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Revision as of 04:41, 3 April 2005 by DickMack (talk | contribs) (tidy up stats)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The First Fleet is the name given to the group of people and ships who sailed from England in May 1787 to establish the first European colony in New South Wales. It was a convict settlement, led by Captain (later Admiral) Arthur Phillip.
Background to the settlement
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 Further Reading 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.
Some of the notable First Fleet members were:
Officials
- Augustus Alt, surveyor
- Richard Johnson, chaplain
Crew members who remained in the colony
- Arthur Phillip, governor
- King, Philip Gidley, 2nd lieutenant, later lieutenant governor of Norfolk Island, and 3rd governor of the colony
- John Hunter, captain of HMS Sirius, later 2nd governor of the colony
- Henry Lidgbird Ball, captain of HMS Supply
- John White, principal surgeon
- Thomas Arndell, assistant surgeon, later settler
- William Balmain, assistant surgeon, later principal surgeon
- Arthur Bowes Smyth, assistant surgeon, author of journal
- Dennis Considen, assistant surgeon
- Thomas Jamison, surgeon's mate
- Henry Brewer, clerk to Phillip, provost marshall, administrator
- Quartermaster Henry Hacking, settler, explorer
Marines
- Major Robert Ross, commander, later lieutenant governor of Norfolk Island
- 2nd Lieutenant Ralph Clark, author of journal
- Captain David Collins, judge advocate, later commandant of first settlement at Hobart
- Lieutenant William Dawes, engineer, surveyor, humanitarian
- Lieutenant George Johnston, later commander of NSW Corps
- Captain Watkin Tench, author of journal
- Lieutenant William Bradley, author of journal, water colourist
Convicts
- Ann Inett, de facto relationship with Philip Gidley King
- Margaret Dawson, de facto relationship with William Balmain
- Esther Abrahams, partner and wife of George Johnston
- Mary Braund and William Bryant, escapees from colony
- James Ruse, farmer and landowner
- John Baughan, carpenter, mill owner, attacked by NSW Corps
- Jacob Bellett, landowner at Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's Land
- Matthew James Everingham, landowner
- Edward Garth and Susannah Gough/Garth, pioneer family
- Nathaniel Lucas and Olive Gascoigne, pioneer family
- Henry Kable/Cabell, constable, landowner
- John Caesar, Madagascan, absconder
- Joshua Peck, landowner
- Charles Peat and Ann Mullins, pioneer family
- Robert Sidaway, theatre owner, landholder
Many other convicts made significant contributions to the early years of the colony, but few are remembered today, except by their descendants.
Ships of the First Fleet
There were eleven ships in the fleet, namely:
Naval escorts:
Convict transports
Storeships
Preparation for the voyage
The voyage
Arrival at New South Wales
Further reading
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.
Related sites
See also: