First Fleet

Sir Joseph Banks was one who often asserted,
with Lord Sandwich, who also concerted,
that a colony, should be established right away,
near the coast of New Holland, in Botany Bay.

In Britain Lord Sydney took charge from ashore
and they made Captain Phillip the Commodore,
of eleven stout ships to sail south with the breeze,
all equipped to get started in the Antipodes.

Naval vessel; Sirius, designated Flagship for the group,
and Supply, an armed tender, were to escort the troop,
six “transports”, for convicts (who had no reprieve),
were converted to dungeons and made ready to leave.

Along with three other ships of a respectable size
to carry most of the convoy’s food and supplies.
It was seventeen eighty seven when they started
the thirteenth of May was the day they departed.

With approximately fifteen hundred and thirty aboard
they went south in fine weather past Spain and toward,
Tenerife to get water, provisions and rest,
before heading for Rio way out to the west.

From Rio the squadron travelled south east at a lope
in the direction of the Cape of Good Hope,
where they picked up some cows and forty four sheep,
and the whole entourage caught up on their sleep.

After Cape Town they entered the Southern Ocean
where the roaring forties ensured ample locomotion,
and they experienced violent storms and gales firsthand
before turning left at Van Diemen’s land.

By the twentieth of January the First Fleet had arrived
and somehow or another the majority survived,
to drop anchor, in Botany Bay just like Cook
only to find that the anchorage was crook.

Captain Phillip sailed north in order to reconnoitre
and found Port Jackson fertile, with plenty of water,
so he made the decision that the fleet should shift
and because the French were nearby that it must be swift.

Three days later the fleet was off like a shot,
to drop anchor in a more suitable spot,
which is known today by you and me
as Sydney Cove and Circular Quay.