The First Fleet carrying convicts from England to the other side of the world consisted of 11 ships led by the flagship, HMS Sirius. The others were HMS Supply, The Alexander, The Barrowdale, The Charlotte, The Fishburn, The Friendship, The Golden Grove, The Lady Penrhyn, The Prince of Wales and The Scarborough.
I have travelled in several of these 'ships' in the form of Sydney Harbour ferries named after them and built in commemoration for the Bicentennary of Australia in 1988.
Upstairs in each of these small ferries are details of the original ship and the passengers it conveyed to at that time an unknown destination on the other side of the world.
The First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay in January 1788, and then relocated to Sydney Cove in Port Jackson (now known as Sydney Harbour).
The Second Fleet, arriving in 1790, consisted of six ships: The Scarborough (again), The Justinian, the Lady Juliana, The Surprize, the Neptune and the Guardian.
The Third Fleet which arrived at Sydney Cove in Port Jackson in 1791 consisted of 11 ships: The Britannia, The Matilda, The Salamander, The Albermarle, The Mary Ann, The William and Ann, The Gorgon, The Active, The Atlantic and The Queen.
CONVICT TRANSPORT SHIPS
I included this subject simply because I'm fascinated by the thought of all of these ships pulling up at Sydney Cove and dumping all these people considered to be the 'trash' of British society in somebody else's backyard. That of the Australian Aboriginal people.
For a brief romanticised moment I wondered if the Third Fleet ship, the Britannia, was the same one that fought in the Battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Spain in 1805. The one that was manned by two men by the name of MAWBY.
Well, no, it wasn't.
According to Wikipedia, this Britannia was a large full rigged whaler built in 1783 at Bridgeport, England and owned by a whaling company. It was wrecked off the north coast of NSW near the modern day town of Grafton in August 1806.
FREE SETTLERS - BOUNTY AND SELF-FUNDED
The first free settlers arrived in the colony of New South Wales in 1793 - five years after it was established as a penal colony.
