First Fleet

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This article is about the British colonial fleet. For the United States Navy unit known as the First Fleet, see United States First Fleet.

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For other uses, see First fleet (disambiguation).
The First Fleet entering Port Jackson on 26 January 1788 by E. Le Bihan

The First Fleet is the name given to the 11 ships that left Great Britain on 13 May 1787 to found the penal colony that became the first European settlement in Australia. The fleet consisted of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports, carrying more than 1,000 convicts, marines and seamen, and a vast quantity of stores. From England, the Fleet sailed southwest to Rio de Janeiro, then east to Cape Town and via the Great Southern Ocean to Botany Bay, arriving in mid-January 1788, taking 250 to 252 days from departure to final arrival.

History

Background and planning

Convicts were originally transported to the Thirteen Colonies in North America, but after the American Revolutionary War ended in 1783, the newly formed United States refused to accept further convicts.[1][2][3]

On 6 December 1785, Orders in Council were issued in London for the establishment of a penal colony in New South Wales, on land claimed for Britain by explorer James Cook in his first voyage to the Pacific in 1770.[4][5]

The First Fleet was commanded by Captain (later Admiral) Arthur Phillip, who was given instructions authorising him to make regulations and land grants in the colony.[6] The ships arrived at Botany Bay between 18 January and 20 January 1788:[7] HMS Supply arrived on 18 January, Alexander, Scarborough and Friendship arrived on 19 January, and the remaining ships on 20 January.[8][9]

The cost to Britain of outfitting and despatching the Fleet was £84,000[10] (about £9.5 million as of 2014).[11]

Ships of the First Fleet

Naval escort

The First Fleet included two Royal Navy escort ships, the ten-gun sixth-rate vessel HMS Sirius under the command of Captain John Hunter, and the armed tender HMS Supply commanded by Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball.

Convict transports

Convict transports (depart England 13 May 1787)[12]
Ship Type Master Crew[13] Arr. Botany Bay Duration (Days) Male convicts arrived (boarded) Female convicts arrived (boarded)
Alexander Barque Duncan Sinclair 40 19 January 1788 251 210 – two were pardoned none
Charlotte heavy sailer Thomas Gilbert 30 20 January 1788 252 100 24
Friendship Brig Francis Walton 20 19 January 1788 251 80 24 – to Cape of Good Hope only
Lady Penrhyn transport William Cropton Server 31 20 January 1788 252 none 101
Prince of Wales Barque John Mason 25 20 January 1788 252 2 47
Scarborough transport Captain John Marshall 35 19 January 1788 251 210 none

Food and supply transports

Ropes, crockery, agricultural equipment and a miscellany of other stores were needed. Items transported included tools, agricultural implements, seeds, spirits, medical supplies, bandages, surgical instruments, handcuffs, leg irons and a prefabricated wooden frame for the colony's first Government House.[14] The party had to rely on its own provisions to survive until it could make use of local materials, assuming suitable supplies existed, and grow its own food and raise livestock.

Food and supply transports (depart England 13 May 1787)
Ship Type Master Crew Arr. Botany Bay Duration (days)
Golden Grove storeship William Sharp N/A 20 January 1788 252
Fishburn storeship Robert Brown N/A 20 January 1788 252
Borrowdale storeship Hobson Reed N/A 20 January 1788 252

Scale models of all the ships are on display at the Museum of Sydney. The models were built by ship makers, Lynne and Laurie Hadley, after researching the original plans, drawings and British archives. The replicas of the Supply, Charlotte, Scarborough, Friendship, Prince of Wales, Lady Penrhyn, Borrowdale, Alexander, Sirius (1786), Fishburn and Golden Grove are made from Western Red or Syrian Cedar.[15]

Nine Sydney harbour ferries built in the mid-1980s are named after First Fleet vessels. The unused names are Lady Penrhyn and Prince of Wales.

People of the First Fleet

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See also: Convicts on the First Fleet and Journals of the First Fleet

The majority of the people on the First Fleet were British, but there were also African, American and French convicts on board.[16][17] The group included seamen, marines and their families, government officials, and a large number of convicts, including women and children. The convicts had committed a variety of crimes, including theft, perjury, fraud, assault and robbery. The sentences the convicts received were transportation for 7 years, 14 years or for the term of their natural life.[18][19]

The six convict transports each had a detachment of marines on board. Most of the families of the marines travelled aboard the Prince of Wales.[20] A number of people on the First Fleet kept diaries and journals of their experiences, including the surgeons. There are twelve known journals in existence as well as some letters.[21]

The exact number of people directly associated with the First Fleet will likely never be established, as all accounts of the event vary slightly. A total of 1,420 people have been identified as embarking on the First Fleet in 1787, and 1,373 are believed to have landed at Sydney Cove in January 1788. In her biographical dictionary of the First Fleet, Mollie Gillen gives the following statistics:[22]

Embarked at Portsmouth Landed at Sydney Cove
Officials and passengers 15 14
Ships' crews 323 269
Marines 247 245
Marines' wives and children 46 45 + 9 born
Convicts (men) 582 543
Convicts (women) 193 189
Convicts' children 14 11 + 11 born
Total 1,420 1,336

While the names of all crew members of Sirius and Supply are known, the six transports and three storeships may have carried as many as 110 more seamen than have been identified – no complete musters have survived for these ships. The total number of persons embarking on the First Fleet would, therefore, be approximately 1,530 with about 1,483 reaching Sydney Cove.

Other sources indicate that the passengers consisted of 10 civil officers, 212 marines, including officers, 28 wives and 17 children of the marines, 81 free people, 504 male convicts and 192 female convicts; making the total number of free people 348 and the total number of prisoners 696, coming to a grand total of 1,044 people.

According to the first census of 1788 as reported by Governor Phillip to Lord Sydney, the white population of the colony was 1,030 and the colony also consisted of 7 horses, 29 sheep, 74 swine, 6 rabbits, and 7 cattle.[23]

The following statistics were provided by Governor Phillip:[24]

Male Female Children Total
Convicts & their children 548 188 17 753
Others 219 34 24 277
Total 767 222 41 1,030

David Collins' book An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales gives the following details:[25]

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The Alexander, of 453 tons, had on board 192 male convicts; 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, and 29 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony.

The Scarborough, of 418 tons, had on board 205 male convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, and 26 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony.

The Charlotte, of 346 tons, had on board 89 male and 20 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 3 corporals, 1 drummer, and 35 privates, with the principal surgeon of the colony.

The Lady Penrhyn, of 338 tons, had on board 101 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, and 3 privates, with a person acting as a surgeon's mate.

The Prince of Wales, of 334 tons, had on board 2 male and 50 female convicts; 2 lieutenants, 3 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, and 24 privates, with the surveyor-general of the colony.

The Friendship, … of 228 tons, had on board 76 male and 21 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 3 corporals, 1 drummer, and 36 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony.

There were on board, beside these, 28 women, 8 male and 6 female children, belonging to the soldiers of the detachment, together with 6 male and 7 female children belonging to the convicts.

The Fishburn store-ship was of 378 tons; the Borrowdale of 272 tons; and the Golden Grove of 331 tons. On board this last ship was embarked the chaplain of the colony, with his wife and a servant.

Not only these as store-ships, but the men of war and transports, were stored in every part with provisions, implements of agriculture, camp equipage, clothing for the convicts, baggage, etc.

On board of the Sirius were taken, as supernumeraries, the major commandant of the corps of marines embarked in the transports* [*This officer was also lieutenant-governor of the colony], the adjutant and quarter-master, the judge-advocate of the settlement, and the commissary; with 1 sergeant, 3 drummers, 7 privates, 4 women, and a few artificers.

The chief surgeon for the First Fleet, John White, reported a total of 48 deaths and 28 births during the voyage. The deaths during the voyage included 1 marine, 1 marine's wife, 1 marine's child, 36 male convicts, 4 female convicts, and 5 children of convicts.[26]

The voyage

Lady Penrhyn

The First Fleet left Portsmouth, England on 13 May 1787.[27] The journey began with fine weather, and thus the convicts were allowed on deck.[28] The Fleet was accompanied by the armed frigate Hyena until it left English waters.[29] On 20 May 1787, one convict on the Scarborough reported a planned mutiny; those allegedly involved were flogged and two were transferred to Prince of Wales.[29] In general, however, most accounts of the voyage agree that the convicts were well behaved.[29] On 3 June 1787, the fleet anchored at Santa Cruz at Tenerife.[27] Here, fresh water, vegetables and meat were brought on board. Phillip and the chief officers were entertained by the local governor, while one convict tried unsuccessfully to escape.[30] On 10 June they set sail to cross the Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro,[27] taking advantage of favourable trade winds and ocean currents.

