HMS Sirius (1786)
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HMS Sirius was the flagship of the First Fleet, which set out from Portsmouth, England, in 1787 to establish the first European colony in New South Wales, Australia. In 1790, the ship was wrecked on the reef, south east of Kingston Pier, in Slaughter Bay, Norfolk Island.
The melancholy loss of HMS Sirius off Norfolk Island 19 March 1790, by the on-board artist George Raper, National Library of Australia
The last letter by Lapérouse, which was returned to Europe by HMS Andrew.
The HMS Sirius memorial in the Sydney suburb of Mosman.
Anchor from HMS Sirius in Sydney.
First Fleet
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The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 British ships that took the first British colonists and convicts to Australia. It comprised two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, with over 1400 people, left from Portsmouth, England and took a journey of over 24,000 kilometres (15,000 mi) and over 250 days to eventually arrive in Botany Bay, New South Wales, where a penal colony would become the first British settlement in Australia from 20 January 1788.
An engraving of the First Fleet in Botany Bay at voyage's end in 1788
Lady Penrhyn
An English Fleet in Table Bay in 1787, by Robert Dodd
The First Fleet arrives in Port Jackson, 27 January 1788, by William Bradley, an officer on HMS Sirius.