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The voyage of the First Fleet

JONATHAN KING, a descendant of Philip Gidley King, the third governor of the Australian Colony (1800-1806), opened the introduction to his book, The First Fleet: The Convict Voyage that Founded Australia 1787-1788, with this claim:

“The founding of the Australian nation by the First Fleet is one of the greatest stories of mankind. Thirteen hundred and fifty people, crammed into eleven tiny ships, sailed halfway around the world to transplant European civilization, and on a voyage that took eight months and one week … It was an epic achievement of navigation, use of the wind, ocean currents, and organisation—yet it is a story little known within, or outside, Australia.”

‘No sober judgment of the facts could be at odds with this assessment. Some have compared the First Fleet voyage with the feat of landing a man on the moon. Despite the magnitude of the achievement, most Australians would have no idea that “the journals and diaries of at least eleven scribes have survived from the First Fleet along with reports and logbooks of others.” Those journals included that of author King’s ancestor Second Lieutenant Philip Gidley King RN on the fleet’s flagship HMS Sirius. [The Sirius was 27 metres long and 10 metres wide.] Australians of all ancestries have at their disposal firsthand reports of that incredible sea voyage that, against the odds, with never a navigational falter, led eleven ships into Botany Bay between the 18 and 20 January 1788, after 15,000 miles and 252 days.’

These were the opening paragraphs of chapter 13 of my book PRISON HULK TO REDEMPTION

So astounding was the scientific and technological achievement of the First Fleet that sailed through uncharted waters below the 44th parallel that it is difficult to think the analogy with the moon landing is overstated.

Sussan Ley, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, went a trifle further and compared the First Fleet voyage with an expedition to settle Mars. It was a golden chance for the Labor Party to show their ignorance and political dilettantism.

Labor minister Katy Gallagher, Labor’s minister for man-hatred, reacted in character. She ‘labelled Sussan Ley’s comparison of the arrival of the First Fleet to Elon Musk’s SpaceX mission to reach Mars as “nuts”.’ We can’t expect anything better from useless Gallagher whose mind cannot cope with the intellectual content of a simple analogy and must at once go to mockery. Gallagher should be a target of the Liberal Party’s at the coming federal election. As a man, you would have to have a death wish to vote for her.

Prime Minister Albanese was milder in his reaction. He claimed, ‘it was a very strange analogy to draw, pointing out that Australia was populated when Captain Arthur Phillip landed, while Mars … is devoid of life.’

The question of population does not alter the analogy. The analogy is about the astounding achievement of the First Fleet. A later reported remark from the PM was something to the effect that the comparison was hurtful. Poor Anthony, that’s another case of the PM giving into his emotions. Whether the analogy is hurtful or not does not affect the analogy which is about scientific, technological, and navigational achievement.

As for population, estimates of the native population range from 300,000 to 800,000 on that vast mass of land that came to be known as Australia. Apart from that sparse population of primitive natives who spent their time in murderous conflicts over territory, there was nothing there, just land waiting for its riches to be won by a competent civilization of people.

I made a video of the First Fleet’s voyage.

Part 2 two of the presentation is about the settlement:

Invasion day? Worry about the one taking place.

The British Australian Community has produced a blockbuster video, providing a brief historical account of what made Australia the great nation that it became in a miraculously short time.

Wonderful scenes are shown of the Australian people as we used to know them. In contrast with these rousing scenes is the threat of runaway migration that includes people from incompatible cultures with suspect intentions. See my previous comments about the Chinese community.

Blacks on the First Fleet

An article appearing on the website The Feed, a part of SBS, Australia’s multicultural TV channel, is headed, Did you know there were 12 Africans on the First Fleet?

Well, yes, I did know. I found out when I was conducting research on my family history. As it turns out, two of my ancestors were on the First Fleet, one a (female) convict, the other the Master’s steward, who later became a free settler (see my book PRISON HULK TO REDEMPTION). Anyone who does any research on the First Fleet will inevitably come across that information. It’s there for everyone to find.

It’s not hidden. There’s no conspiracy to ‘erase’ the presence of Africans on the First Fleet. And I did not throw my white Anglo-Celtic arms up in horror when that terrible information confronted me. No, I was still seated and just passed on in my reading of the conditions my convict ancestor suffered.