The weather became increasingly hot and humid as the Fleet sailed through the tropics. Vermin, such as rats, and parasites such as bedbugs, lice, cockroaches and fleas, tormented the convicts, officers and marines. Bilges became foul and the smell, especially below the closed hatches, was over-powering.[31] While Phillip gave orders that the bilge-water was to be pumped out daily and the bilges cleaned, these orders were not followed on the Alexander and a number of convicts fell sick and died.[31] Tropical rainstorms meant that the convicts could not exercise on deck as they had no change of clothes and no method of drying wet clothing.[31] Consequently, they were kept below in the foul, cramped holds. On the female transports, promiscuity between the convicts and the crew and marines was rampant, despite punishments for some of the men involved.[31] In the doldrums, Phillip was forced to ration the water to three pints a day.[31]

The Fleet reached Rio de Janeiro on 5 August and stayed for a month.[27] The ships were cleaned and water taken on board, repairs were made, and Phillip ordered large quantities of food.[28] The women convicts' clothing had become infested with lice and was burnt. As additional clothing for the female convicts had not arrived before the Fleet left England,[28] the women were issued with new clothes made from rice sacks. While the convicts remained below deck, the officers explored the city and were entertained by its inhabitants.[32] A convict and a marine were punished for passing forged quarter-dollars made from old buckles and pewter spoons.

The Fleet left Rio de Janeiro on 4 September to run before the westerlies to the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa, which it reached on 13 October.[33] This was the last port of call, so the main task was to stock up on plants, seeds and livestock for their arrival in Australia.[34] The livestock taken on board from the Cape of Good Hope destined for the new colony included two bulls, seven cows, one stallion, three mares, 44 sheep, 32 pigs, four goats and "a very large quantity of poultry of every kind".[35] Women convicts on the Friendship were moved to other transports to make room for livestock purchased there. The convicts were provided with fresh beef and mutton, bread and vegetables, to build up their strength for the journey and maintain their health.[34] The Dutch colony of Cape Town was the last outpost of European settlement which the fleet members would see for years, perhaps for the rest of their lives. "Before them stretched the awesome, lonely void of the Indian and Southern Oceans, and beyond that lay nothing they could imagine."[36]

Assisted by the gales in the "Roaring Forties" latitudes below the 40th parallel, the heavily-laden transports surged through the violent seas. In the last two months of the voyage, the Fleet faced challenging conditions, spending some days becalmed and on others covering significant distances; the Friendship travelled 166 miles one day, while a seaman was blown from the Prince of Wales at night and drowned.[37] Water was rationed as supplies ran low, and the supply of other goods including wine ran out altogether on some vessels.[37] Van Diemen's Land was sighted from the Friendship on 4 January 1788.[37] A freak storm struck as they began to head north around Van Diemen's Land, damaging the sails and masts of some of the ships.

On 16 January, Phillip transferred to Supply. With Alexander, Friendship and Scarborough, the fastest ships in the Fleet, which were carrying most of the male convicts, Supply hastened ahead to prepare for the arrival of the rest. Phillip intended to select a suitable location, find good water, clear the ground, and perhaps even have some huts and other structures built before the others arrived. This was a planned move, discussed by the Home Office and the Admiralty prior to the Fleet's departure.[38] However, this "flying squadron" reached Botany Bay only hours before the rest of the Fleet, so no preparatory work was possible.[39] Supply reached Botany Bay on 18 January 1788; the three fastest transports in the advance group arrived on 19 January; slower ships, including Sirius, arrived on 20 January.[40]

This was one of the world's greatest sea voyages – eleven vessels carrying about 1,487 people and stores[35] had travelled for 252 days for more than 15,000 miles (24,000 km) without losing a ship. Forty-eight people died on the journey, a death rate of just over three per cent.

Arrival in Australia

It was soon realised that Botany Bay did not live up to the glowing account that the explorer Captain James Cook had provided.[41] The bay was open and unprotected, the water was too shallow to allow the ships to anchor close to the shore, fresh water was scarce, and the soil was poor.[42] First contacts were made with the local indigenous people, the Eora, who seemed curious but suspicious of the newcomers. The area was studded with enormously strong trees. When the convicts tried to cut them down, their tools broke and the tree trunks had to be blasted out of the ground with gunpowder. The primitive huts built for the officers and officials quickly collapsed in rainstorms. The marines had a habit of getting drunk and not guarding the convicts properly, whilst their commander, Major Robert Ross, drove Phillip to despair with his arrogant and lazy attitude. Crucially, Phillip worried that his fledgling colony was exposed to attack from Aborigines or foreign powers. Although his initial instructions were to establish the colony at Botany Bay, he was authorised to establish the colony elsewhere if necessary.[43]

An engraving of the First Fleet in Botany Bay at voyage's end in 1788, from The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay.[44] Sirius is in the foreground; convict transports such as Prince of Wales are depicted to the left.

