On the 7th May, the senior officer joined the First Fleet at Portsmouth. The ships were lying off the Motherbank, a spot where little more than a hundred years later, on the 26th June 1897, the naval might of the greatest Empire the world has ever known was displayed in five lines of modern warships which, anchored closely together as they were, covered a distance of five-and-twenty miles! Within a stone's throw of Phillip's little fleet lay the weed-covered timbers of the Royal George; from the same spot, twenty years after Phillip left for Australia, Nelson sailed on his last fateful but glorious voyage in the Victory. The Victory remains afloat in Portsmouth harbour, a speaking memento of Nelson's career; and the British community of the Australasian colonies is a great and living tribute to the work of the obscure naval officer who laid the foundations of a new Empire beyond the seas.
Contrary winds and other obstacles kept the fleet at its anchorage for another five days. One cause of the delay, and how Phillip removed it, is thus described by Collins:-
'The sailors on the transports refused to proceed to sea unless they should be paid their wages up to the time of their departure, alleging as a ground for their refusal that they were in want of many articles necessary for so long a voyage. The custom of their employ, however, being against a demand which yet appeared reasonable. Captain Phillip directed the
