The First Fleet and Year of Settlement

On 26 January 1788 the First Fleet under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip entered Port Jackson and in a small ceremony took possession for Britain. In this book, Tony Crago tells the story of this great voyage: the enormous dangers faced by the ships full of convicts, crew and livestock as they all made the long journey across the turbulent southern ocean to an unknown and probably hostile environment. This voyage was set against the background of one the most challenging civil events in modern history-the Industrial Revolution in Europe, when thousands of people were out of work and turning to crime. Since there was no room for them in Britain the unhappy victims of circumstance were sent to the American Colonies as convicts but when Britain lost the American War it needed somewhere else to send them. The decision was made to send convicts to Botany Bay. Once they arrived, first at Botany Bay and then a few days later at Sydney Cove, the job of building accommodations and some semblance of the civilisation they had left behind had to quickly begin.