On 21 January, Phillip and a party which included John Hunter, departed the Bay in three small boats to explore other bays to the north.[45] Phillip discovered that Port Jackson, about 12 kilometres to the north, was an excellent site for a colony with sheltered anchorages, fresh water and fertile soil.[45] Cook had seen and named the harbour, but had not entered; Phillip immediately named the site Sydney.[45] Phillip's impressions of the harbour were recorded in a letter he sent to England later: "the finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in the most perfect security ...". The party returned to Botany Bay on 23 January.[45]

On the morning of 24 January, the party was startled when two French ships were seen just outside Botany Bay. This was a scientific expedition led by Jean-François de La Pérouse. The French had expected to find a thriving colony where they could repair ships and restock supplies, not a newly arrived fleet of convicts considerably more poorly provisioned than themselves.[46] There was some cordial contact between the French and British officers, but Phillip and La Pérouse never met. The French ships remained until 10 March before setting sail on their return voyage. They were not seen again and were later discovered to have been shipwrecked off the coast of Vanikoro in the present-day Solomon Islands.[47]

On 26 January 1788, the Fleet weighed anchor and sailed to Port Jackson.[27] The site selected for the anchorage had deep water close to the shore, was sheltered, and had a small stream flowing into it. Phillip named it Sydney Cove, after Lord Sydney the British Home Secretary.[45] This date is still celebrated as Australia Day, marking the beginnings of the first British settlement.[48] The British flag was planted and formal possession taken. This was done by Phillip and some officers and marines from Supply, with the remainder of Supply's crew and the convicts observing from on board ship. The remaining ships of the Fleet did not arrive at Sydney Cove until later that day.[49]

First contact

The First Fleet encountered indigenous Australians when they landed at Botany Bay. The Cadigal people of the Botany Bay area witnessed the Fleet arrive and six days later the two ships of French explorer La Pérouse sailed into the bay.[50] When the Fleet moved to Sydney Cove seeking better conditions for establishing the colony, they encountered the Eora people, including the Bidjigal clan. A number of the First Fleet journals record encounters with Aboriginal people.[51]

Although the official policy of the British Government was to establish friendly relations with Aboriginal people,[43] and Arthur Phillip ordered that the Aboriginal people should be well treated, it was not long before conflict began. The colonists did not understand Aboriginal society and its relationship with the land and the Aboriginal people did not understand the British practices of farming and land ownership. The colonists did not sign treaties with the original inhabitants of the land.[52] Between 1790 and 1810, Pemulwuy of the Bidjigal clan led the local people in a series of attacks against the British colonisers.[53]

After January 1788

The ships of the First Fleet mostly did not remain in the colony. Some returned to England, while others left for other ports. Some remained at the service of the Governor of the colony for some months: some of these were sent to Norfolk Island where a second penal colony was established.

1788

  • 15 February – HMS Supply sails for Norfolk Island carrying a small party to establish a settlement.
  • 5/6 May – the Charlotte, the Lady Penrhyn and the Scarborough set sail for China.
  • 14 July – the Borrowdale, the Alexander, the Friendship and the Prince of Wales set sail to return to England.
  • 2 October – the Golden Grove sets sail for Norfolk Island with a party of convicts, returning to Port Jackson 10 November while HMS Sirius sails for Cape of Good Hope for supplies.
  • 19 November – the Fishburn and the Golden Grove set sail for England. This means that only HMS Supply now remains in Sydney cove.

1789

  • 23 December – the Guardian carrying stores for the colony strikes an iceberg and is forced back to the Cape. It never reaches the colony in New South Wales.

