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First Fleet

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The First Fleet is the name given to the 11 ships which 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, with the responsibility to organise and choose officials falling on then Home Secretary, Lord Sydney and his junior, Evan Nepean. 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 hulk Dunkirk 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 originally slave ships 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

The departure of the fleet must have been greeted with fear and trepidation by the convicts and marines. They were embarking on the longest voyage ever attempted by such a large group. They were heading for a destination that was little explored by Europeans, and whose conditions were only to be guessed at. Few would have had any confidence in seeing England, their families and friends, ever again.

With fine weather the convicts were allowed on deck, and on 3 June 1787 the fleet anchored at Santa Cruz at Tenerife. Here fresh water, vegetables and meat were taken on board. Phillip and the chief officers were entertained by the local governor, while one convict tried unsuccessfully to escape. On 10 June they set sail to cross the Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro, taking advantage of favourable trade winds and ocean currents.

The weather became increasingly hot and humid as the fleet sailed through the tropics. Vermin, such as rats, bedbugs, lice, cockroaches and fleas, tormented the convicts, officers and marines. Bilges became foul and the smell, especially below the closed hatches, was over-powering. On Alexander a number of convicts fell sick and died. Tropical rainstorms meant that the convicts could not exercise on deck, and were kept below in the foul, cramped holds. On the female transports, promiscuity between the convicts and the crew and marines was rampant. In the doldrums, Phillip was forced to ration the water to three pints a day.

The fleet reached Rio de Janeiro on 5 August and stayed a month. The ships were cleaned and water taken on board, repairs were made, and Phillip ordered large quantities of food for the fleet. The women convicts’ clothing, which had become infested with lice, was burned, and the women were issued with new clothes made from rice sacks. While the convicts remained below deck, the officers explored the city and were entertained by its inhabitants. A convict and a marine were punished for passing forged quarter-dollars made from old buckles and pewter spoons.

The fleet left Rio on 3 September to run before the westerlies to the Cape of Good Hope, where they arrived in mid October. This was the last port of call, so the main task was to stock up on plants, seeds and livestock for their arrival in Australia. The women convicts on Friendship were moved to other transports to make room for livestock purchased there. The convicts were provided with fresh beef and mutton, bread and vegetables, to build up their strength for the journey. The Dutch colony of Cape Town was the last outpost of European settlement which the fleet members would see for years, perhaps for ever. “Before them stretched the awesome, lonely void of the Indian and Southern Oceans, and beyond that lay nothing they could imagine.” (Hughes, p.82)

Assisted by the gales of the latitudes below the fortieth parallel, the heavily-laden transports surged through the violent seas. A freak storm struck as they began to head north around Van Diemen's Land, damaging the sails and masts of some of the ships.

In November, Phillip transferred to Supply. With Alexander, Friendship and Scarborough, the fastest ships in the Fleet and carrying most of the male convicts, Supply hastened ahead to prepare for the arrival of the rest. Phillip intended to select a suitable location, find good water, clear the ground, and perhaps even have some huts and other structures built before the others arrived. However, this "flying squadron" reached Botany Bay only hours before the rest of the Fleet, so no preparatory work was possible.

On 19 January 1788, the coast of mainland Australia was sighted, and by next morning all the vessels were anchored in Botany Bay. This was one of the world's greatest sea voyages — eleven vessels carrying about 1400 people and stores had travelled for 252 days for more than 15,000 miles (24,000 km) without losing a ship. Forty-eight people had died on the journey, a death rate of just over three per cent. Given the rigours of the voyage, the navigational problems, the poor condition and sea-faring inexperience of the convicts, the primitive medical knowledge, the lack of precautions against scurvy, the crammed and foul conditions of the ships, poor planning and inadequate equipment, this was a remarkable achievement.

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, their 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 made 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 near Vanikoro Island in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu).

On 26 January 1988, 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 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: