Voyage
The First Fleet voyage took between 250 and 252 days to complete, with 68 of these days spent anchored in ports en route.
While the ships were being repaired and loaded with fresh water and supplies, the officers and marines went onshore to explore the exotic towns and purchase goods for their private use. Some of these men wrote of their experiences; their journals and letters giving us glimpses into this extraordinary voyage.
Thus, under the blessing of God, was happily completed, in eight months and one week, a voyage which, before it was undertaken, the mind hardly dared venture to contemplate … we had sailed five thousand and twenty-one leagues; had touched at the American and African Continents … without meeting any accident in a fleet of eleven sail, nine of which were merchantmen that had never before sailed in that distant and imperfectly explored ocean …
Stops along the route
Related
![](https://images.mhnsw.au/fotoweb/embed/2024/08/c350134295904829a7b42a84fd5dabee.jpg)
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
![EPU10_CONSYD_001_0.jpg](https://images.slm.com.au/fotoweb/embed/2022/12/1c2a1628c34a48758584dc28ee6552c2.jpg)
Convict Sydney
Convict Sydney
From a struggling convict encampment to a thriving Pacific seaport, a city takes shape
Published on
The ships
Browse all![Photograph of a wooden model depicting a First Fleet ship](https://images.slm.com.au/fotoweb/embed/2022/12/386b19ab0a4a411f8491112caa247709.jpg)
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.](https://images.slm.com.au/fotoweb/embed/2022/12/c8e215af4efd4e9aaabee14fa8481b7a.jpg)
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.](https://images.slm.com.au/fotoweb/embed/2022/12/f2f8cd059d64406295e2b1e76528b052.jpg)
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](https://images.slm.com.au/fotoweb/embed/2022/12/6bd8cc4525ae4a398d175d26bd56d0fc.jpg)
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.](https://images.slm.com.au/fotoweb/embed/2022/12/cb16d943e5e14845aec7960e9724741f.jpg)
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.](https://images.slm.com.au/fotoweb/embed/2022/12/33cbe7baf8de48df88c66b842292e3e4.jpg)
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.](https://images.slm.com.au/fotoweb/embed/2022/12/42678471969140a1b41f4aa88e1fb064.jpg)
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.](https://images.slm.com.au/fotoweb/embed/2022/12/366c381ffeae4564bfcd4aacae83574b.jpg)
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.](https://images.slm.com.au/fotoweb/embed/2022/12/44c804c40e3b47bca3649a2ba021d5f7.jpg)
First Fleet Ships
Lady Penrhyn
Length: 31.3 metres (103 feet); width: 8.2 metres (27 feet); weight: 337 tonnes (333 tons)
![Photograph of a wooden model depicting a First Fleet ship.](https://images.slm.com.au/fotoweb/embed/2022/12/1509368c27104f84a4871ba81bacd931.jpg)
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 people
![Portrait of man in uniform with black hat, standing on beach with ship and small boat in background.](https://images.slm.com.au/fotoweb/embed/2022/12/af858f66b1f44062af05c58a41c98269.jpg)
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
![](https://images.mhnsw.au/fotoweb/embed/2024/07/30d54d40d117421d82008905ef430c4b.jpg)
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
![](https://images.mhnsw.au/fotoweb/embed/2024/07/e3e0eb757344456e92f938019bb84472.jpg)
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.](https://images.mhnsw.au/fotoweb/embed/2024/07/c615bfe4d22d4507b3cb71b8b2dd2b40.jpg)
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
Convict Sydney
![LON13_CHI_0018.jpg](https://images.slm.com.au/fotoweb/embed/2022/12/c3d91610b9ac46a1931784595627e64e.jpg)
Convict Sydney
A world of pain
The combined aims of the assignment system, from 1826 onwards, were to equip farmers with cheap convict labour, to disperse convicts away from towns (and other convicts) and to keep an eye on each worker’s whereabouts and treatment
![Chapter-3.jpg](https://images.slm.com.au/fotoweb/embed/2022/12/48d20daf93ed465d9d45c235365cce03.jpg)
Convict Sydney
Back to business
From 1822, with the British government keen to cut costs and encourage pastoral expansion, part three sees the removal of convicts from town
![LON07_BEAT_007_0.jpg](https://images.slm.com.au/fotoweb/embed/2022/12/e581743a44b2493d8ef1a0c243245017.jpg)
Convict Sydney
The Convicts’ Colony
Part one starts in 1788 with Sydney established as a British convict colony on the clan lands of the Gadigal people
![LON10_EFGB_001_0.jpg](https://images.slm.com.au/fotoweb/embed/2022/12/92018e41d7664a978fd6038552884597.jpg)
Convict Sydney
John Macarthur - Ambitious, volatile, self-confident
John Macarthur is well remembered as an ambitious and ruthless soldier who forged a powerful colonial farming dynasty