History for Maritime Museum

History for Maritime Museum

Eighteen years after Cook’s arrival, in 1788, the English were back to stay with a fleet of 11 ships, packed with supplies including weapons, tools, building materials and livestock. The ships also contained 751 ragtag convicts, and around 250 soldiers, officials and their wives. This motley ‘First Fleet’ was under the command of a humane and diligent naval captain, Arthur Phillip. As his orders dictated, Phillip dropped anchor at Botany Bay. But the paradise that had so delighted Joseph Banks filled Phillip with dismay. The country was marshy, there was little healthy water, and the anchorage was exposed to wind and storm. So Phillip left his floating prison and embarked in a small boat to search for a better location. Just a short way up the coast his heart leapt as he sailed into the finest harbour in the world. There, in a small cove, in the idyllic lands of the Eora people, he established a British penal settlement. He renamed the place after the British Home Secretary, Lord Sydney.

The intruders set about clearing the trees and building shelters and were soon trying to grow crops. Phillip’s official instructions urged him to colonise the land without doing violence to the local inhabitants. Among the Aborigines he used as intermediaries was an Eora man named Bennelong, who adopted many of the white man’s customs and manners. For many years Bennelong lived in a hut on the finger of land now known as Bennelong Point, the site of the Sydney Opera House. But his people were shattered by the loss of their lands. Hundreds died of smallpox, and many of the survivors, including Bennelong himself, succumbed to alcoholism and despair.

So what kind of society were the British trying to create? Robert Hughes’ bestseller, The Fatal Shore (1987), depicts convict Australia as a terrifying ‘Gulag’ where the British authorities tormented rebels, vagrants and criminals. But other historians point out that powerful men in London saw transportation as a scheme for giving prisoners a new and useful life. Indeed, under Governor Phillip’s authority, many convicts soon earned their ‘ticket of leave’, a kind of parole which allowed them to live where they wished and to seek work on their own behalf.

But the convict system could also be savage. Women (who were outnumbered five to one) lived under constant threat of sexual exploitation. Female convicts who offended their gaolers languished in the depressing ‘female factories’. Male re-offenders were cruelly flogged and could even be hanged for such crimes as stealing.

In 1803 English officers established a second convict settlement in Van Diemen’s Land (later called Tasmania). Soon, re-offenders filled the grim prison at Port Arthur on the beautiful and wild coast near Hobart. Others endured the senseless agonies of Norfolk Island prison in the remote Pacific.

So miserable were these convict beginnings, that Australians long regarded them as a period of shame. But things have changed: today most white Australians are inclined to brag a little if they find a convict in their family tree. Indeed, Australians annually celebrate the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788, as ‘Australia Day’.

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THE FIRST FLEET 1787 - 1788
THE VOYAGE

MAY 1787 : DEPARTURE

"..AT 4 AM FIRED GUN AND MADE THE SIGNAL TO WEIGH, WEIGH'D AND MADE SAIL, IN COMPANY WITH THE HYAENA FRIGATE, SUPPLY ARMED TENDER, SIX TRANSPORTS AND THREE STORE SHIPS, AT 9 FIRED A GUN AND MADE THE SIGN'L FOR THE CONVOY TO MAKE MORE SAIL."

With these words the logbook of HMS Sirius recorded the departure of what we know today as "The First Fleet". The eleven ships of the fleet under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip RN took their leave from Portsmouth, England early on Sunday 13 May 1787 bound for a virtually unknown shore eight long months and half a world away. The escort vessel, HMS Hyaena stayed with the fleet until it was clear of the English channel and into open waters. Aboard were some 750 convicts from Britian's overcrowded prison system. They were bound for Botany Bay, there to establish the first European settlement on Australian soil.

JUNE 1787 : TENERIFFE

The first port of call was to be the town of Santa Cruz on Teneriffe in the Canary Islands, there to take on fresh water and vegetables. The fleet arrived at Teneriffe on 3 June 1787, three weeks after leaving England.
One of Phillip's officers, Marine Captain Watkin Tench recorded:
"During our short stay we had every day some fresh proof of his Excellency's esteem and attention, and had the honour of dining with him, in a style of equal elegance and splendor".

AUGUST 1787 : RIO de JANEIRO

It took eight weeks for the Fleet to cross the Atlantic, from the Canary Islands to the South American coast. This seemingly circuitous crossing was to take maximum advantage of the prevailing winds. The Fleet Commander, Captain Arthur Phillip explained in his official account:
"Stormy seas were succeeded by warm weather and favourable winds. Land was sighted on 2 August 1787, and by 6 August the even ships in the Fleet were anchored in the harbour at Rio de Janeiro".

