Admiral Phillip/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III
Phillip was not long in getting to work, and his capacity for detail early began to show itself. A month after his appointment he is found writing letters to the Admiralty asking for small things essential to success, which only the man held directly responsible for results appears to have remembered.
Here for instance is his first letter, spelling and all (a practice which will generally be followed in future) as he wrote it:—
'Sir,—The Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having ordered His Majesty's ship Sirius, under my command, to be supply'd with six caronades and four six-pounders, I am to request that you will please to move their Lordships to order ten more of the six-pounders to be put on board, with the ironwork necessary for the cariages. Having the ironwork, the guns can at any time be mounted, and may, I presume, in future be of great use to us, on board or on shore, as the service may require,—I have, etc.,
This letter is of itself too trivial to be worth reprinting, but this formidable armament formed the colony's first fortress battery, and one of the guns still remains, a forgotten relic, mounted near the South Head Light (which is the best coast light in the world) at Sydney. By way of contrast to this, let us see how the authorities provided for things of importance. Lieutenant Philip Gidley King, second lieutenant of the Sirius, afterwards himself a Governor of New South Wales, kept a journal. This officer's grandson is now a member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, and the hon. member has placed his grandfather's journal at the disposal of the public.
The Sirius was of 20 guns, 612 tons, and 160 men. She was commissioned on 24th October 1786, Phillip being appointed to the chief command as first captain, while John Hunter acted as second captain. The last officer was so appointed that he might command the ship when Phillip took up his shore duties. Says King:—
'The construction of a King's ship not being deemed proper for this service, the Berwick storeship was pitched on by the Admiralty, and her name changed to the Sirius, so called from the bright star in ye southern constellation of the Great Dog. She had been purchased on the stocks by the Government in 1781, and was sent once to America as a storeship during ye war, and once after the peace to ye W't Indies, since which time she had layn in ordinary at Deptford, till named for this service, when she was taken into dock, and, as the yard people said, thoroughly overhaul'd; however, we have frequently had reason to think otherwise in the course of our voyage. The Supply, armed tender of 170 tons, 8 guns, and 50 men, commanded by Lieutenant H. L. Ball, was formerly a navy transport; her size is much too small for so long a voyage, which, added to her not being able to carry any quantity of provisions, and her sailing very ill, renders her a very improper vessel for this service.' But, bad as were the sailing qualities of the Supply, she was a faster ship than the Sirius.
A constant stream of letters from Phillip to the Admiralty went on from October 1786 to the sailing of the fleet from Spithead in the following May. All these letters show that to Phillip alone is due the credit of properly preparing the expedition. The Government left everything to Lord Sydney, and he left the details of equipment entirely to Phillip, who did not pass on the responsibility to his subordinates. The circumlocution branch of the Admiralty must have been maddened by his persistence. For example, in December he writes a letter containing fourteen questions relating to what, to officialdom, no doubt appeared most trivial matters, but which the questioner's instinct told him it would be wise to have settled before he left England. The contractors, dockyard officials and others charged with the task of preparing the expedition seem to have neglected their duties, and their superiors to have exercised no supervision over them. Yet, owing to his wonderful foresight and his steady 'pegging away' at the officials, Phillip did succeed in getting many things that he wanted. Just before leaving England, he wrote a memorandum on the general conduct of the expedition and the treatment of the convicts. Some paragraphs of this document are worth printing, for they depict him in another character than that of an excellent man of business:—
'During the passage, when light airs or calms permit it, I shall visit the transports to see that they (the convicts) are kept clean and receive the allowance ordered by Government; and at these times I shall endeavour to make them sensible of their situation, and that their happiness or misery is in their own hands,—that those who behave well will be rewarded by being allow'd to work occasionally on the small lotts of land set apart for them, and which they will be put in possession of at the expiration of the time for which they are transported. …
'As I would not wish convicts to lay the foundations of an empire, I think they should ever remain separated from the garrison, and other settlers that may come from Europe, and not be allowed to mix with them, even after the 7 or 14 years for which they are transported may be expired.
