History Of The First Fleet

Understanding The First Fleet And Why It Matters

The First Fleet was a convoy of eleven ships that left Portsmouth, England, on May 13, 1787. Its mission was straightforward: transport convicts and Marines to Botany Bay and establish a penal colony in New South Wales. The fleet carried around 1,430 people, roughly two-thirds of whom were convicts. Most history books gloss over the logistics, but the real story is in the details. Arthur Phillip commanded the operation as Governor. He sailed with HMS Sirius as the flagship. The rest of the squadron included supply vessels, a bread ship, and several smaller craft. They stopped at Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, and Cape Town before reaching Australia in January 1788. The voyage took about eight months. One ship, the Supply, arrived early from Newfoundland via the Pacific route.

History Of The First Fleet And What Actually Happened

When the fleet arrived at Botany Bay, Phillip assessed the location and found it unsuitable. Poor soil, lack of fresh water, and strong winds made settlement impractical. He moved north about 12 miles to Port Jackson. That is where Sydney was established on January 26, 1788. Here is something most people miss. The transportation of convicts to Australia was not a new idea. Britain had been sending criminals to the American colonies since 1718. About 50,000 convicts went to America before the Revolution cut that off. After losing those colonies, Britain needed a replacement. Australia filled that gap until transportation officially ended in 1868. I spent years digging through primary sources for a research project. One problem kept coming up: the official logs are incomplete. The officers who kept journals often omitted uncomfortable details. Phillip's dispatches were written for the Home Office, so they presented a polished version of events. The Mariner's Journal kept by William Bradley survived, but even that leaves gaps. You have to cross-reference multiple accounts and read between the lines.

A specific example. When trying to pin down exactly how many convicts died during the voyage, different sources give different numbers. I eventually settled on approximately 48 deaths during transit, but the exact figure depends on whether you count infants born at sea and exclude those who died after arrival. The National Archives in Kew has the muster rolls, but they are handwritten and sometimes contradictory.

What Most People Get Wrong About The First Fleet

Popular culture treats the First Fleet as a single coherent event. It was not. Several ships split off at different points. The six ships bound for New South Wales from the Cape were: Sirius, Supply, Scarborough, Charlotte, Borrowdale, and Atlantic. Two others, the Lady Penrhyn, and the Friend ship, also made the crossing. The Hoordwijk and the Golden Grove were part of the earlier Brazil expedition that joined up later. Another misconception. The convicts were not all petty thieves. While many were charged with minor offenses, the fleet included murderers, bank robbers, and political prisoners. About 775 of the male convicts arrived, along with 188 women. Roughly 75 children were also aboard. The demographic breakdown matters because it shaped how the colony developed in those early years. The Marines are another overlooked piece. Around 241 Royal Marines accompanied the fleet, plus their families. They formed the garrison and served as guards over the convicts. Some Marines deserted. Others married settlers or former convicts. Their records show up in colonial censuses in unexpected places.

I once tried to trace a specific convict named Mary Reiby. She arrived on the First Fleet at age 10. Most sources say she was sentenced to seven years for theft. But the parish records from her baptism in Ireland do not match the transportation documents exactly. This kind of discrepancy comes up often. Convict names were spelled inconsistently by clerks. Mary Ryebit, Mary Reyby, Mary Reibey all appear in different records. If you are researching an ancestor, start with multiple spelling variants.

The Ships And Their Fates

Each vessel had a different trajectory. HMS Sirius was the largest warship and served as the colony's main supply link to Cape Town. It wrecked at Norfolk Island in 1790 after a terrible storm. That shipwreck nearly crippled the young settlement because it carried most of the military stores and food reserves. The Surprize was a smaller sloop purchased in England. It became the colony's primary coastal explorer. The Guardian was supposed to carry supplies and medical stores but was lost near Saint Pierre and Miquelon in December 1789. A court martial found the captain at fault for straying from the convoy. This loss was significant because it removed a major food supply meant for the struggling colony. Three of the original ten ships returned to England. The either wrecked, were sold, or broke up in Australian waters. Tracking individual ships through colonial records can take days in the NSW State Archives. Digitized indexes help, but the original ledgers are what you need for serious work.

Why This Period Still Generates Debate

The First Fleet occupies a contested space in Australian history. For decades, the narrative treated arrival as a founding moment. Indigenous Australians had inhabited the continent for at least 65,000 years before the fleet arrived. The displacement that followed is now well documented but was rarely discussed in earlier histories. Archaeological work at the Sydney Cove wreck site, discovered in 1982, has changed understanding of what actually happened onshore. Artifacts recovered show trade between settlers and Aboriginal people that official records do not mention. This kind of evidence forces revision of the traditional account. If you are looking for reliable sources, start with the Papers and Proceedings of the Handsworth Historical Society. The Australian Dictionary of Biography has detailed entries on key figures. The National Library of Australia's Trove database has digitized newspapers from the period that reference the fleet and its aftermath. Be aware that many online sources repeat each other without checking primary documents. Always verify claims against archival material when possible.

There is no single definitive account of the First Fleet. The records exist, but they require careful handling. The human stories buried in muster rolls, prison transcripts, and naval logs are worth the effort. They are not clean or simple, and they should not be treated as such.