Alexander

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

Alexander was the largest of the convict transports and one of two all-male prison ships.

On 8 June 1787, while the fleet was anchored at Tenerife, a convict by the name of John Powers made his escape from Alexander. Surgeon General John White, who travelled on Charlotte, recorded the event in his journal:

During the night, while people were busily employed in taking in water on board the Alexander, a service in which some of the convicts assisted, one of them, of the name Powel, found means to drop himself unperceived into a small boat … and under the cover of the night to cast her off without discovery.

Unluckily for Powers, he was discovered the next morning on a nearby island and brought back to Alexander in irons.

Alexander was the most unhealthy of the Fleet’s ships in terms of sickness and deaths. This three-masted barque was built at Hull in 1783. Alexander sailed from Port Jackson in July 1788, arriving in England in May 1789 after a difficult return journey, with most of the crew dying of scurvy and replaced by survivors of the wrecked Friendship.

Ship size length: 34.75 metres (114 feet); width: 9.5 metres (31 feet);

weight: 460 tonnes (452 tons)

Ship carried 213 male convicts, 37 marines and approximately 30 crew

Ship arrived 19 January 1788

Ship left 14 July 1788 (along with Friendship,Borrowdale and Prince of Wales)

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

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

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

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