Richard Brooks (captain) - Ship's Captain

Ship's Captain

Richard Brooks is said to have had little formal education before entering the British East India Company's service at an early age, rising to command his own ship. During the first French Revolutionary War he traded to Oporto, the Mediterranean and the Baltic, carrying a letter of marque, but later returned to the East India service.

He began his association with New South Wales in 1802 when he captained the convict transport Atlas I.

The 222 day voyage of the "Atlas I" was one of the worse in the history of transportation to Australia. During the voyage 64 people died, another four dying shortly after disembarkation. The remainder were "in a dreadfully emaciated and dying state" (Governor King). Governor King asked a committee of enquiry whether Captain Brooks' private trade goods which took up space in the hospital and prison and the unnecessary stops en route to Australia contributed to the deaths. The committee stated that mortality had been caused by "the want of proper attention to cleanliness, the want of free circulation of air, and the lumbered state of the prison and hospital".

In 1806 he was captain of another transport, the Alexander; thereafter he made a number of trading trips to the colony, in the Rose in 1808, the Simon Cock in 1810, and the Argo in 1811, and built up large interests in the colony. In 1812 he fathered an illegitimate child with Ann Jamieson in Sydney. In February 1813 Brooks was on his way to England in the Isabella when she was wrecked near the Falkland Islands, and he sailed to Buenos Aires in a long-boat for help. In July he asked for permission to go to New South Wales as a free settler. Allowed to go, he arrived in March 1814 with his wife Christiana, née Passmore (1776–1835), daughter of another East India captain, and children in the Spring.