1790:

  • 19 March – HMS Sirius is wrecked off Norfolk Island.
  • 17 April – HMS Supply sent to Batavia, Java, for emergency food supplies.
  • 3 June – the Lady Juliana, the first of six vessels of the Second Fleet, arrives in Sydney cove. The remaining five vessels of the Second Fleet arrive in the ensuing weeks.
  • 19 September – HMS Supply returns to Sydney having chartered the Dutch vessel the Waaksamheid to accompany it carrying stores.[54]

Last survivors

On 26 January 1842, the Colonial Government in Sydney awarded a life pension of 1 shilling a day to three surviving members of the First Fleet. The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser reported, on Saturday 29 January 1842: "The Government have ordered a pension of one shilling per diem to be paid to the survivors of those who came by the first vessel into the Colony. The number of these really 'old hands' is now reduced to three, of whom, two are now in the Benevolent Asylum, and the other is a fine hale old fellow, who can do a day's work with more spirit than many of the young fellows lately arrived in the Colony."[55] The names of the three recipients are not given.

"John Small": Convicted 14 March 1785 at the Devon Lent Assizes held at Exeter for Robbery King's Highway. Sentenced to hang, reprieved to 7 years transportation. Arrived on the "Charlotte" in First Fleet 1788. Certificate of freedom 1792. Land Grant 1794, 30 acre "Small's Farm" at at Eastern Farms (Ryde). Married October 1788 Mary Parker also a First Fleet convict who arrived on "Lady Penrhyn". John Small died on 2 October 1850 at age of 90 years. Ref. "Small Family in Australia 1788-1888" ISBN 0 7316 1814 9... First Fleeters Org., In search of John Small by Molly Gillen ISBN 0 908120 58 3,and several other History of Australia, and History of Australian Convicts Books

William Hubbard: Hubbard was convicted in the Kingston Assizes in Surrey, England, on 24 March 1784 for theft.[56] He was transported to Australia on the Scarborough in the First Fleet. He married Mary Goulding on 19 December 1790 in Rose Hill. In 1803 he received a land grant of 70 acres at Mulgrave Place. He died on 18 May 1843 at the Sydney Benevolent Asylum. His age was given as 76 when he was buried at Christ Church St. Lawrence, Sydney on 22 May 1843.

John McCarthy: McCarthy was a Marine who sailed on the Friendship.[57] McCarthy was born in Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland, circa Christmas 1745. He first served in the colony of New South Wales, then at Norfolk Island where he took up a land grant of 60 acres (Lot 110). He married the first fleet convict Ann Beardsley on Norfolk Island in November 1791 after his discharge a month earlier. In 1808, on the close of Norfolk Island settlement, he resettled in Van Diemen's Land and later took a land grant (80 acres at Melville) in lieu of the one forfeited on Norfolk Island. The last few years of his life were spent at the home of his granddaughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Budd, at a place called Kinlochewe Inn near Donnybrook, Victoria. McCarthy died on 24 July 1846,[58] six months past his 100 birthday.

John Limeburner: The South Australian Register reported, in an article dated Wednesday 3 November 1847: "John Limeburner, the oldest colonist in Sydney, died in September last, at the advanced age of 104 years. He helped to pitch the first tent in Sydney, and remembered the first display of the British flag there, which was hoisted on a swamp oak-tree, then growing on a spot now occupied as the Water-Police Court. He was the last of those called the 'first-fleeters' (arrivals by the first convict ships) and, notwithstanding his great age, retained his faculties to the last."[59] John Limeburner was a convict on the Charlotte. He was convicted on 9 July 1785 at New Sarum, Wiltshire of theft of a waistcoat, a shirt and stockings.[60] He married Elizabeth Ireland in 1790 at Rosehill and together they establish a 50-acre farm at Prospect.[61] He died at Ashfield in September 1847 and is buried at St John's, Ashfield.

John Jones: Jones was a Marine on the First Fleet and sailed on the Alexander. He is listed in the N.S.W. 1828 Census as aged 82 and living at the Sydney Benevolent Asylum.[62] He is said to have died at the Benevolent Asylum in 1848.[63]

Samuel King: King was a scribbler (a worker in a scribbling mill[64]) before he became a Marine. He was a Marine with the First Fleet on board the flagship Sirius (1786).[65] He shipped to Norfolk Island on the Golden Grove in September 1788, where he lived with Mary Rolt, a convict who arrived with the First Fleet on the Prince of Wales. He received a grant of 60 acres(Lot No. 13) at Cascade Stream in 1791. Mary Rolt returned to England on the Britannia in October 1796. King was resettled in Van Diemen's Land, boarding the City of Edinburgh on 3 September 1808, and landed in Hobart on 3 October.[66] He married Elizabeth Thackery on 28 January 1810. He died on 21 October 1849 at 86 years of age and was buried in the Wesleyan cemetery at Lawitta Road, Back River.

