Saturday, 11th July 1789
Peter White, the sailmaker in the Sirius, disappeared from Sydney Cove.
Sunday, 12th July 1789
Parties went out searching for Peter White without success.
Monday, 13th July 1789
The search for Peter White continued, both by land and by water. Guns were fired from the Sirius to direct him to the ship.
Tuesday, 14th July 1789
Parties were again out searching for Peter White.
Captain John Hunter and Davis Collins, returning from an expedition toward the mountains, were walking back to the harbor where HMS Sirius was berthed.
Hunter recorded:
At 8 in the morning we heard the report of a great Gun, which led me to believe that some person belonging to the Sirius was mossing and had probably been lost in the Woods; as we frequently that morning fired Musquets, we sometimes imagined we had heard a Musquet at a distance in the Wood.
We frequently fired several together, and as often heard several together which we believed meant to answer us. By means of those repeated Volleys we drew nearer to that which answered and by hallowing all together found we were in the hearing of the person, who had followed our firing, for after Calling out we listened attentively, and heard a very faint Voice in answer in that direction we walked, and came so near as to desire the person to remain where he was and we would find him out.
We ate last, by frequent calling and answering found the person, who proved to be Peter White, Sail maker of the Sirius. He had been four days lost, and had about an ounce of Bisquet left, was very faint, and appeared to us to be stupid and almost exhausted, for he Staggered like a Man Drunk.
The flint for his gun being work to a stump, he could not get fire during the whole of the day before from it. The next morning it failed him again, until he had occasion to answer our Musquets, when it again struck fire, otherwise in all probability we should never have found him.
Peter White, joined HMS Sirius on 20th December 1786, aged 30 from Greenock, Scotland. On 14th July 1789 he was lost in the bush at Port Jackson for four days. A son Peter by Ann Powell, a convict lass off the Lady Penrhyn was baptized on 14th March 1791. Ann went on to have other children by William Goodall, Corporal of Marines 6th (Plymouth) Company off the Alexander. She stayed with Goodall, until her death in 1818.
Peter White returned to England by Waaksamheid and was one of several seamen sent to hospital at the Cape of Good Hope from 22nd December 1791 to 12th January 1792 on the homeward voyage. Waaksamheid arrived in Portsmouth on 22 April 1792.
References:
Gillen Mollie, The Founders of Australia
John Cobley, Sydney Cove 1789-1790
Article featured in First Fleet Folio 239, August 2025
