On 18 January 1788, the First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay, Australia. Eleven British ships carrying over 1,400 convicts, marines, sailors, colonial officials and free settlers had set off from England on 13 May 1787.
A settlement was to be establish but instead the location of Port Jackson was chosen.
The cost to the British Government of outfitting and dispatching the Fleet was £84,000 (about £14 million or US$17.5 million in 2023). – Wikipedia.
The chief surgeon for the First Fleet, John White, reported a total of 48 deaths and 28 births during the voyage. The deaths during the voyage included one marine, one marine’s wife, one marine’s child, 36 male convicts, four female convicts, and five children of convicts.
First Fleet Entering Port Jackson, 1788, wash drawing from Journal ‘A Voyage to New South Wales’ by William Bradley, State Library of New South Wales