Elizabeth Thackery: Elizabeth "Betty" King (née Thackery) was tried and convicted of theft on 4 May 1786 at Manchester Quarter Sessions, and sentenced to seven years transportation. She sailed on the Friendship, but was transferred to the Charlotte at the Cape of Good Hope. She was shipped to Norfolk Island on the Sirius (1786) in 1790 and lived there with James Dodding. In August 1800 she bought 10 acres of land from Samuel King at Cascade Stream. Elizabeth and James were relocated to Van Diemen's Land in December 1807[67] but parted company sometime afterwards. On 28 January 1810 Elizabeth married "First Fleeter" Private Samuel King (above) and lived with him until his death in 1849, making him probably the last male "First Fleeter". Betty King died in New Norfolk, Tasmania on 7 August 1856, aged 89 years. She is buried in the churchyard of the Methodist Chapel, Lawitta Road, Back River, next to her husband, and the marked grave bears a First Fleet plaque. She was one of the first British women to land in Australia and was the last "First Fleeter" to die.

Historical debates

First Fleet smallpox deployment

In 1977, a representative of Australian Aborigines, Jack Davis, noted that smallpox-infected blankets, venereal disease and other European introduced diseases were the cause of their death.[68] Davis's comments were attacked by Peter Biskup of the then Canberra College of Advanced Education, as indicating a "biased, one-sided brand of new Australian history, as false as the old one has been".[69]

In 1983, Noel Butlin also found that it was likely that the British deliberately released smallpox, and his comments were attacked by Alan Frost and Charles Wilson in the pages of Quadrant magazine. However, in 1996, David Day reviewed this dispute and concluded that "there remains considerable circumstantial evidence to suggest that officers other than Phillip, or perhaps convicts or soldiers angered by Aboriginal attacks on their fellows, deliberately spread smallpox among the Aborigines".[70]

In 2002, historian Judy Campbell argued that it was highly improbable that the First Fleet was the source of the smallpox epidemic first sighted in the Aboriginal population near Sydney in 1789, as "smallpox had not occurred in any members of the First Fleet" and the only possible source of infection from the Fleet was variolous matter imported for use in inoculations against smallpox. Campbell argued that the variolous matter was probably inactivated by heat and humidity and claimed that there was no evidence that Aboriginal people were exposed to this material. However, there was prevailing expert historical and medical speculation that smallpox "spread somehow from the 'variolous matter in bottles' brought to the colony by the surgeons."[71] She pointed to regular contact between fishing fleets from the Indonesia archipelago, where smallpox was endemic, and Aboriginal people in Australia's North as a possible source for the introduction of smallpox. She also claimed that "[t]here is little disagreement that later outbreaks, in the 1860s, arose from contacts of Aboriginals living in northern Australia with infected sailors coming from the islands to the north" and then argued that the earlier outbreaks including that of 1789–90 were most probably from the same source.[72] More recent scholars, Christopher Warren (2007)[73] and Craig Mear (2008),[74] have argued that the First Fleet probably introduced live smallpox virus into Australian aboriginal tribes. Earlier writers were divided over 1) whether the First Fleet introduced smallpox and 2) whether this was deliberate. There remains some disputation in media such as Quadrant,.[75]

Watkin Tench also addressed the issue in his journal.[76] He noted that many of the "Indians" were suffering smallpox or had signs of having survived it from the very early days of the settlement. He reported that no members of the fleet had been afflicted with smallpox since they had passed the Cape of Good Hope seventeen months earlier. In his writings he also stressed that great care was taken to maintain friendly relations with the Aboriginals in the early days, even after the governor Arthur Philips was speared (non fatally).

