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First Fleet

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The First Fleet is the name given to the group of people and ships who sailed from the United Kingdom in May 1787 to establish the first European colony in New South Wales. It was a convict settlement, marking the beginnings of transportation to Australia. The fleet of 11 ships was led by Captain (later Admiral) Arthur Phillip.

People of the First Fleet

The number of people directly associated with the First Fleet will probably never be exactly established, and all accounts of the event vary slightly. Gillen (see References below, p.445) gives the following statistics:

Embarked at Portsmouth

  • Officials and passengers: 15
  • Ships' crews: 323
  • Marines: 247
  • Marines wives and children: 46
  • Convicts (males): 582
  • Convicts (females): 193
  • Convicts' children: 14
  • Total embarked: 1420

Landed at Port Jackson

  • Officials and passengers: 14
  • Ships' crews: 306
  • Marines: 245
  • Marines wives and children: 54
  • Convicts (males): 543
  • Convicts (females): 189
  • Convicts' children: 22
  • Total landed: 1373

During the voyage there were 22 births (13 males, 9 females), while 69 people either died, were discharged, or deserted (61 males and 8 females). As no complete crew musters have survived for the six transports and three storeships, there may have been as many as 110 more seamen. See section below for list of notable Fleet members.

Preparation for the voyage

The decision to send convicts to Botany Bay was taken by the British Government on 18 August 1786. Preparations to obtain ships, convicts, guards and provisions began soon after. At the time the five hulks in service held about 1300 men, and selected convicts, including women from county gaols were transferred to the Dunkirk hulk at Plymouth and the New Gaol in Southwark. Optimistically, it was hoped to be able to sail in October, but a series of postponements were made. In mid April 1787 the St James's Chronicle commented that “strange as it may appear, we are credibly informed of the Fact that the Transports for Botany Bay have not as yet sailed".

By October 1786, more than 200 marines had volunteered for Botany Bay duty, and Major Robert Ross was chosen to command them. The man chosen to lead the expedition, command HMS Sirius, and take on the governorship of the colony, was Captain Arthur Phillip, of whom the first lord of the admiralty said “the little I know of would have led me to select him".

The convict ships (two were slaveships requisitioned by the Royal Navy) were fitted out with strong hatch bars between decks, bulkheads to divide convicts from crew, and guns and ammunition. Provisions included food such as flour, pease, rice, butter, salted beef and pork, bread, soup, cheese, water and beer. Coal and wood were provided for fuel. Beads, looking glasses and other gifts for native inhabitants were included. Vast amounts of hardware items were taken — tents (for the settlers to live in until huts had been built), wagons, wheelbarrows, gunpowder, collapsible furniture for the governor, scientific instruments, paper, ropes, crockery, glass panes for the governor's windows, ready-cut wood, cooking equipment (including some complete cast-iron stoves), and a miscellany of weapons. Other items included tools, agricultural implements, seeds, spirits, medical supplies, bandages, surgical instruments, handcuffs, leg irons and chains. A prefabricated house for the governor was constructed and packed flat. 5000 bricks for construction and thousands of nails were loaded. As the party was venturing into unknown territory, it had to carry all its provisions to survive until it could make use of local materials, assuming suitable supplies existed, and could grow its own food and raise livestock.

Convicts were delivered to the transports from the hulks and gaols with no reference to skills, or fitness to contribute to the creation of the new colony. The first arrivals embarked on the transports at Woolwich and Gravesend in early January, and continued throughout the next three months. Gradually the ships made their way to Portsmouth, where the last convicts were loaded on the day the fleet sailed. Eventually the fleet set sails and moved off down the English Channel on 13 May 1787.

the voyage


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Arrival at New South Wales

Bicentennial Monument at Botany Bay commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet.

It was soon realised that Botany Bay did not live up to the glowing account that Captain James Cook had given it in 1770. The bay was open and unprotected, fresh water was scarce, and the soil was poor. First contacts were made with the local indigenous people, the Eora, who seemed curious but suspicious of the newcomers. The area was studded with enormously strong trees — when the convicts tried to cut them down, the tools broke, and the tree trunks had to be blasted out of the ground with gunpowder. The primitive huts built for the officers and officials quickly collapsed in rainstorms. The marines had a habit of getting drunk and not guarding the convicts properly, whilst their pompous commander, Major Robert Ross, drove Phillip to despair with his arrogant and lazy attitude. Crucially, Phillip worried that his fledgling colony was exposed to attack from the Aboriginies or foreign powers.

On 21 January, 2 days after he had arrived in Botany Bay, Phillip and a party which included John Hunter, departed the Bay in three small boats to explore other bays to the north. They soon found what they were looking for and the men returned on 23 January with news of a harbour to the north, with sheltered anchorages, fresh water and fertile soil. Phillip's impressions of the harbour were recorded in a letter he sent to England later. He wrote "the finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in the most perfect security ...". This was Port Jackson, which Cook had seen and named, but not entered. A decision was taken to relocate the party to this new site.

The party was startled when two French ships came into sight and entered Botany Bay. This turned out to be a scientific expedition led by Jean-François de La Pérouse. The French group remained until 10 March, but never returned to France, being wrecked with the loss of all lives in the New Hebrides.

On 26 January, the fleet weighed anchor and by evening had entered Port Jackson. The site selected for the anchorage had deep water close to the shore, was sheltered and had a small stream flowing into it. Phillip named it Sydney Cove, after Lord Sydney the British Home Secretary. This date is still celebrated as Australia Day, marking the beginnings of the first European settlement, although it is considered "invasion day" by some indigenous Australians.

Unknown to the first European arrivals, it was to be almost two and a half years before other ships arrived with their cargo of new convicts and provisions. These were the Lady Juliana, shortly followed by the storeship Justinian and the three ships of the infamous Second Fleet.

Many people died shortly after the First Fleet reached Australia. The reasons were; the lack of farming skills, poor quality tools and the fact that the existing food had to be rationed.

Ships of the First Fleet

There were eleven ships in the fleet, namely:

Naval escorts:

Convict transports:

Storeships:

Notable First Fleet members

Some of the notable First Fleet members were:

Officials

Crew members who remained in the colony

Marines

Convicts

Many other convicts made significant contributions to the early years of the colony, but few are remembered today, except by their descendants.

References

  • Gillen, Mollie, The Founders of Australia: a biographical dictionary of the First Fleet, Sydney, Library of Australian History, 1989.
  • Bateson, Charles, The Convict Ships, 1787–1868, Sydney, 1974.
  • Hughes, Robert, The Fatal Shore, London, Pan, 1988

External links

Fiction

Synopsis An Australian penal colony in 1789. A young lieutenant directs rehearsals of the Restoration comedy, "The Recruiting Officer". With a cast of convicts, opposition from sadistic officers and a leading lady who is due to be hanged, Australia's first theatrical production is in trouble from the start.

See also

Categories: