Everything about Hms Sirius 1786 totally explained
See HMS Sirius
for other ships of this name.
Berwick was built by Watsons of
Rotherhithe in 1780 for the Baltic trade. She is best known under the name
HMS Sirius, as the
flagship of the
First Fleet, which set out from
England in
1787 to establish the first
European
colony in
New South Wales. She was wrecked off the coast of Norfolk Island in 1790.
Construction
There has been confusion over early history of the Berwick; a note by
Philip Gidley King, of 'East country man' was interpreted for many years as East Indies trade, yet analysis of terms of the time suggest it referred to the Baltic countries instead. It was likely built Christopher Watson and co., who also built the
Prince Of Wales, another ship of the first fleet. She had a displacement of 511 tons and after being burnt in a fire was bought and rebuilt by the Royal Navy in 1786 and renamed
Sirius, after the southern star
Sirius. It carried 16 guns. She sailed under the command of Captain
John Hunter and carried
Arthur Phillip, the Governor of the colony which was to be established. She also carried Major
Robert Ross commander of the
marines responsible for guarding the convicts in the colony. The surgeons on this ship were
George Bouchier Worgan and
Thomas Jamison. (Jamison later became the principal surgeon on Norfolk Island and eventually Surgeon-General of New South Wales.) Sirius left
Portsmouth on
13 May 1787, and arrived at
Port Jackson on
26 January 1788. She remained in the colony until
2 October 1788 when she was sent from Port Jackson to the
Cape of Good Hope to get flour and other supplies for the almost starving colony, a voyage that took over seven months.
On
19 March 1790 Sirius was wrecked on the reef at
Norfolk Island while landing stores. With the settlement still on the brink of starvation this was a major catastrophe as it left the colonists with only one ship. Her crew was stranded there until
21 February 1791 when they were rescued and eventually returned to England. Hunter returned to New South Wales as Governor from 1795 to 1799. One of the sailors,
Jacob Nagle, wrote a first hand account of the voyage and was one of the stranded crewmen.
Sirius' anchor was retrieved from the wreck site and is now mounted in Pier Museum, Kingston, Norfolk Island.
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