Golden Grove
Storeship
Golden Grove carried the colony’s first chaplain, Reverend Richard Johnson, his wife, Mary, their servant, Samuel Barnes and their two cats, Mr Tom Puss and Miss Puss. Johnson began his ministerial work on board Golden Grove; with permission obtained from the ship’s master, he regularly preached to the ship’s crew on Sundays. Johnson wrote numerous letters to friends in England, in one letter he described the turbulent weather he and his wife experienced on New Year’s Day 1788:
On the 1st of Jany, we met with a severe gale which lasted for about 24 hours … The different elements seemed to be in the greatest tumult, threatening our dissolution every moment. But through mercy we suffered little … and I do assure you we ate our roast Pig and Plumb pudding with great relish, though with no less difficulty, our plates, &c., tumbling down, and we scarcely able to keep upon our seats.
Ship size
Length: 31.4 metres (103 feet); width: 8.8 metres (29 feet);
Weight
336 tonnes (331 tons)
First Fleet Ships
First Fleet Ships
At the time of the First Fleet’s voyage there were some 12,000 British commercial and naval ships plying the world’s oceans
Related
First Fleet Ships
Richard Johnson
Reverend Richard Johnson accompanied the First Fleet to provide moral guidance to the inhabitants of the fledgling colony
Published on
The ships
First Fleet Ships
Alexander
Length: 34.75 metres (114 feet); width: 9.5 metres (31 feet); weight: 460 tonnes (452 tons)
First Fleet Ships
Borrowdale
Length: 22.7 metres (75 feet); width 6.7 metres (22 feet); weight: 276 tonnes (272 tons)
First Fleet Ships
Charlotte
Ship size length: 32 metres (105 feet); width: 8.5 metres (28 feet); weight: 343 tonnes (338 tons)
First Fleet Ships
Fishburn
Length: 31.4 metres (103 feet); width: 8.8 metres (29 feet wide); weight: 384 tonnes (378 tons)
First Fleet Ships
Friendship
Length: 22.9 metres (75 feet); width: 7 metres (23 feet); weight: 282 tonnes (278 tons)
First Fleet Ships
HMS Sirius
Length 35.5 metres (110 feet); width: 9.8 metres (32 feet) weight: 549 tonnes (540 tons)
First Fleet Ships
HMS Supply
Length: 21.3 metres (70 feet); width: 7.9 metres (26 feet); weight: 173 tonnes (170 tons)
First Fleet Ships
Lady Penrhyn
Length: 31.3 metres (103 feet); width: 8.2 metres (27 feet); weight: 337 tonnes (333 tons)
First Fleet Ships
Prince of Wales
Length: 31.3 metres (103 feet); width: 8.8 metres (29 feet); weight: 356 tonnes (350 tons)
First Fleet Ships
Scarborough
33.9 metres (111 feet, 6 inches); width: 9.1 metres (30 feet, 2 inches); weight: 417.5 tonnes (411 tons)
First Fleet people
First Fleet Ships
Ambition and adventure: the early life of Arthur Phillip
We looked back at the early life of Phillip, who had enjoyed an extraordinary career before he even set foot on a boat bound for Botany Bay
First Fleet Ships
John Hudson
Described as ‘sometimes a chimney sweeper’, John Hudson was the youngest known convict to sail with the First Fleet
First Fleet Ships
John ‘Black Caesar’
Convict John ‘Black’ Caesar became Australia’s first bushranger when he fled the settlement in December 1795 and led a gang of fellow escapees in the bush surrounding Port Jackson
First Fleet Ships
James Ruse
Ex-convict James Ruse became the first person in NSW to receive a land grant when Governor Phillip gave him 30 acres at Parramatta in April 1791