SAILING INTO HISTORY
In a golden dawn on 13 May 1787, 11 ships set sail from Portsmouth, England, under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip. Later dubbed the First Fleet, this historic convoy consisted of two Royal Navy escort ships (HMS Sirius and HMS Supply), six convict transports (Alexander, Charlotte, Friendship, Lady Penrhyn, Prince of Wales and Scarborough) and three store ships (Borrowdale, Fishburn and Golden Grove).
The fleet was comparatively small given the nature of its mission — to sail halfway around the world and establish a settlement at Botany Bay. Phillip was to be the first Governor-in-Chief of this new Colony of New South Wales.
From Portsmouth, they sailed to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, crossed the Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro, then back again to Cape Town, the last port of call before striking out for Terra Australis. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, he transferred his flag from the Sirius to the Supply and pressed on with a squadron of the fastest transports — Alexander, Scarborough and Friendship — as an advance party leaving the second, slower squadron under the command of Captain John Hunter in Sirius.
Taking advantage of the ‘Roaring Forties’, the heavily laden ships plunged across the southern Indian Ocean and rounded Van Diemen’s Land in turbulent seas. arrived in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788, only two days ahead of the rest of the fleet, all completing one of the world’s greatest sea voyages — 24,000km in 252 days
