to say something definitive can actually be a way of finding more examples.

"The Julie Burgess is certainly among the largest and last surviving examples of working craft that used sail as their primary source of power and one of the last gaff-rigged ketches with a Tasmanian ketch rig to be built."

Ships linked two centuries

The first of the ship-building Burgess family is often referred to as Richard the First who arrived in Tasmania in the early 1800s.

His great-great-grandson — another Richard — Dick Burgess lives in Devonport.

Volunteers work to set and trim the sails on the topsail ketch. ( ABC Northern Tasmania: Rick Eaves )

Over the course of a century, ending with the Julie Burgess, the family built and commissioned over 100 ships, nearly all of which were named after women in the Burgess family.

"Some years ago, one of the crew came back to me and said 'we've got a Burgess lady on board — Ada Burgess,' and so I had a chat with her," Mr Kent said.

"She said, 'I was named after a ship — there wasn't a ship named after me!'"

After her fishing life, the Julie Burgess was briefly reinvigorated to joining the Bicentennial Tall Ships sail.

Within a couple of years she was languishing in her home port, The Mersey.

In 2008, the Federal Government made a fund available for the preservation of items significant to Australia's maritime history.

A lot of people had talked about reviving the Julie and many would go on to be part of the crew of volunteers who made it happen.

"The Devonport City Council was able to purchase and restore the vessel and the profile of her has not changed at all," Mr Kent said.

"Certainly down below she's different where we've created berths for 8 or 9 people and there's a big dining table to sit around."

The Julie Burgess does regular Wednesday and weekend sails out of Devonport for most of the year, weather permitting.