Resources transported with the First Fleet using sources as evidence

WATKIN TENCH

As a marine officer travelling with the First Fleet, Watkin Tench recorded the supplies carried for both the voyage and the establishment of the new settlement. He described the Fleet as including supply ships carrying two years of stores and provisions, while also recording the efforts made to obtain fresh supplies at ports along the route.

At Tenerife and Rio de Janeiro, the Fleet replenished water and obtained foods and other provisions. These included fresh meat, vegetables, fruit, wine, rice, sugar, coffee, rum and tobacco. Fresh produce was particularly important during the long voyage, although Tench noted that some supplies normally provided on long sea journeys had not been included.

At the Cape of Good Hope, attention turned to resources needed for the new colony. Flour and livestock were purchased, including two bulls, three cows, three horses, 44 sheep and 32 hogs, together with goats and large quantities of poultry. Officers also purchased some livestock privately.

Tench nevertheless recorded concerns about shortages. Portable soup, wheat and pickled vegetables had not been supplied, and he considered the quantity of anti-scorbutic provisions inadequate, although he described the provisions that were provided as being of good quality.

Tench’s account shows that supplying the First Fleet was an ongoing process. Food and water were replenished throughout the voyage, while livestock and other resources were deliberately collected to help establish and sustain the new settlement in New South Wales.​

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Source: A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay

Author: Watkin Tench

Links: 

• Read the complete text: A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay – Project Gutenburg Australia

• Read the actual document - A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay – State Library of NSW

Source type: Primary
 

About

Watkin Tench was a marine officer who travelled with the First Fleet to New South Wales. His book, A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay (1789), is one of the best-known eyewitness accounts of the voyage and the early years of British settlement.

This source is especially useful for Stage 2 because it helps students describe what life was like on board the First Fleet. Tench records the number of male, female and child convicts, their emotions as the ships left England, the use of chains on some prisoners, the conditions during the voyage, and how many people survived the journey.

Selected excerpts

Supply ships

“His Majesty’s ships ‘Sirius’, ‘Hyena’, and ‘Supply’, three Victuallers (supply ships carrying food, drink and other stores) with two years stores and provisions on board for the Settlement, and six Transports, with troops and convicts.”

 

Restocking provisions during the journey

• “Having remained a week at Teneriffe, and in that time completed our stock of water, and taken on board wine, &c. early on the morning of the 10th of June we weighed anchor, and stood out to sea with a light easterly breeze.

• …The markets afford fresh meat, though it is neither plentiful nor good. Fish is scarce; but poultry may be procured in almost any quantity, at as cheap a rate as in the English sea-ports. Vegetables do not abound, except pumpkins and onions, of which I advise all ships to lay in a large stock. Milch goats are bought for a trifle, and easily procured. Grapes cannot be scarce in their season; but when we were here, except figs and excellent mulberries, no fruit was to be procured. Dry wines, as the merchants term them, are sold from ten to fifteen pounds a pipe; for the latter price, the very best, called the London Particular, may be bought: sweet wines are considerably er. Brandy is also a cheap article. I would not advise the voyager to depend on this place for either his hogs or sheep. And he will do well to supply himself with dollars before he quits England, to expend in the different ports he may happen to touch at.”

• “On the morning of the fourth of September (1787) we left Rio de Janeiro, amply furnished with the good things which its happy soil and clime so abundantly produce. The future voyager may with security depend on this place for laying in many parts of his stock. Among these may be enumerated sugar, coffee, rum, port wine, rice, tapioca, and tobacco, besides very beautiful wood for the purposes of household furniture. Poultry is not remarkably cheap, but may be procured in any quantity; as may hops at a low rate. The markets are well supplied with butcher’s meat, and vegetables of every sort are to be procured at a price next to nothing; the yams are particularly excellent. Oranges abound so much, as to be sold for sixpence a hundred; and limes are to be had on terms equally moderate. Bananas, cocoa nuts, and guavas, are common; but the few pineapples brought to market are not remarkable either for flavour, or cheapness. Besides the inducements to lay out money already mentioned, the naturalist may add to his collection by an almost endless variety of beautiful birds and curious insects, which are to be bought at a reasonable price, well preserved, and neatly assorted.”

 

Provisions for the new settlement​

• ​As a considerable quantity of flour, and the principal part of the livestock, which was to store our intended settlement, were meant to be procured here, Governor Phillip lost no time in waiting on Mynheer Van Graaffe, the Dutch Governor, to request permission (according to the custom of the place) to purchase all that we stood in need of.

• …The live animals we took on board on the public account from the Cape, for stocking our projected colony, were, two bulls, three cows, three horses, forty-four sheep, and thirty-two hogs, besides goats, and a very large quantity of poultry of every kind. A considerable addition to this was made by the private stocks of the officers, who were, however, under a necessity of circumscribing their original intentions on this head very much, from the excessiveness of many of the articles. It will readily be believed, that few of the military found it convenient to purchase sheep, when hay to feed them costs sixteen shillings a hundred weight.”

 

Supply shortages / Restrictions

“But when the reader is told, that some of the necessary articles allowed to ships on a common passage to West Indies, were withheld from us; that portable soup, wheat, and pickled vegetables were not allowed; and that an inadequate quantity of essence of malt was the only antiscorbutic supplied, his surprise will redouble at the result of the voyage. For it must be remembered, that the people thus sent out were not a ship’s company starting with every advantage of health and good living, which a state of freedom produces; but the major part a miserable set of convicts, emaciated from confinement, and in want of cloaths, and almost every convenience to render so long a passage tolerable. I beg leave, however, to say, that the provisions served on board were good, and of a much superior quality to those usually supplied by contract.”the private stocks of the officers, who were, however, under a necessity of circumscribing their original intentions on this head very much, from the excessiveness of many of the articles. It will readily be believed, that few of the military found it convenient to purchase sheep, when hay to feed them costs sixteen shillings a hundred weight.”

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