HMS Sirius (1786) - Voyage To Australia

Voyage To Australia

Sirius sailed under the command of Captain John Hunter and carried Captain Arthur Phillip, who would be the first governor of the new colony. She also carried Major Robert Ross, commander of the Royal Marines who would be responsible for providing security for the colony. The surgeons on this ship were George Bouchier Worgan and Thomas Jamison.

Sirius, with the other ten vessels of the First Fleet, left Portsmouth on 13 May 1787 and arrived at Botany Bay on 21 January 1788. The 252-day voyage, which had gone via Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope, had covered more than 15,000 miles (24,000 km). It soon became clear that Botany Bay was unsuitable for a penal settlement so Sirius helped move the colony farther north to Sydney Cove, Port Jackson on 26 January. While waiting to move, a large gale arose preventing any sailing, during this period the French expeditionary fleet of Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse arrived.

The British cordially received the French. Sirius's captains, through their officers, offered assistance and asked if Lapérouse needed supplies. However the French leader and the British commanders never met personally.

Lapérouse also took the opportunity to send his journals, some charts and also some letters back to Europe with Sirius. After obtaining wood and fresh water, the French left on 10 March for New Caledonia, Santa Cruz, the Solomons, the Louisiades, and the western and southern coasts of Australia. The French fleet and all on board were never seen again. The documents carried by Sirius would be its only testament.

Sirius left the colony at Port Jackson on 2 October 1788 when she was sent back to the Cape of Good Hope to get flour and other supplies. The complete voyage, which took more than seven months to complete, returned just in time to save the near-starving colony.

Two years later, on 19 March 1790, Sirius was wrecked on a reef at Norfolk Island while landing stores. Among those who witnessed the ship's demise from shore was Thomas Jamison, the surgeon for the penal settlement. Jamison would eventually become Surgeon-General of New South Wales. Sirius's crew was stranded on Norfolk Island until 21 February 1791, when they were rescued and eventually taken back to England. Hunter returned to New South Wales, serving as the colony's Governor from 1795 to 1799. One of the sailors on Sirius, Jacob Nagle, wrote a first-hand account of the ship's last voyage, wreck, and the crew's stranding. With the settlement in New South Wales still on the brink of starvation, the loss of Sirius left the colonists with only one supply ship.