First Fleet

<p>The First Fleet were 11 British ships which transported a group of settlers to <a href="/facts/Mainland_Australia/2JNyVlCK">mainland Australia</a>, marking the beginning of the <a href="/facts/History_of_Australia_(1788%E2%80%931850)/kJXjUFXj">European colonisation of Australia</a>. It consisted of two <a href="/facts/Royal_Navy/Xdy8YCH7">Royal Navy</a> vessels, three <a href="/facts/Combat_stores_ship/tR0Mzlpk">storeships</a> and six <a href="/facts/Penal_transportation/uDQVe8v2">convict transports</a> under the command of Captain <a href="/facts/Arthur_Phillip/oHkgNrmJ">Arthur Phillip</a>. On 13 May 1787, the ships, with over 1,400 <a href="/facts/Convicts_in_Australia/qy6gdGrw">convicts</a>, <a href="/facts/New_South_Wales_Marine_Corps/mI6GynPo">marines</a>, sailors, colonial officials and free settlers onboard, left <a href="/facts/Portsmouth/JxMGK6jC">Portsmouth</a> and travelled over 24,000 kilometres (15,000 mi) and over 250 days before arriving in <a href="/facts/Botany_Bay/GvLtegp4">Botany Bay</a> on 18 January 1788. Governor Arthur Phillip rejected Botany Bay choosing instead Port Jackson, to the north, as the site for the new colony; they arrived there on 26 January 1788, establishing the <a href="/facts/Colony_of_New_South_Wales/1E3tJ03r">colony of New South Wales</a>, as a <a href="/facts/Penal_colony/63twBQ8y">penal colony</a> which would become the first British settlement in Australia.
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First Fleet open-in-new

First Fleet