Voyage of the First Fleet
The historic journey of convicts from England to Australia.
Banished from their homeland in 1787, more than 750 of Britain's convicts were launched on a perilous sea voyage to the other side of the world.
Convict transportation was a fact of British life by the late 1770s. With the dual advantage of getting rid of the growing numbers of convicted criminals in Britain and providing labour for the developing American colonies, the volume of transportation had increased to a stage where it was estimated that as many as 1000 convicts were being transported to America each year. After the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, however, the American colonies refused to accept any more overflow from the British prisons.
With too many convicts and nowhere to send them, the British government decided to take up the suggestion of navigator Captain James Cook, who had suggested the new land in the south then known as New South Wales and later named Australia, would be suitable for a settlement. The government decided to follow his advice with just one important modification: the remote settlement would be penal in nature.
The First Fleet Sails
Now know as the First Fleet, the first transportation of convicts from England to Australia left Portsmouth on May 13, 1787. The fleet comprised two warships, six convict transports and three supply ships. These 11 ships ranged in size from 452 tons to 170 tons, and carried a total of 1500 people. On board were 759 convicts - 564 males and 192 females - as well as marine guards, seamen, officials and the wives and children of many of those traveling across the 12,000 miles of ocean to the new colony.
Bound for Botany Bay
It was a perilous journey for small sailing vessels and one that could be expected to result in death for some of the people on board, particularly given the poor health of many of the convicts. Two factors, however, helped most of them survive the voyage to Australia.
First, in the transportation contract awarded to London merchant William Richards Jnr, payment was based on the number of convicts delivered to New South Wales, which meant the contractor had a vested interest in keeping them alive. Second, the First Fleet preparations took place under the keen and intelligent eye of the new colony’s first Governor, Arthur Phillip, who insisted on convicts and marines being supplied with fresh beef and vegetables in the weeks before they sailed, to build up their strength for the long ordeal ahead of them.
Once at sea their diet was also an improvement on their prison fare. They benefited too from exercise, which was incorporated into their routine during the voyage, and from Phillip’s insistence on a good standard of hygiene. He also organized fresh food stops for the fleet at Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope.
These measures reaped their reward in the general good health of the convicts when the First Fleet arrived at Botany Bay on January 18, 1788, then continued a short distance north in search of fresh water, landing at Port Jackson, in an area of the city now known as Sydney, on January 26, 1788.
The First Australia Day
Of the 1500 people who had set out on the First Fleet, a total of 37, including 22 convicts, died during the voyage. This was considered a small percentage in view of the circumstances, but it is unlikely that many of the convicts felt cause for rejoicing when they first set foot on the apparently uninhabited shores of their new land. For them this was a new and alien prison. Most of them were destined to die there, unaware that these 1500 First Fleeters were the founders of the nation of Australia, and that January 26 would thereafter be celebrated as Australia Day.
