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Experiences on the voyage of the First Fleet
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Experiences on the voyage of the First Fleet
Reasons for the establishment of a British penal colony at New South Wales
Arthur Philip
Source: The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay - 1789
Author: Captain Arthur Phillip
Link: The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay | University of Sydney Library
Source type: Primary source. (The original private journal of Governor Arthur Phillip is not known to survive in full, apart from 20-page fragment, which is available online in digitised form through the University of Sydney, compiled from authentic papers, and the journals of Lieuts. Shortland, Watts, Ball and Capt. Marshall.)
Useful for: The First Fleet voyage, reasons for colonisation, and the establishment of the colony
About
Captain Arthur Phillip RN was the commander of the First Fleet and commissioned as the first Governor of New South Wales. He set sail on May 13, 1787, from Portsmouth with 11 vessels [Alexander, Lady Penrhyn, Charlotte, Scarborough, Friendship, Prince of Wales; supplies, equipment and livestock on Borrowdale, Fishburn, Golden Grove; navy ships, man-o’-war Sirius and armed tender Supply]. He arrived in NSW with 717 convicts of whom 180 were women, guarded by 191 marines under 19 officers.
Reasons for establisment chapters
Overview - Timeline of events
James Matra - Diplomat
Arthur Phillip - Commander
Watkin Tench - Marine Officer
Professor SH Roberts
Captain Arthur Phillip, 1786, painted by Francis Wheatley. Courtesy State Library of NSW
Arthur Phillip's signature
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Selected excerpts
Reasons for establishment
"…To New South Wales England has the claim which a tacit consent has generally made decisive among the European States, that of prior discovery. The whole of that Eastern coast, except the very Southern point, having been untouched by any navigator, till it was explored by Captain Cook. This consideration … was sufficient to decide the choice of the British government, in appointing a place for the banishment of a certain class of criminals."
Cessation of transportation to the Americas
"...The cause of the determination to send out in this manner the convicts under sentence of transportation, was, as is well known, the necessary cessation of their removal to America (in 1776 during and after the American Revolution); and the inconveniences experienced in the other modes of destination adopted after that period... The individuals themselves, doubtless, in some instances, proved incorrigible; but it happened also, not very unfrequently, that, during the period of their legal servitude, they became reconciled to a life of honest industry, were altogether reformed in their manners, and rising gradually by laudable efforts, to situations of advantage, independence, and estimation, contributed honourably to the population and prosperity of their new country. By the contest in America, and the subsequent separation of the thirteen Colonies, this traffic was of course destroyed."
Failed alternatives
"...Other expedients*, well known to the public, have since been tried; some of which proved highly objectionable; and all have been found to want some of the principal advantages experienced from the usual mode of transportation. — The deliberations upon this subject, which more than once employed the attention of Parliament, produced at length the plan of which this volume displays the first result. On December 6, 1786, the proper orders were issued by His Majesty in Council, and an Act establishing a Court of Judicature in the place of settlement, and making such other regulations as the occasion required, received the sanction of the whole legislature early in the year 1787.
To expatiate upon the principles of penal law is foreign to the purpose of this work, but thus much is evident to the plainest apprehension, that the objects most to be desired in it are the restriction of the number of capital inflictions, as far as is consistent with the security of society; and the employment of every method that can be devised for rendering the guilty persons serviceable to the public, and just to themselves; for correcting their moral depravity, inducing habits of industry, and arming them in future against the temptations by which they have been once ensnared."
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* The major alternatives were:
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Prison hulks — old ships moored in rivers like the Thames, used as floating prisons. Convicts sentenced to transportation were kept there and put to hard labour. These hulks became notoriously overcrowded and unhealthy.
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Hard labour / imprisonment at home — including labour in dockyards and on riverbanks, especially for men held on the hulks.
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Penitentiaries as a proposed new system — Parliament passed the Penitentiary Act 1779 to create state prisons as an alternative to transportation, though in practice this did not quickly solve the problem.
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Possible transportation to other places, including Africa and the Caribbean, were investigated, but these were not adopted as the main solution ~ History for Aussie Kids
The choice of New Holland
"…It remains therefore, that we adhere as much as possible to the practice approved by long experience, of employing the services of such criminals in remote and rising settlements. For this purpose the establishment on the eastern coast of New Holland has been projected, and carried on with every precaution to render it as beneficial as possible. That some difficulties will arise in the commencement of such an undertaking must be expected; but it is required by no moral obligation that convicts should be conveyed to a place of perfect convenience and security; and though the voluntary emigrants and honourable servants of the state, must in some measure, be involved for a time in the same disadvantages, yet to have resisted difficulties is often finally an advantage rather than an evil; and there are probably few persons so circumstanced who will repine at moderate hardships, when they reflect that by undergoing them they are rendering an essential and an honourable service to their country…​
​​* Banishment was first ordered as a punishment for rogues and vagrants, by statute 39 Eliz. ch. 4. See Blackst. Com. IV. chap. 31. But no place was there specified. The practice of transporting criminals to America is said to have commenced in the reign of James I; the year 1619 being the memorable epoch of its origin: but that destination is first expressly mentioned in 18 Car. II. ch. 2. — The transport traffic was first regulated by statute 4 George I. ch. II. and the causes expressed in the preamble to be, the failure of those who undertook to transport themselves, and the great want of servants in his Majesty’s plantations."