![]() ![]() The day the First Fleet discovered Sydney Harbor is celebrated as Australia’s national holiday, Australia Day."Whether the United States shall continue passive under these … accumulating wrongs, or, opposing force to force in defense of their national rights, shall commit a just cause into the hands of the Almighty Disposer of Events, … is a solemn question which the Constitution wisely confides to the legislative department of the Government. ![]() They named it after the British Home Secretary, Lord Sydney. Nearby, however, officers of the First Fleet discovered a beautiful harbor with all those qualities. The bay was shallow, there was not a large supply of freshwater, and the land was not fertile. ![]() The main portion of the journey was across the entire Indian Ocean, from Cape Town to Botany Bay-they traveled about 24,000 kilometers (15,000 miles) throughout the entire journey.īotany Bay was not as hospitable as the group had hoped. Then the fleet sailed back across the Atlantic to Cape Town, South Africa, where they took on even more food, including livestock. The ships then crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where they took on huge stores of supplies. The First Fleet departed from Portsmouth, then briefly docked in the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. Most convicts were sentenced to seven years’ “transportation” (the term for the sending of prisoners to a usually far-off penal colony). Their crimes ranged from theft to assault. Most were British, but a few were American, French, and even African. The convicts of the First Fleet included both men and women. The settlement at Botany Bay was intended to be a penal colony. Perhaps most famously, the First Fleet included more than 700 convicts. Sailors, cooks, masons, and other workers hoped to establish new lives in the new colony. In a stunning feat of planning and navigation, nearly all of the voyagers survived and arrived in Botany Bay several months later.Ī wide variety of people made up this legendary “First Fleet.” Military and government officials, along with their wives and children, led the group. Their destination was a vaguely described bay in the continent of Australia, newly discovered to Europeans. On May 13, 1787, a group of over 1,400 people in 11 ships set sail from Portsmouth, England. ![]()
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