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The First Fleet was the fleet that carried the first British transportees to Australia. It consisted of eleven ships (two naval vessels, six ships carrying convicts and three carrying supplies). The flagship was the HMS Sirius, a 16-gun converted merchantman.
The fleet left Portsmouth May 13, 1787, reached Tenerife on June 3, Rio on August 5, Cape Town on October 13 and Botany Bay on January 18-20, 1788. It carried 778 convicts in conditions better than a slave ship, but still pretty horrible.
Leaving out ASB ideas like “Cthulhu rising from the depths and hitting his head on the keel of the Sirius,” what’s the worst disaster that could have happened to the First Fleet? Could a storm at sea have taken out the whole fleet, or part of it, and would such a storm be likely in those waters at that time of year? The transport and supply ships ranged in size from 272 to 453 tons, and none of the ships were more than six years old. There were a substantial number of marines to guard against a convict mutiny, but they didn’t have musketballs until they got to Rio. The man in charge of the whole thing, Captain Arthur Phillip, has earned a reputation for competence and meticulousness.
With all that in mind, could something go wrong badly enough to put the British government off the whole idea of transporting convicts to Australia?
The fleet left Portsmouth May 13, 1787, reached Tenerife on June 3, Rio on August 5, Cape Town on October 13 and Botany Bay on January 18-20, 1788. It carried 778 convicts in conditions better than a slave ship, but still pretty horrible.
Leaving out ASB ideas like “Cthulhu rising from the depths and hitting his head on the keel of the Sirius,” what’s the worst disaster that could have happened to the First Fleet? Could a storm at sea have taken out the whole fleet, or part of it, and would such a storm be likely in those waters at that time of year? The transport and supply ships ranged in size from 272 to 453 tons, and none of the ships were more than six years old. There were a substantial number of marines to guard against a convict mutiny, but they didn’t have musketballs until they got to Rio. The man in charge of the whole thing, Captain Arthur Phillip, has earned a reputation for competence and meticulousness.
With all that in mind, could something go wrong badly enough to put the British government off the whole idea of transporting convicts to Australia?
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