ARRIVES AT SYDNEY COVE HORRIFYING CONDITIONS says Chaplain JohnsonLong awaited ships from England have arrived bringing with them a load of problems far outweighing their aid to the Colony. Lady Juliana, arrived June 3, 1790, was found to carry not food but female convicts, mainly elderly and infirm. Justinian, arrived June 20, brought food and news that the principal store ship, Guardian, had foundered off the Cape of Good Hope. The ships carried the first detachment of the New Continue Reading »
The Eleven Ships
Alexander, weighing in at 452 tons, 114 ft long and 31 ft at the beam, the Alexander was commanded by Master Duncan Sinclair. She carried 192 male convicts and was the largest ship in the fleet. Being built in Hull, England in 1783, little is known about the vessel after her return journey to England, as there are no records after 1808. Borrowdale, one of three store-ships was built in Sunderland England for the owners Leightons & Co in 1785, three years before Continue Reading »
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales was added to the number of transports in December 1786, on representation being made to the Treasury Board, that such an addition was necessary to carry female convicts to Botany Bay. With its royal name Prince of Wales was one of the newest vessels in the fleet, having been built on the Thames by Christopher Watson & Co and launched on 12 August 1786 for its owner James Mather, a Cornhill merchant. Prince of Wales afully rigged shipwas 350 tons, 103 feet long Continue Reading »
Scarborough
Scarborough was named after the town on the East Coast of England where it was built in 1782. She was a 430 ton, three-masted cargo ship; 111 feet 6 inches (34 m) long and 30 feet 2 inches (9.2 m) wide. The owners Thomas, George and John Hopper (or Hooper) charted her to the Admiralty, and after transporting convicts to New South Wales, Scarborough was under contract to work for the East India Company. On the voyage to Botany Bay, Scarborough was captained by Master John Marshall with Surgeon Continue Reading »
Golden Grove
Built in Whitby in 1780, Golden Grove was one of the three store-ships that were owned by Leighton. She weighed 331 tons, with 5’6” height between decks afore, 5’5” midships and 5”1” abaft. The store-ships, Borrowdale, Fishburn and Golden Grove were men of war and transports; they had stored in every part, provisions, implements of agriculture, camp equipage, clothing for the convicts, baggage, provisions for two years and such other articles as were considered necessary to a Continue Reading »
HMS Lady Nelson
The Lady Nelson story is one of courage and devotion, this small 60 ton brig carried out her duty, with all the vigour of a much larger sea faring vessel, in her twenty-five years of service in the colony, between 1800 and 1825 Two hundred years ago on 1 December 1811 the original Lady Nelson brig: (a two-masted square-rigged vessel) was again in Hobart Town, having undertaken a difficult voyage from Sydney bringing Governor Lachlan Macquarie and Mrs Elizabeth Macquarie for their first Continue Reading »
HMS Supply
Supply Armed tender was designed by Benjamin Slade as a Deptford yard transport and built in 1759 by Bird at Rotherhithe and was to become known as the ship from which Australia was founded, and was honoured during the bicentennial year by featuring prominently on a commemorative ten-dollar note, issued by the Australian Reserve Bank. Supply, a small brig of 168 tons and already 28 years old, served as the naval tender and armed companion of the First Fleets flagship HMS Continue Reading »
HMS Sirius
HMS Berwick .... HMS Sirius I suppose most of us, having read the standard references, know that HMS Sirius started life as HMS Berwick. I certainly had only that information. The publication the Sirius, Past and Present by Graeme Henderson and Myra Stanbury, published by Collins Australia, Chapter 2, Building and Outfitting the Berwick, is a fascinating account, telling the story of this early life of HMS Sirius, as well as a general study of shipping of the period. There is considerable Continue Reading »
Lady Penrhyn
Lady Penrhyn, a three-masted wooden cargo vessel of 338 tons, was built in 1786 on the River Thames, by Edward Greaves of Limehouse London for Curtis & Co., London. She had a length of 103 9/10 feet and a beam of 27 5/10 feet, with a round house and quarter badges, with a woman figure-head. The ship’s name was given in honour of Lady Ann Susannah, wife of Richard Pennant who was a Liverpool merchant prince who founded his fortune on the slave trade and inherited estates in Jamaica. On 6 Continue Reading »
Friendship
Friendship was a convict transport ship of 276 tons, which was built in Scarborough England, in 1784, for her owners Hoppers of Scarborough. Aboard on the voyage to Botany Bay, were the Master, Captain Francis Walton, Assistant Surgeon Thomas Arnell and Marines, Captain James Meredith, Lieutenant Ralph Clark, and Lieutenant William. As the smallest of the transports Friendship probably carried a crew of around 20. Her 76 male and 21 female convicts were loaded at Plymouth. Continue Reading »