Lady Penrhyn

Convict transport

Between November and December 1787, as it sailed through the Southern Ocean, the First Fleet was battered by the strong westerly winds known as the ‘roaring forties’. On New Year’s Eve 1787 Surgeon Arthur Bowes Smyth described the uncomfortable conditions all on board Lady Penrhyn endured:

… many of the women were wash’d out of their births by the seas … This night was a dreadful one indeed, the sea was mountains high, sometimes it seem’d as if the ship was going over. The chicken coops were on the round house & fasten’d very securely … gave way & came with such violence against the side as to drive the goat house all in pieces & lamed the goat & kidd –

On New Year’s Day the severe weather continued:

… the sea ran so very high & we ship’d such heavy seas so often as made it absolutely necessary to clap the close hatches over the convicts otherwise the ship wd. have been in danger of being sunk … just as we had dined, a most tremendous sea broke in at the weather Scuttle of the great Cabin & ran wt. a great stream all across the cabin, & as the door of my cabin happen’d not to be quite close shut the water half fil it; the sheets & blankets being all on a flow. … No sleep all this night.

Ship size
Length: 31.3 metres (103 feet); width: 8.2 metres (27 feet)

Weight
337 tonnes (333 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

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The ships

Photograph of a wooden model depicting a First Fleet ship
First Fleet Ships

Alexander

Length: 34.75 metres (114 feet); width: 9.5 metres (31 feet); weight: 460 tonnes (452 tons)

Photograph of a wooden model depicting a First Fleet ship.
First Fleet Ships

Borrowdale

Length: 22.7 metres (75 feet); width 6.7 metres (22 feet); weight: 276 tonnes (272 tons)

Photograph of a wooden model depicting a First Fleet ship.
First Fleet Ships

Charlotte

Ship size length: 32 metres (105 feet); width: 8.5 metres (28 feet); weight: 343 tonnes (338 tons)

Photograph of a wooden model depicting a First Fleet Ship
First Fleet Ships

Fishburn

Length: 31.4 metres (103 feet); width: 8.8 metres (29 feet wide); weight: 384 tonnes (378 tons)

Photograph of a wooden model depicting a First Fleet ship.
First Fleet Ships

Friendship

Length: 22.9 metres (75 feet); width: 7 metres (23 feet); weight: 282 tonnes (278 tons)

Photograph of a wooden model depicting a First Fleet ship.
First Fleet Ships

Golden Grove

Length: 31.4 metres (103 feet); width: 8.8 metres (29 feet); weight: 336 tonnes (331 tons)

Photograph of a wooden model depicting a First Fleet ship.
First Fleet Ships

HMS Sirius

Length 35.5 metres (110 feet); width: 9.8 metres (32 feet) weight: 549 tonnes (540 tons)

Photograph of a wooden model depicting a First Fleet ship.
First Fleet Ships

HMS Supply

Length: 21.3 metres (70 feet); width: 7.9 metres (26 feet); weight: 173 tonnes (170 tons)

Photograph of a wooden model depicting a First Fleet ship.
First Fleet Ships

Prince of Wales

Length: 31.3 metres (103 feet); width: 8.8 metres (29 feet); weight: 356 tonnes (350 tons)

Photograph of a wooden model depicting a First Fleet ship.
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

Portrait of man in uniform with black hat, standing on beach with ship and small boat in background.
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

David Collins

As secretary to the governor and judge advocate for all legal affairs, he was witness to some of the most important events of the new settlement

First Fleet Ships

Jacob Nagle

Twenty-five-year-old Able Seaman Jacob Nagle travelled to Australia on board HMS Sirius as a member of the ship’s crew

Adult convict, cropped from larger painted artwork.
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