How many ships were in the First Fleet?

The First Fleet comprised eleven ships when it arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788. The fleet was made up of two Royal Navy escort vessels (HMS Sirius, the flagship, and HMS Supply, a small armed tender), three storeships carrying supplies and equipment (Borrowdale, Fishburn, and Golden Grove), and six transport ships carrying convicts, marines, and officials (Alexander, Charlotte, Friendship, Lady Penrhyn, Prince of Wales, and Scarborough).

Each ship carried different types of passengers and cargo. The convict transports held the about 778 convicts (about 586 men and 192 women) under sentence, with their belongings and the supplies needed for the voyage. The marines (about 245 officers and rank-and-file soldiers under Major Robert Ross) were split across the transports to guard the convicts and to form the colony's military presence. The storeships carried two years' food supplies, agricultural tools, building equipment, livestock (cattle, horses, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys), seeds, and the personal belongings of officials. HMS Sirius (flagship under Phillip) and HMS Supply provided naval protection.

The voyage was relatively healthy for the period. Phillip insisted on good hygiene, fresh water and vegetables at the three port stops (Tenerife in the Canaries, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and Cape Town in southern Africa), and regular exercise for convicts where possible. About 48 people died on the voyage out of more than 1,400 (about 3 per cent), a low death rate compared with the Second Fleet which followed in 1790 and which had a death rate of over 25 per cent because of poor management and supplies.

After the arrival, the fleet ships had different fates. The storeships and transports returned to England in 1788 and 1789. HMS Sirius was wrecked at Norfolk Island in March 1790 while trying to deliver supplies to the settlement there. HMS Supply made several supply runs between Sydney and Norfolk Island before returning to England in 1791. The First Fleet's arrival was followed by the Second Fleet (1790), Third Fleet (1791), and many subsequent fleets and individual vessels delivering convicts and free settlers to the growing colony. About 162,000 convicts were transported to Australia between 1788 and the end of transportation in 1868 (with Western Australia receiving convicts until then).