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What are some questions about the First Fleet?
How did the First Fleet get to Australia? Which way did they come? Why?
Why the First Fleet came to Australia?
Sailors, cooks, masons, and other workers hoped to establish new lives in the new colony. Perhaps most famously, the First Fleet included more than 700 convicts. The settlement at Botany Bay was intended to be a penal colony. The convicts of the First Fleet included both men and women.
What were the people on the First Fleet called?
On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, with over 1400 people (convicts, marines, sailors, civil officers and free settlers), left from Portsmouth, England and took a journey of over 24,000 kilometres (15,000 mi) and over 250 days to eventually arrive in Botany Bay, New South Wales, where …
Why did the First Fleet stop?
On the Alexander, a number of convicts became ill and died. Tropical rainstorms kept the convicts inside the ship’s foul cramped quarters and so they were prevented from getting air and exercise on the decks. August 1787 – the ships stopped in Rio de Janeiro (in South America) for a month.
What did the First Fleet bring?
The fleet consisted of nine merchant ships – six of them carrying convicts and marines (Alexander, Charlotte, Friendship, Lady Penrhyn, Prince of Wales and Scarborough) and three loaded with stores and equipment (Borrowdale, Fishburn and Golden Grove) – and two naval vessels, the Sirius and the Supply.
What did the First Fleet eat?
Convicts and soldiers received a weekly ration of:
- 7 pounds of beef or 4 pounds of pork.
- 7 pounds of bread or flour.
- 3 pints peas.
- 6 oz of butter.
- 1/2 pound of rice or flour (from HRA vol. 1, p.
Why was the First Fleet so important?
The First Fleet carried the first white settlers to Australia. Before 1787 convicts from England had been sent to British colonies in North America. The First Fleet was the first group of ships to carry convicts to the British colony in Australia.
What did convicts do in Australia?
Convicts were a source of labour to build roads, bridges, courthouses, hospitals and other public buildings, or to work on government farms, while educated convicts may have been given jobs such as record-keeping for the government administration. Female convicts, on the other hand, were generally employed as domestic …
Where did the First Fleet dock?
Botany Bay
The First Fleet arrived at Botany Bay on 20 January 1788. Leaving Portsmouth, England, on 13 May, the First Fleet was at sea for more than 252 days.