A View of Botany Bay
Artist
Robert Cleveley
(1747 - 1809)
Engraver
Thomas Medland
(1755 - 1822)
Publisher
John Stockdale
(1750 - 1814)
Date1789
Object number00000855
NamePrint
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsOverall: 159 x 233 mm
ClassificationsArt
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionThis engraving titled - A View of Botany Bay - is from The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay, by Arthur Phillip, published in London in 1789. A footnote states - "The annexed view of Botany Bay represents the SUPPLY. etc. at anchor, and the SIRIUS with her convoy coming into the bay".HistoryArthur Phillip (1738-1814) entered the navy in 1755 and was rated Post Captain in 1786. He was subsequently ranked Commodore of the fleet of eleven ships carrying the first European settlers to Australia. Phillip took supreme control as the first Governor of the Colony of New South Wales once the fleet arrived at Sydney Cove. He retained the position until 1792 when Captain John Hunter was appointed Governor.
Since the early 1600s European societies used the transportation of criminals overseas as a form of punishment. When in the 18th century, the death penalty came to be regarded as too severe for certain capital offences, such as theft and larceny, transportation to North America became a popular form of sentence.
The American War of Independence (1776-1781) put an end to the transportation of British convicts to America and many of the convicts in Great Britain's jails were instead sent to hulks (decommissioned naval vessels) on the River Thames and at Portsmouth, Plymouth, Cork and Dublin. In 1784, under the Transportation and Penitentiaries Act convicts could be exiled to colonies overseas.
Between 1788 and 1868 over 168,000 men, women and children were transported from Britain to Australia as convicts on board more than 1,000 modified merchant ships which had been converted into convict transports.
The first fleet of convict transports bound for the east coast of Australia set sail from Spithead on 13 May 1787 and was comprised of two naval vessels HMS SIRIUS and HMS SUPPLY, three store ships BORROWDALE, FISHBURN, and GOLDEN GROVE and six convict transports, ALEXANDER, FRIENDSHIP, LADY PENRHYN, SCARBOROUGH, PRINCE OF WALES, and CHARLOTTE.
The British Government did not build specialised convict transports but instead chartered suitable ships from private ship owners.
A settlement at Sydney Cove was established by Governor Arthur Phillip when he arrived with the First Fleet on 26 January 1788. The cove was named in honour of the British Home Secretary, Thomas Townsend, Lord Sydney and chosen as the site of settlement over Botany Bay because it offered both fresh water and a secure place for ships to anchor.
Phillip described Sydney Cove as having 'the best spring of water, and in which the ships can anchor so close to the shore that at a very small expense quays may be made at which the largest ships may unload'. He aimed to establish a flourishing colony not just a penal site and supported plans to build a structured orderly town plan.SignificanceThe engraving depicts the arrival of HMS SIRIUS together with the convict transports CHARLOTTE, PRINCE OF WALES, LADY PENRHYN and storeships GOLDEN GROVE, FISHBURN and BORROWDALE in Botany Bay on the 20th of January 1788. These vessels rejoined the other vessels of the First Fleet - ALEXANDER, SCARBOROUGH and FRIENDSHIP which had arrived on the 19th, and HMS SUPPLY which had anchored in the bay on the 18th of January. The image represents the arrival of the First Fleet in Australia in 1788.
