first fleet voyage timeline

First Fleet

Transportation to the Australian colonies began in 1788 when the First Fleet, carrying between 750 and 780 convicts plus 550 crew, soldiers and family members, landed at Sydney Cove after an eight-month voyage. Over the next 80 years, British courts sentenced more than 160,000 convicts to transportation to Australia.

Arthur Bowes Smyth (1750-1790) was the ship’s surgeon aboard the Lady Penrhyn , one of the ships in the First Fleet. In his journal, Smyth wrote of the harsh conditions aboard the Lady Penrhyn whose passengers included 101 female convicts. The names of the convicts are listed on pages 17─20 of Smyth’s journal.

Smyth, Arthur Bowes,  Journal of Arthur Bowes Smyth, 1787 March 22-1789 August,  1787,  http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-233345951

1. This is the fourth page from the journal that Arthur Bowes Smyth kept during his voyage to Australia on the Lady Penrhyn (one of the ships of the First Fleet). Share the page with your students and invite them to use ‘history detective’ skills to find the following information:

• What was the Lady Penrhyn ?
• Can you find the list of passengers? Name one of them.
• Can you find the list of marine officers and men? Name one of them.
• Can you find the list of boys? How many were there?
• Listed next to people’s names, can you find some of the jobs they did? List two of the jobs.
• The lists on this page do not include the names of most of the people on board the Lady Penrhyn . Who else might have been on board? Why might their names have been listed separately from those on this page?

Use the information the students have found to brainstorm ideas about why the First Fleet came to Australia. You may like to use the artwork Convicts Embarking for Botany Bay , painted by Thomas Rowlandson (1756─1827) in 1800, to stimulate the brainstorm.

Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827. (1800).  [Convicts embarking for Botany Bay] [picture] / T. Rowlandson . http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135232630

English artist Thomas Rowlandson depicts convicts being loaded onto a rowing boat at the beginning of a long voyage to the other side of the world. The two corpses hanging from a gibbet are a gruesome reminder of the alternative to transportation.

2. Read the following (edited) extracts from Bowes Smyth’s journal between March 1787 and January 1788 with your students.

Friday 22 March came on board the ship at the Mother-bank near Portsmouth  (page 5) Friday 20th a fine day with a fresh breeze—a large and beautiful rainbow seen this day about 8 o’clock without any rain preceding its appearance, which the seamen say is a sign of the wind. Several large dolphins seen astern which would not take the baits (page 33) Wednesday 19 a very wet day and frequent very violent squalls of wind, about 11 o’clock a.m. some person fell overboard from the Charlotte … have not learnt who fell overboard or if they were saved   (page 58) Saturday 1st December This day one of the convicts on board our ship ( Margarett Brown ) scalded her foot very bad. Tis very extraordinary how very healthy the convicts on board this ship in particular, and indeed in the fleet in general have been  (page 78) Tuesday 25 December 1787 Xmas Day We are now about two thousand miles distant from the South Cape of New Holland, or Van Diemen’s Land, or otherwise Adventure Bay, with a most noble breeze which carries us at 8½ knots per hour, which we hope will enable us to see land in about a fortnight  (page 97) 26 January … about 7 o’clock p.m. we reach the mouth of Broken Bay, Port Jackson, and sailed up into the cove where the settlement is to be made … the finest terraces lawns and grottos with distinct plantations of the tallest and most stately trees I ever saw in any noble man’s gardens in England cannot exceed in beauty those which nature now presented to our view   (page 131)

As a class, discuss what these extracts tell us. Ask your students the following questions:

• What were some of the challenges faced by the people on the First Fleet during their voyage to Australia?
• Why do you think the people on the ships were trying to bait the dolphins?
• What pleasant experiences does Bowes Smyth write about in these extracts from his journal?
• What was Bowes Smyth’s first impression of Sydney Cove?

3. The experiences of the convicts on the Lady Penrhyn would have been very different to Bowes Smyth’s experience as ship’s surgeon. Ask your students to imagine they are convicts on board the ship. Each student should write four journal entries that show what the convicts may have experienced during the voyage from Portsmouth to Sydney.

Other Treasures sources that relate to the concepts explored in this source include: Early settlement , Strange creatures

The National Library of Australia acknowledges Australia’s First Nations Peoples – the First Australians – as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of this land and gives respect to the Elders – past and present – and through them to all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

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Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this website contains a range of material which may be considered culturally sensitive including the records of people who have passed away.

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Exile or opportunity?

1788: Captain Arthur Phillip establishes a convict settlement at Sydney Cove

Colonial Australia

Indigenous Australia

Learning area

Use the following additional activities and discussion questions to encourage students (in small groups or as a whole class) to think more deeply about this defining moment.

Questions for discussion

1. What, if any, have been the long-term effects of convict transportation on Australian society?

2. Do you agree with the National Museum of Australia that the arrival of the First Fleet is a defining moment in Australian history? Explain your answer.

