Quite often a simple design can most effectively relate the power of the sea. The Seamen’s Memorial Wall in Eden, Australia is a striking example. The wall was originally designed and built as a memorial to the fishing trawler ‘Shiralee’, lost with all souls on August 10, 1978. Today plaques dedicated to the memory of 24 New South Wales souls lost at sea are attached to the granite wall shaped like a giant wave. These plaques include the names of two sets of fathers and sons who were lost on separate occasions.
Eden is located on Twofold Bay, a beautiful refuge from the Tasman Sea to the East. Eden was for generations a leading port of the whaling industry. It’s location was a perfect spot to intercept whales migrating from the Antarctic to the waters of the Great Barrier Reef. Eden remains a vibrant hub for the Australian fishing industry – and a place of extraordinary natural beauty, befitting its name. But the beauty and peace of any port, unfortunately, often becomes the final memory for some mariners. Fishermen who take to the seas always do so at great risk – some never to return to their personal Eden…
Don Henson said:
Dan, you are doing a fantastic job I am enjoying reading lost at sea memorials, and the pictures are just great! Keep up the good work!!
Terry Foenander said:
Dan, is there a memorial to one John F. Minor who drowned in 1866, on the wall? If so it needs a major correction, as this former Confederate Navy officer’s first name was Joshua, and not John. I do have official Navy and Census documents to show this fact. I have been researching Joshua F. Minor since 2009, and have a lot of previously unknown data on him.
Kilgour boys said:
1867
George and David Kilgour are lost at sea, presumed to have drowned. The article also mentions that two other Kilgour brothers had predeceased them in a similar accident in the same area. The two other brothers would have been James and Alexander.
Twofold Bay (from our correspondent) – December 27th – An accident of a very distressing character, and which is supposed to have occurred about the 11th or 12th instant, has cast a feeling of sorrow upon this community. For some time past David and George Kilgour, accompanied by one Minors (formerly second or third officer on the famous Shenandoah). William Shaw, and an American known as “Jonathan” commenced a fishing and curing speculation at Montague Island, situated about fifty miles from this bay.
This crew of five, in a whaleboat left for Montague Island with provisions for about a fortnight’s stay there, and not having been heard of for four or five weeks, anxious inquires were instituted, which resulted in discovering that a gardener named Day residing near the North head. Had a day or two after the occurrence of the late hailstorm, which took place on the 12th instant, found the thwart of a boat with the name “Ellen” (the name of Kilgour’s boat”) scratched upon it, near Astling’s beach.
This evening a boat’s crew (accompanied by Mr. Creagh, sub inspector of police, who is here upon official business) went to Leonard’s Island, about seven miles hence and picked up the gunwale and other parts of a whaleboat, which in every respect corresponds with the paint and general description of the boat belonging to Kilgour’s party – in fact, the thwart and gunwale are positively identified by two or three of the whalers here, who were well acquainted with the boat. It seems certain therefore, that the entire crew have been drowned.
A strange coincidence is that two other sons of poor Mrs Kilgour were drowned near the place where the present sad event is supposed to have occurred. Minors had on him at the time he left Eden a valuable gold watch, which had been presented to him by the officers of the Shenandoah, and is said to have been much prized by the poor fellow, who had thus met a watery grave.
(The Sydney Morning Herald Thursday 3rd January 1867 pg 5)
Lloyd Bullock said:
I am a descendant of the Kilgour family. There was a sister of David and George who survived. I actually have a poem of this tragedy believed to be written at that time.
I also have photos of the original dirt floor house where the Kilgours lived; along with other documents.