OCTOBER 1787 : CAPE OF GOOD HOPE

The eleven ships of the fleet sailed from Rio de Janeiro on 5 September 1787. Ahead was their third and final civilised port of call en route. It took more than five weeks for the fleet to complete the crossing from Rio to the Cape. Land was sighted early on the morning of 13 October, and by dark all eleven ships were anchored in Table Bay.
Whilst in port, provisions were loaded. Corn was in short supply, but cattle and other supplies were found to be plentiful. Even the convicts enjoyed the luxury of fresh meat and vegetables. On 12 November 1787 the Fleet set sail once more. Ahead was Botany Bay, visited previously only by Cook and the crew of the Endeavour'.

JANUARY 1788: ARRIVAL

The voyage from Cape Town to Botany Bay took about eight weeks. It was an uncomfortable passage as the ships were buffeted by rough seas. There was no let-up, even on Christmas Day.
It was Captain Phillip's plan to go on ahead and seek out the best possible site for the proposed settlement before the main fleet arrived. He therefore transferred to Supply' and split the convoy into three. Supply' would proceed alone; the three fastest transports, Alexander', Scarborough' and Friendship would follow at full speed; and Sirius' would escort the remainder of the Fleet at the best rate they could muster. As it happened, 'Supply' arrived at Botany Bay on 18 January. The second part of the Fleet followed within twenty-four hours, and the remainder of the Fleet made its appearance on the following day.
Phillip was not taken with Botany Bay as the site for his settlement, so he headed north to Port Jackson where (in his own words) he discovered:
...one of the finest harbours in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line might ride in perfect security.
By nightfall on 26 JANUARY 1788 Phillip's convoy was safely at anchor in Sydney Cove, named in honour of Lord Sydney.

NORFOLK ISLAND: MARCH 1788

When Captain Arthur Phillip arrived with the First Fleet at New South Wales, one of his acts was to send a small party to Norfolk Island, there to found a secondary settlement with Philip Gidley King as Lieutenant Governor. Seven free men,, nine convict men and six convict women were to accompany King to the island. The journey was made aboard HM Supply'.
Norfolk Island lies 1368 km east of Australia and was named by Captain Cook after his patron, the Duke of Norfolk.

. As it happened, 'Supply' arrived at Botany Bay on 18 January. The second part of the Fleet followed within twenty-four hours, and the remainder of the Fleet made its appearance on the foThe Alexander, of 453 tons, had on board 192 male convicts; 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, and 29 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony.

The Scarborough, of 418 tons, had on board 205 male convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, and 26 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony.

The Charlotte, of 346 tons, had on board 89 male and 20 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 3 corporals, 1 drummer, and 35 privates, with the principal surgeon of the colony.

The Lady Penrhyn, of 338 tons, had on board 101 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, and 3 privates, with a person acting as a surgeon's mate.

The Prince of Wales, of 334 tons, had on board 2 male and 50 female convicts; 2 lieutenants, 3 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, and 24 privates, with the surveyor-general of the colony.

The Friendship, (snow,) of 228 tons, had on board 76 male and 21 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 3 corporals, 1 drummer, and 36 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony.

There were on board, beside these, 28 women, 8 male and 6 female children, belonging to the soldiers of the detachment, together with 6 male and 7 female children belonging to the convicts.

The Fishbourn store-ship was of 378 tons; the Borrowdale of 272 tons; and the Golden Grove of 331 tons. On board this last ship was embarked the chaplain of the colony, with his wife and a servant.

Not only these as store-ships, but the men of war and transports, were stored in every part with provisions, implements of agriculture, camp equipage, clothing for the convicts, baggage, etc.

On board of the Sirius were taken, as supernumeraries, the major commandant of the corps of marines embarked in the transports*, the adjutant and quarter-master, the judge-advocate of the settlement, and the commissary; with 1 sergeant, 3 drummers, 7 privates, 4 women, and a few artificers.

The Surgeon John White reported a total of 48 deaths and 28 births during the voyage.

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Endeavour was originally a merchant collier named Earl of Pembroke, launched in June 1764 from the coal and whaling port of Whitby in North Yorkshire. She was built from traditional white oak, her keel and stern post from elm and her masts from pine and fir. She was refitted and James Cook, a naval officer with a background in mathematics and cartography was appointed captain. The endeavour departed Plymouth in August 1768, rounded Cape Horn, and reached Tahiti in time to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun. She then set sail into the largely uncharted ocean to the south, stopping at the Pacific islands of Huahine, Borabora, and Raiatea to allow Cook to claim them for Great Britain. In September 1769, she anchored off New Zealand, the first European vessel to reach the islands since Abel Tasman's Heemskerck 127 years earlier. In April 1770, Endeavour became the first seagoing vessel to reach the east coast of Australia, when Cook went ashore at what is now known as Botany Bay.Endeavour then sailed north along the Australian coast. She narrowly avoided disaster after running aground on the Great Barrier Reef, and was beached on the mainland for seven weeks to permit rudimentary repairs to her hull. The space shuttle Endeavour is named for the original ship