The Feed asks, ‘Why isn’t the history of African convicts widely known?’ Well, could it be because there was such a small number?There was a similar number of Jews. Does that make Australia anti-Semitic because no one talks about them? There were other nationalities, similarly in the forgetfulness of us terrible white Anglo-Celtic Australians.

When some of the lily-white descendants of two of the Africans came to investigate their family tree, they found the information in the records. No worries.

Historian Cassandra Pybus had no doubts about why. It was not general information, according to Pybus, ‘because Australia’s a racist society, and there was a concerted effort to wipe out non-Europeans from Australia’s history.’ Utter nonsense – part of the leftist narrative for the gullible – an idea kept alive by her class.

Has Pybus an explanation for the attacks on Australia’s borders by non-white people and for the hordes of non-white people poised on the periphery of South-East Asia just waiting for a chance to move south?

Australia until the 1950s was no more concerned with preserving its culture than other self-respecting nations. What is seen selectively as racist (it’s only countries where Caucasians dominate) is simply guardianship of the culture. Who would call Japan an inherently racist country?

But Pybus is an historian highly regarded by the left, and well-known for entertaining her leftist class with her thrashing of the white racist far-right men (just men) she imagines around her. (See The Devil and James McAuley.)

Yet again, multicultural SBS demonstrates it runs at the head of those propagating anti-white racism in Australia.

The Amazing incredible voyage of the First Fleet

The voyage of the First Fleet hardly has its equal in seafaring history. The idea of founding a colony on the other side of the world, of sailing a fleet of ships in uncharted waters below the 44th parallel to a destination 15,000 miles away, on the other side of the world, was thought preposterous in 1787. It would never work. It would turn into a farce and a disaster. But it did work. In chapter 13 of my book PRISON HULK TO REDEMPTION, I provide some highlights of that astounding voyage of which two of my ancestors were a part.

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Prison Hulk to Redemption

Chapter 13

The Scarborough’s steward

Jonathan King, a descendant of Philip Gidley King, the third governor of the Australian Colony (1800-1806), opened the introduction to his book, The First Fleet: The Convict Voyage that Founded Australia 1787-1788, with this claim:

The founding of the Australia nation by the first fleet is one of the greatest stories of mankind. Thirteen hundred and fifty people, crammed into eleven tiny ships, sailed halfway round the world to transplant European civilisation and on a voyage that took eight months and one week they lost only forty-eight people, most of whom were sick or dying even before they left.

It was an epic achievement of navigation, use of the wind, ocean currents, and organisation—yet it is a story little known within, or outside, Australia.

No sober judgement of the facts could be at odds with this assessment. Despite the magnitude of the achievement, most Australians would have no idea that ‘the journals and diaries of at least eleven scribes have survived from the First Fleet along with reports and logbooks of others’. Those journals included that of author King’s ancestor Second Lieutenant Philip Gidley King RN on the fleet’s flagship HMS Sirius. Australians of all ancestries have at their disposal firsthand reports of that incredible sea voyage that against the odds, with never a navigational falter, led eleven ships into Botany Bay between the 18th and 20th of January 1788, after 15,000 miles and 252 days.

Those many Australians who today walk along the great avenues of Australia’s modern cities without a thought of where it all came from should rescue themselves from their ignorance. They should read with pride about the sea voyage from the civilised world that laid the foundations of their rich, vibrant, free nation. The eleven ships of the fleet consisted of two naval ships, the armed brig HMS Supply and the warship HMS Sirius; six convict transports, Alexander, Charlotte, Friendship, Lady Penrhyn, Prince of Wales, and Scarborough; and three food and supply transports, Golden Grove, Fishburn, and Borrowdale. Alexander and Scarborough took only male convicts. The Scarborough was loaded with the most vicious and incorrigible of criminals.

As incredible as it may seem, I have two ancestors on the First Fleet, Frederick Meredith on the Scarborough and convict Eleanor Fraser on the Prince of Wales, though it is probable Eleanor was transferred later to the Charlotte. Frederick Meredith was steward to John Marshall, the master of Scarborough. Eleanor Fraser and Frederick Meredith were my ancestors through the line of Frederick’s first child, Frederick Jr (who married Eleanor’s daughter Sarah) and Frederick Jr’s daughter Ann. That line led to my mother via her father.

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