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Resources transported with the First Fleet using sources as evidence
Newton fowell
Sources: Letters / The Sirius letters: The complete letters of Newton Fowell midshipman & lieutenant aboard the Sirius flagship of the first fleet on its voyage to New South Wales (1988)
Authors: Newton Fowell / Book edited by Nance Irvine
Links:
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Letter received by John Fowell from Newton Fowell, 12 July 1788 | Collection - State Library of NSW
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No link to book
Source type: Primary source (letters)
Useful for:
This source is especially useful for Stage 2 because it provides a young officer’s firsthand perspective of the First Fleet voyage and early settlement.
Resources chapters
About Newton Fowell
Newton Fowell (1768–1790) was a young midshipman aboard HMS Sirius, the flagship of the First Fleet, which sailed to New South Wales in 1787. During the voyage and the early years of settlement, Fowell wrote a series of detailed letters to his father in England. These letters were later published as The Sirius Letters, providing a firsthand account of the journey to Australia and the establishment of the penal colony.
Overview - Author Nance Irvine
"...There they were; six transports loaded with their human cargo of convicts bound for Botany Bay beyond the seven seas; all of them packed in together... between the stores of food, water and wood essential for each transport.
The three store ships of the First Fleet of 1787 were heavily laden with supplies for the projected two years estimated as the waiting period before crops grew, cattle thrived and stores from England arrived to relieve the settlement... The lists of stores are pedestrian enough till one reads of the razors for everyone, as all men shaved including the convicts, of the caps to warm the heads of the forcefully cleaned convicts.
No convict would carry gaol fever germs to the ships if Phillip could manage it. So sluiced and barbered they were before being draped in pitifully thin clothes of osnaburg*. As young Newton and his fellow midshipmen moved around the small Sirius they must have used some naval oaths as they dodged about that mixed deck cargo. For there were cages of live fowls, small animals for fresh meat along the way, casks and sail cloth..."
Selected excerpts
Restocking supplies at Cape of Good Hope
Date not clear: "...at the Cape of Good Hope /before we sailed from there we took in a great quantity of Stock such as Oxen, 6 Cowes & Several Sheep &c & Sent several Sheep & hogs on board the Different Transports... All the People thoroughly clear of the Scurvy as the Dutch Supply'd us with Mutton Vegetables & all other things for the Preservation of Mens Lives on so long a Voyage..."