It is now known that the smallpox virus could have retained enough virus to infect local tribes and that there was no smallpox at Macassar for any early introduction of the disease at Port Jackson [Warren (2007), Mear (2008), Warren (2014) cited below]. However Campbell notes that while most of the fishermen came from South Sulawesi (the Macassar area), others came from elsewhere in the archipelago and that the Timorese, with a shorter voyage than the Macassans, are likely to have visited.[77] Warren's analysis of the viability of bottled smallpox virus is consistent with the discovery, in July 2014,[78] of at least 2 bottles containing viable smallpox in the United States.[79] The viability of the smallpox virus, over 50 years old, was confirmed by the Director of the US Center for Disease Control, Tom Frieden.[80] According to the Washington Post:

The boxes were in a storage room kept at about 40 degrees (F). Several vials were labeled as flu virus, mumps or typhus, he said. Sixteen vials were labeled "variola", or smallpox, or were suspected of containing smallpox virus.[81]

In 2004, Jan Kociumbas dismissed the Macassan theory and argued that the situation confronting the First Fleet settlers was "propitious for a genocidal response".[82]

In 2009, Michael Bennett argued "... that it was communicated deliberately" in Bulletin of the History of Medicine.[83] Bennett proposed that convicts may have been responsible, as an act of revenge against local Aboriginal tribes.

In 2014, Warren reanalysed the controversy and concluded that British marines were most likely to have spread smallpox when they ran out of ammunition and needed to expand the settlement to Parramatta. See Warren, C., Smallpox at Sydney Cove – Who, When, Why? (2014 [2013 online]).[84]

Prior to the publication of Warren's article (2013), John Carmody argued that the epidemic was an outbreak of chickenpox which took a drastic toll on an Aboriginal population without immunological resistance. With regard to smallpox, Dr Carmody claimed: "There is absolutely no evidence to support any of the theories and some of them are fanciful and far-fetched."[85][86] Carmody did not cover the evidence provided by Ms Jan Kociumbas in her 2004 piece Biological Warfare in Early New South Wales.[87] Kociumbas's approach has been corroborated in part by Mear and Bennett and, more strongly, by Warren. Warren subsequently covered the chickenpox theory at endnote 3 of Smallpox at Sydney Cove – Who, When, Why? and effectively refuted it in United Service, Journal of the Royal United Services Institute of New South Wales, vol. 65 (1), March 2014, pg. 7.[88]

In 2009, Mear argued in Ockham's Razor, an ABC Radio presentation, that "There is no proof that smallpox was deliberately released by the British in Sydney".[89] Contrary to Mear, Michael Bennett and Warren argue that the spread of smallpox in 1789 may have been, or most likely was, deliberate. Michael Bennett argued "... that it was communicated deliberately" in Bulletin of the History of Medicine.[83] Bennett proposed that convicts may have been responsible, as an act of revenge against local Aboriginal tribes.

However, a dialogue in a 2014 ABC Radio presentation claims six key facts suggesting that the deployment of smallpox was a deliberate act by some officials:

Summary of Research on First Fleet Smallpox – ABC Radio National Program – Ockhams Razor – 2014 Podcast – 13 minutes
  • serious errors in supplying marines’ equipment, specifically musket balls, flintlock repair tools and cartridge paper.
  • a fatal insufficiency of military manpower
  • the failure to resupply the colony
  • the presence of bottles of smallpox virus
  • a requirement for official sanction to row boats down the harbour (significant since "this release only occurred on the opposite side of the harbour and down the harbour near the Heads")
  • the range of military tactics used against native peoples in the eighteenth century "before more enlightened values and notions of justice prevailed".[90]

While the viral and bacterial causes of many diseases were unknown in the colonial period,[91] the British establishment had been aware since 1714 that smallpox could be spread using infective materials.[92]

Legacy

Commemoration Garden

The First Fleet Memorial Garden, Wallabadah, New South Wales

After Ray Collins, a stonemason, completed years of research into the First Fleet, he sought approval from about nine councils to construct a commemorative garden in recognition of these immigrants. Liverpool Plains Shire Council was ultimately the only council to accept his offer to supply the materials and construct the garden free of charge. The site chosen was a disused caravan park on the banks of Quirindi Creek at Wallabadah, New South Wales. In September 2002 Collins commenced work on the project. Additional support was later provided by Neil McGarry in the form of some signs and the council contributed $28,000 for pathways and fencing. Collins hand-chiseled the names of all those who came to Australia on the eleven ships in 1788 on stone tablets along the garden pathways. The stories of those who arrived on the ships, their life, and first encounters with the Australian country are presented throughout the garden.[93] On 26 January 2005, the First Fleet Garden was opened as the major memorial to the First Fleet immigrants. Previously the only other specific memorial to the First Fleeters was an obelisk at Sans Souci, New South Wales.[94] The surrounding area has a barbecue, tables, and amenities.

See also

References

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