'The laws of this country will, of course, be introduced in [New] South Wales, and there is one that I would wish to take place from the moment His Majesty's forces take possession of the country: That there can be no slavery in a free land, and consequently no slaves.'
In other letters he asked for specific instructions on important questions which his good sense warned him would demand an answer before long, but which do not seem to have occurred to the Home Government until he thought of them. He made a primary and most fortunate suggestion that the choice of a selection for the site of the new settlement should be left to his own judgment; that the terms by which lands were to be granted should be pointed out by the article which conferred on him the authority for granting such lands; that he should have the right to exile to New Zealand or any of the neighbouring islands any convict who might be condemned to death; that he should have the power of emancipation; and that he should be able to suspend and send home any officer who from his situation could not be tried by court-martial. He further asked that he should be authorised to despatch one of the ships of the fleet to Charlotte Sound in New Zealand to procure flax-plants; and his, and indeed the Government's, lack of knowledge of the climatic conditions of the new territory is evinced by his request that he should also be allowed to send a ship to the Friendly Islands (the Tongan Archipelago) for the purpose of importing thence the bread-fruit plant. And the worthy people who do not consider the exigencies of empire-building and the laws of nature, will be shocked to learn that Phillip, a man of the most stringent morality, mentioned the fact that at the Friendly Islands 'women could be procured.' In the same letter he asked that the Secretary of State should empower him, in case the Sirius should return to England, to take command of any other ships that might remain on the coast, by hoisting a distinguishing pendant on such ships, so that he might retain the command at sea and be able to explore the coast. And to this request he adds that he has no desire to claim the pay of a commanding officer for hoisting such pendant. His forethought and humanity are shown by such demands as that he should 'have power to change the species of provisions served to the marines and convicts, for if salt meat is issued, without any proportion of flour, as has been hitherto done by the contractor to the marines embarked on board the Alexander, the scurvy must prove fatal to the greatest part. Of the marines already embarked two months, one in six are sent to the hospital since that ship's arrival at Spithead.'
The Government, as a matter of fact, was too busy with the impeachment of Warren Hastings to trouble itself with trifles of this kind—for the despatch of a fleet of convict transports, even though it was to colonise new territory, was regarded as a trifle at this time. No single page of history recorded it, even the Annual Register did not think it worth an entry.
To some of Phillip's wise and well-considered suggestions, the Government responded that upon the death or suspension of any civil officer he was at liberty to appoint any 'proper person' in his place until His Majesty's pleasure was known; that he could send a suspended officer to England by the first opportunity—with his reasons for such suspension; that the Government would not object to his choice for the site of the principal settlement, but he was to understand that he was not to be allowed to delay the disembarkation of the establishment upon his arrival on the coast upon the pretence of searching after a more eligible place than Botany Bay.
If Phillip felt insulted at this dictum he was too good a disciplinarian himself to show it. The Government's chief anxiety was to get rid of a batch of convicts—it was Phillip's desire to effect that riddance in a humane manner, to treat them as human beings, and to endeavour to make them reclaim themselves when they reached their destination.
In this same letter Lord Sydney told Phillip that Parliament would be moved to fix his salary as Governor at £1000 per annum nett, which, 'with the pay of the Sirius, is judged to be a proper allowance for the support of the stations you are appointed to fill.' The astounding generosity of the Government was further exemplified by allowing him a contingent charge of five shillings a day for the pay of a secretary, and the magnificent sum of £20 per annum for stationery. His request to be granted table money was curtly refused.
