Notes
Note N3716
Index
Convict Ship Alexander 1788
Surgeon's Journal: no
Tons: 452
Master Duncan Sinclair.
Surgeon William Balmain
Lieutenant John Sinclair
Lady Juliana 1790
The Alexander was built at Hull in 1784 by Walton & Co. and was taken up by the East India Company in 1786. She was the largest of the eleven vessels of the historic First Fleet to Australia.
The First Fleet consisted of two Royal Navy escort ships, HMS Sirius and HMS Supply accompanied by six convict transports, the Alexander, Charlotte, Friendship, Lady Penrhyn, Prince of Wales and the Scarborough, and three store ships, the Borrowdale, Fishburn and Golden Grove.
The prisoners for the Alexander were ordered to be embarked on the ship from Newgate prison in January 1787.....(Extract)
Under Secretary Nepean to Mr. Shelton, Whitehall, 1 January 1787, I understand from Mr. Campbell that you have already been furnished with a list of such convicts as are to be sent out in the Alexander, and as it is wished that they may be removed as soon as possible from the hulk to make room for the people now in Newgate, I will beg of you to get the bonds and contracts executed with a little delay as may be. The Lady Penrhyn now in the river, will receive all the female convicts now in Newgate under sentence of transportation and her commander with Mr. Richardson, will enter into the bonds the latter will contract, There will be a further list sent to you, I hope today of other convicts now in the hulks who are to be sent to the ship Scarborough at Portsmouth, to be conveyed from thence to the intended settlement at Botany Bay, and which will include all that are to go out in the first convoy. (1)
Governor Phillip's correspondence to Under Secretary Nepean reveals that the Alexander was overcrowded while still in the river and some of the convicts were already ill....... London, Jan. 11, 1787 Sir, By letters from Lieutenant Shortland and the surgeon's assistant on board the Alexander, I find that 184 men are put on board that ship, and 56 women on board the Lady Penrhyn, that there are amongst the men several unable to help themselves, and that no kind of surgeon's instruments have been put on board that ship or any of the transports. You will, sir, permit me to observe that it will be very difficult to prevent the most fatal sickness amongst men so closely confined; that on board that ship which is to receive 210 convicts there is not a space left for them to move in sufficiently large for 40 men to be in motion at the same time, nor is it safe to permit any number of men to be on deck while the ship remains so near the land.
On this consideration, I hope that you will order the Alexander and Lady Penrhyn to join his Majesty's ship Sirius immediately and proceed to Spithead, where more liberty may be allowed the convicts than can be done with safety in the river, and those that are wanting to compleat the number to be sent out in those ships may be sent round to Portsmouth with the other convicts, for the most fatal consequences may be expected if the full number is kept on board any length of time before we sail. You will, I presume, see the necessity of ordering some surgeon's instruments to be sent on board the ships that carry the convicts - and I do hope that no more will be embarked till the ships are ready to sail, and which they cannot be for a week after they get to Spithead.
The detachment of Marines on the Alexander consisted of two First Lieutenants - Lieutenant John Johnstone and Lieutenant James Maitland Shairp; three sergeants, two corporals, one drummer, 28 privates, one woman making a total of 37 persons.
Major Ross reported of the terrible sickness on the Alexander in correspondence to Secretary Stephens dated 13th April 1787 at Portsmouth {Extract}....
I have to request you will please to inform their Lordships that the sickness which has, and still does prevail among the marine detachment embarked on board the Alexander, gives me a great degree of concern. Since the time of their first embarkation no less than one serjeant, one drummer, and fourteen privates have been sent sick on shore from her, some of whom I am informed, are since dead.
How far the cause of this sickness may be of a malignant kind is not for me to say, but I am apt to suppose that the situation in which the marines are placed in that ship is of itself sufficient to cause the disorder with which they are afflicted. I beg leave to observe for their Lordships information that the place allotted for the marines on board the Alexander is upon a deck, and immediately under where the seamen are birthed. In this place they are excluded from all air, but what passes through the hatchway leading from the seamen's berth, which must in some degree render it putrid before it reaches the others.
In the same correspondence Major Ross also told of the dire situation of the families of the Marines after he found on visiting the ships at the Motherbank that a Marine, his wife and two children all were subsisting on only a ration and a half of provisions (4)
The eleven vessels of the First Fleet departed from Portsmouth early on Sunday 13 May 1787.
Extract of a letter from an Officer on board one of the ships destined for Botany Bay dated Teneriffe, June 5 1787........ After a very pleasant passage of exactly three weeks, we arrived here on Sunday evening the 3rd July The fleet has been throughout exceedingly healthy and still continues so, having lost only five convicts since we sailed. In most of the ships these unhappy men have been released from their irons, and their behaviour since has evinced the propriety of this indulgence; besides which during our stay here, every individual of the squadron has partaken amply of the good things which this sterile unyielding soil produces; fresh beef and vegetables (as far as it has been possible to procure them) have been universally extended, so that we have every reasonable prospect of continuing in our present healthy state for a length of time to come. Should nothing unexpected intervene, we shall take our departure for Rio de Janeiro, in the Brazils, on the 8th of this month and very possibly touch for a day or two at St. Jago, in running between Cape de Verde Islands; but this last I do not speak of with confidence on the contrary, I think the commodore will push for Rio with all possible expedition it being a part of all others which affords those refreshments so absolutely necessary in a long sea voyage. - I had almost forgot to tell you, that Commodore Phillips this morning, introduced twenty officers which were all that could be spared on shore at once, to the Marquis de Branciforte, the Spanish Governor of this island; in the number was your humble servant; His Excellency was pleased to receive us with that politeness and affability which the inhabitants of Teneriffe, say at all times distinguish his behaviour. (2)
They arrived at Rio de Janeiro on 6th August 1787 and sailed from there on 5th September 1787.
In correspondence from an Officer on one of the vessels the following account was reported in the Freeman's Journal.....
On the 7th October the Alexander transport threw signals of distress, upon which the Commodore ordered our boats to be manned and sent on board. The Captain of the Alexander informed the commanding officer, that his men had mutinied, and attempted to release the convicts in order to strengthen themselves; but our well times assistance prevented these desperadoes from effecting their evil intention. Our people secured four of the most daring, and sent them in irons on board the Sirius. The principal part of the marines on board the Alexander being ill, and therefore unable to prevent any attempts they might make after our departure, the next day the Alexander sent two convicts on board our ship, they having been very disorderly the preceding night.(3)
The Fleet reached the Cape of Good Hope on 13th October 1787.
The Alexander arrived in Botany Bay on 19 January 1788 and departed in July 1788 in company with the Prince of Wales, Borrowdale and Friendship transports under direction and command of Lieut. Shortland, Agent for Transports.
These ships were all in a distressed state when they sailed, both as to sickness and want of provisions. The Alexander was to load a cargo of tea at Canton for the East India Company.