Third Fleet (Australia)

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The Third Fleet comprised 11 ships that set sail from the United Kingdom in February, March and April 1791, bound for the Sydney penal settlement, with more than 2,000 convicts aboard. The passengers comprised convicts, military personnel and notable people sent to fill high positions in the colony. More important for the fledgling colony was that the ships also carried provisions.

Contents

The first ship to arrive in Sydney was the Mary Ann with its cargo of female convicts and provisions on 9 July 1791. Mary Ann had sailed on her own to Sydney Cove, and there is some argument about whether she was the last ship of the Second Fleet, or the first ship of the Third Fleet, or simply sailing independently, as was HMS Gorgon. The vessels that unambiguously belong to the third fleet all left together.

The ships that make up each fleet, however, are decided from the viewpoint of the settlers in Sydney Cove. For them, the second set of ships arrived in 1790 (June), and the third set of ships arrived in 1791 (July–October). The Mary Ann was a 1791 arrival.

The next ship to arrive just over three weeks later, on 1 August 1791, was Matilda. With Matilda came news that there were another nine ships making their way for Sydney, and which were expected to arrive shortly. The final vessel, Admiral Barrington, did not arrive until 16 October, nearly 11 weeks after Matilda, and 14 weeks after Mary Ann.

Ships of the Third Fleet

ShipMasterDep. EnglandArr. SydneyDurationMale convicts: arrived [deaths] (boarded)Female convicts: arrived [deaths] (boarded)
Mary Ann Mark Munro16 Feb 17919 Jul 1791143 days141 [9] (150)
HMS Gorgon Commander John Parker, RN15 Mar 179121 Sep 1791190 days30 [1] (31)
Matilda Matthew Weatherhead27 Mar 17911 Aug 1791127 days225 [25] (250)
Atlantic Archibald Armstrong27 Mar 179120 Aug 1791147 days202 [18] (220)
Salamander John Nichol27 Mar 179121 Aug 1791148 days155 [5] (160)
William and Ann Eber Bunker 27 Mar 179128 Aug 1791154 days181 [7] (188)
Active John Mitchinson27 Mar 179126 Sep 1791183 days154 [21] (175)
Queen (came from Cork, Ireland)Richard Bowen19 Apr 179126 Sep 1791160 days126 [7] (133)22 [-] (22)
Albemarle George Bowen27 Mar 179113 Oct 1791200 days250 [32] (282)6 [-] (6) (arrival of females is a mystery)
Britannia Thomas Melvill27 Mar 179114 Oct 1791201 days129 [21] (150)
Admiral Barrington Robert Abbon Marsh27 Mar 179116 Oct 1791203 days264 [36] (300)
TOTAL1716 [173] (1889)169 [9] (178)

Atlantic, Salamander, and William and Ann departed from Plymouth; their naval agent was Lieutenant Richard Bowen. Albemarle, Active, Admiral Barrington, Britannia, and Matilda departed from Portsmouth; their naval agent was Lieutenant Robert Parry Young. Queen departed from Cork, Ireland; she had her own naval agent, Lieutenant Samuel Blow.

After having delivered their convicts, Active, Admiral Barrington, Albemarle, and Queen sailed for India. French privateers captured Active and Albemarle as they were almost home. Pirates murdered most of Admiral Barrington's crew near Bombay, but she was apparently recovered. A French privateer captured her in 1797.

Britannia, Mary Ann, Matilda, Salamander, and William and Ann went whaling. Britannia was wrecked off the coast of New South Wales some years later, in 1806. Matilda was wrecked on a shoal in February 1792.

People of the Third Fleet

From the above table it can be seen that 173 male convicts and 9 female convicts died during this voyage. Though this death rate was high, it was nowhere near as high as that which occurred on the Second Fleet. Convict arrivals on the Third Fleet included: [1]

See also

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Active was a ship built in 1764. Active was almost rebuilt in 1785. The next year her trade was given as London-Jamaica. She transported convicts to Australia in 1791. She returned home via Bombay, carrying a cargo for the British East India Company (EIC). A French privateer captured her in May 1793 as she was returning to Britain.

The British Royal Navy purchased HMS Shark on the stocks in 1775. She was launched in 1776, and in 1778 converted to a fireship and renamed HMS Salamander. The Navy sold her in 1783. She then became the mercantile Salamander. In the 1780s she was in the northern whale fishery. In 1791 she transported convicts to Australia. She then became a whaling ship in the southern whale fishery for a number of years, before becoming a general transport and then a slave ship. In 1804 the French captured her, but the Royal Navy recaptured her. Although she is last listed in 1811, she does not appear in Lloyd's List (LL) ship arrival and departure (SAD) data after 1804.

Matilda was a ship built in France and launched in 1779. She became a whaling ship for the British company Camden, Calvert and King, making a whaling voyage while under the command of Matthew Weatherhead to New South Wales and the Pacific in 1790.

Speedy was a whaler launched on the Thames in 1779. She also made voyages to New South Wales, transporting female convicts in 1799. She made two voyages transporting slaves in 1805 and 1806, and was captured in January 1807 on her way into London after having delivered her slaves to Antigua in 1806.

References

  1. "Convicts of the First Fleet". members.iinet.net.au. Retrieved 25 February 2020.

External sources