Two letters, written at the last moment, show how much was left undone when the fleet sailed. On the 12th of March Phillip wrote to Lord Sydney, telling him that the Navy Board had informed him that no alterations could be made as regarded the victualling of the Marines during the passage, despite his earnest entreaties. 'It is,' he wrote, 'to prevent my character as an officer from being called in question, should the consequences I fear be realized that I once more trouble your Lordship on this subject.' The contracts for the garrison and convicts, he remarked, were made without even his advice or opinion being asked, and he had repeatedly pointed out the serious consequences that might be looked for from so many men being crowded in such a small space for so long a period and from the wretched scale of victuals. Flour, which was always allowed marines in the navy, was refused him. 'This,' he pleaded, 'must be fatal to many, and the more so as no anti-scorbutics are allowed on board the transports for either marine or convict; in fact, my Lord, the garrison and convicts are sent to the extremity of the globe as they would be sent to America—a six weeks' passage.' Then in dignified words he went on to say that he could foresee the critical situation he might be in after losing part of the garrison, which even then he considered to be very weak for the arduous service it was to undergo; but he was prepared, he said, to meet difficulties, and had but one fear—that it might be said some day that he should have known that it was more than probable that he would lose half the garrison and convicts, crowded as they were, and so badly victualled for such a long and trying voyage. 'And,' he concluded, 'the public, believing it rested with me, may impute to my ignorance or inattention what I have never been consulted in, and which never coincided with my ideas, to avoid which is the purport of this letter; and I flatter myself your Lordship will hereafter point out the situation in which I have stood thro' the whole of this business should it ever be necessary.'
In the second letter he begs for more 'cloaths' for the unfortunate convicts; and that as more prisoners were to be sent on board the different ships the Government would give orders that before leaving the gaols or hulks they should be 'washed and cloathed.' Then he alludes in indignant terms to the condition of the unfortunate female convicts on board the transport Lady Penrhyn, 'The situation in which the magistrates sent the women on board … stamps them with infamy—almost naked and so very filthy that nothing but clothing them could have prevented them from perishing.' The clothing for these women he provided himself from the stores on the Sirius, and asked that the Navy Board would replace it, for their deplorable state filled him. with horror and indignation. As it was, a fever had already broken out among them. Many of them were suffering from special complaints which, he wrote, 'must spread in spite of every precaution I may take hereafter, and will be fatal to themselves. There is a necessity for doing something for the young man who is on board that ship as surgeon, or I fear that we shall lose him, and then a hundred women will be left without any assistance, several of them with child. Let me repeat my desire that orders immediately may be given to increase the convict allowance of bread; 16 lb. of bread for 42 days is very little. …
'This is a long letter, but it is my duty to repeat complaints that may be redressed, and which I am certain you desire equally with myself.'
It was the same old story, better remembered in connection with a greater man—Wellington fighting his campaigns in spite of the Government, and without the assistance which he legitimately required.
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 different masters to put such of their people as refused to proceed with them to sea on board the Hyæna frigate, and to receive an equal number of her seamen, who should afterwards be re-exchanged at sea, her captain being directed to accompany the fleet to a certain distance.'
Here is a list of the expedition—according to one of its officers—as it sailed from Spithead:—
The Sirius, and the Supply, King's ships (already described), and the following transports:— Alexander, 452 tons, 30 seamen, 35 marines, 194 convicts; Lady Penrhyn, 333 tons, 30 seamen, 3 officers of marines, 101 females; Charlotte, 335 tons, 30 seamen, 42 marines, 86 male and 20 female convicts; Scarborough, 430 tons, 30 seamen, 44 marines, 205 male convicts; Friendship, 274 tons, 25 seamen, 46 marines, 76 male and 21 female convicts; Prince of Wales, 350 tons,—seamen, 29 marines, 2 male and 47 female convicts; Fishburn, victualler and agent's ship, 378 tons, 22 men; Golden Grove, victualler and agent's ship, 335 tons, 22 men; and the Borrowdale, victualler and agent's ship, 275 tons, 22 men.
In a last letter, dated from the Sirius, on the Motherbank, 11th May 1787, and addressed to the Under-Secretary for the Home Department, Phillip says good-bye in words which show that he had a good heart for the future:—
'Once more I take my leave of you, fully sensible of the trouble you have had in this business, for which at present I can only thank you; but at a future period, when this country feels the advantages that are to be drawn from our intended settlement, you will enjoy a satisfaction that will, I am sure, make you ample amends.'
On the 12th of May the fleet passed the Needles and began its long voyage.