May 13, 1787 CE: 'First Fleet' Sets Sail for Australia

Download this file

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Google Classroom
• Email
• Print

• Background Info
• Vocabulary

• Select Text Level:

  Educator Family

  On May 13, 1787, a group of about 1,400 people in 11 ships set sail from Portsmouth, England. Their destination was a vaguely described bay in the continent of Australia, newly discovered to Europeans. In a stunning feat of planning and navigation, nearly all of the voyagers survived and arrived in Botany Bay about a year later. Here, they established the first European settlement in Australia.

   

  A wide variety of people made up this legendary “First Fleet.” Military and government officials, along with their wives and children, led the group. 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. Most were British, but a few were American, French, and even African. Their crimes ranged from theft to assault. Most convicts were sentenced to seven years’ “transportation” (the term for the sending of prisoners to a usually far-off penal colony). 

   

  The First Fleet departed from Portsmouth, then briefly docked in the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. The ships then crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where they took on huge stores of food and freshwater. Then the fleet sailed back across the Atlantic to Cape Town, South Africa, where they took on even more food, including livestock. The main portion of the journey was across the entire Indian Ocean, from Cape Town to Botany Bay—24,000 kilometers (15,000 miles).

   

  Botany Bay was not as hospitable as the group had hoped. The bay was shallow, there was not a large supply of freshwater, and the land was not fertile. Nearby, however, officers of the First Fleet discovered a beautiful harbor with all those qualities. They named it after the British Home Secretary, Lord Sydney. The day the First Fleet discovered Sydney Harbor is celebrated as Australia’s national holiday, Australia Day.

• Term	Part of Speech	Definition	Encyclopedic Entry
  bay	Noun	body of water partially surrounded by land, usually with a wide mouth to a larger body of water.	Encyclopedic Entry: bay
  cargo	Noun	goods carried by a ship, plane, or other vehicle.
  celebrate	Verb	to observe or mark an important event with public and private ceremonies or festivities.
  coast	Noun	edge of land along the sea or other large body of water.	Encyclopedic Entry: coast
  colony	Noun	people and land separated by distance or culture from the government that controls them.
  continent	Noun	one of the seven main land masses on Earth.	Encyclopedic Entry: continent
  convict	Noun	prisoner or person who has been convicted of a crime.
  destination	Noun	place where a person or thing is going.
  dock	Verb	to bring and secure a ship or boat to a space or facility.
  establish	Verb	to form or officially organize.
  feat	Noun	accomplishment or achievement.
  fertile	Adjective	able to produce crops or sustain agriculture.
  fleet	Noun	group of ships, usually organized for military purposes.
  government	Noun	system or order of a nation, state, or other political unit.
  harbor	Noun	part of a body of water deep enough for ships to dock.	Encyclopedic Entry: harbor
  holiday	Noun	period of celebration or honor.
  hospitable	Adjective	welcoming or inviting.
  legendary	Adjective	famous, heroic, or celebrated.
  livestock	noun, plural noun	animals raised for sale and profit.
  military	Noun	armed forces.
  navigation	Noun	art and science of determining an object's position, course, and distance traveled.	Encyclopedic Entry: navigation
  penal	Adjective	having to do with prison or punishment.
  portion	Noun	part of a whole.
  route	Noun	path or way.
  settlement	Noun	community or village.
  survive	Verb	to live.
  vague	Adjective	unclear.
  voyage	Noun	long journey or trip.