Borrowdale
Storeship
On 14 July 1788 Borrowdale, Alexander, Friendship and Prince of Wales set sail for England, carrying Governor Phillip’s dispatches to the British Government and the settlers’ letters to family and friends back home.
In his account The voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay, published in 1789, Governor Phillip described how the four ships were ill prepared for their long journey:
their complement of men was small, only six to a hundred tons, officers included; they were without a surgeon, and unprovided with those articles which have been found essential to the preservation of health in long voyages, such as bore-cole [kale], sour-crout, portable soup, and the other antiseptics recommended by the Royal Society.
On the return journey the ships’ crews were badly affected by scurvy, with at least four men dying on Borrowdale before it reached Rio de Janeiro. Arriving in England in March 1789, Borrowdale and Prince of Wales were the first of the fleet ships to return to home.
Ship size
Length: 22.7 metres (75 feet); width 6.7 metres (22 feet)
Weight
276 tonnes (272 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
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
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
Golden Grove
Length: 31.4 metres (103 feet); width: 8.8 metres (29 feet); weight: 336 tonnes (331 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