The First FleetA biography of unprecedented expedition under sail The role of the sailor through history should never be underestimated. Over centuries battles were won and new lands discovered and settled by their skills and nerve. Rob Mundle is back on the ocean to tell one of the great stories of an expedition under sail: the extraordinary eight-month, 17-000-nautical mile voyage of the First Fleet. With customary sweep and swell, Mundle puts you alongside 48-year-old Captain Arthur Phillip on the quarterdeck of the Royal Navy escort, HMS Sirius, as he commands his small armada of 11 ships, carrying over 1420 men, women and children, to the other side of the world. |
Contents
The Spy Who Came in from the | |
A Man of Letters | |
The Shackle Draggers | |
A Slow Start | |
Around the High | |
Noahs | |
A Sea But Little Known | |
Bay of Disappointment Harbour of Splendour | |
The Colours Are Raised | |
The Mercy Mission | |
Trials and Tribulations | |
Life and Death | |
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Common terms and phrases
Able Seaman aboard Friendship aboard Sirius Alexander anchor arrived Arthur Phillip ashore Bennelong boat Botany Bay British Bryant Cape Town Clark coast colony colony’s convicts Cook crew David Collins deck departure destination dothing east endeavour England escape F Stealing fish fleet flotilla French George Governor Phillip harbour hauled head highway Death hope hulks James John journal King Lady Penrhyn Lieutenant London Lord Sydney Marine’s Child Marine’s Wife marines Mary mast Mate months morning Nagle natives nautical miles night Norfolk Island o’clock officers passage Philip Gidley King Port Jackson Prince of Wales prisoners Private provisions punishment quarterdeck recorded Charlotte rigging Rio de Janeiro robbery Royal Navy sail sailors sentenced settlement ship ship’s shore side Sirius’s soon South Wales storm Supply Supply’s surgeon Sydney Cove Tench Thomas took trade recorded Scarborough Transportation Van Diemen’s Land vessel voyage Watkin Tench weather weeks William wind women wrote