Image activities

1. Look carefully at all the images for this defining moment. Tell this story in pictures by placing them in whatever order you think works best. Write a short caption under each image.

2. Which 3 images do you think are the most important for telling this story? Why?

3. If you could pick only one image to represent this story, which one would you choose? Why?

Finding out more

1. What else would you like to know about this defining moment? Write a list of questions and then share these with your classmates. As a group, create a final list of 3 questions and conduct some research to find the answers.

In a snapshot

The arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in January of 1788 marked the beginning of the European colonisation of Australia. The fleet was made up of 11 ships carrying convicts from Britain to Australia. Their arrival changed forever the lives of the Eora people, the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land in the Sydney area, and began waves of convict transportation that lasted until 1868.

‘Sketch & description of the settlement at Sydney Cove Port Jackson in the County of Cumberland.’ Drawn by Francis Fowkes.

National Library of Australia, MAP NK 276

Can you find out?

1. Who were Australia’s first convicts? Why were they transported to Australia?

2. How did Governor Arthur Phillip manage the colony of New South Wales?

3. What were the main ways Aboriginal people were affected by the arrival of Phillip and the First Fleet?

Colour publication printed for the 150th Anniversary Celebrations of Australia, 1938. Captain Arthur Phillip is featured.

National Museum of Australia

Why was a convict colony set up in Australia?

Britain used transportation to distant lands as a way of getting rid of prisoners. After Britain lost its American colonies in 1783 the jails of England were full. The British decided to begin transporting prisoners to Australia, which had recently been claimed for the British Crown by Lieutenant James Cook. 

Prisoners (also known as convicts) were transported for many reasons but mainly for crimes that we might consider to be minor today, such as stealing. Convicts who were transported were usually poor, often from the large industrial cities and were mostly from England (with a large minority from Ireland and Scotland).

The First Fleet of 11 ships, commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip, set up a convict settlement at Sydney Cove (now Circular Quay) on 26 January 1788. This was the beginning of convict settlement in Australia.

A colour engraving of a family of four travelling in the Port Jackson area

Who was Australia’s first governor?

Captain Arthur Phillip was an experienced naval officer who became first governor of the colony of New South Wales. He faced many challenges in the early years of settlement. He was prepared to punish people who broke the rules, but also rewarded convicts and free settlers who behaved well.

Almost straight away, the new colony faced starvation. The first crops failed because of the lack of skilled farmers, spoilt seed brought from England, poor local soils, an unfamiliar climate and bad tools. Phillip insisted that food be shared between convicts and free settlers. The British Officers didn’t like this, nor the fact that Phillip gave land to trustworthy convicts. But both actions meant that the colony survived, and they began an attitude of fairness that is still prized in Australia today.

Research task

Research the sorts of people who travelled on the 11 ships that made up the First Fleet. How many convicts (male and female), free settlers, crew, marines, officials and children were on board?

‘A Family of New South Wales’, based on a sketch by Captain Philip Gidley King, 1793

What effect did the First Fleet have on Australia’s first peoples?

The arrival of the First Fleet immediately affected the Eora nation, the traditional Aboriginal owners of the Sydney area. Violence between settlers and the Eora people started as soon as the colony was set up. The Eora people, particularly the warrior Pemulwuy, fought the colonisers. This conflict was mainly over land and food.

Phillip was speared during a meeting with Eora at Manly in 1790, but he recovered and continued as the colony’s first governor for two more years. He returned to England in 1792 with two Indigenous men: Bennelong, who later returned to Australia, and Yemmerrawannie, who died in England.

Thousands of Eora people died as a result of European diseases like smallpox.

The founding of Australia by Capt. Arthur Phillip R.N. Sydney Cove, Jan. 26th 1788 , by Algernon Talmage, 1937

This map attempts to represent the language, social or nation groups of Aboriginal Australia. It shows only the general locations of larger groupings of people which may include clans, dialects or individual languages in a group. It used published resources from 1988-1994 and is not intended to be exact, nor the boundaries fixed. It is not suitable for native title or other land claims.

The First Fleet entering Port Jackson, January 26, 1788 , by E Le Bihan, drawn in 1888

Captain Arthur Phillip, painted by Francis Wheatley

Port Jackson Harbour , by John Eyre and engraved by Walter Preston, 1812

Convict leg irons

An engraving believed to be the only known depiction of Pemulwuy

Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, FL3141725

David R Horton (creator), AIATSIS, 1996. No reproduction without permission. To purchase a print version visit: www.aiatsis.ashop.com.au/

State Library of New South Wales FL3268277

Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales a928087

Convict love token, 1792

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

State Library of New South Wales Q80/18

What were the long-term effects of the First Fleet?

The First Fleet was the beginning of convict transportation to Australia and was followed by many other fleets of convict ships. When this ended in 1868, over 150,000 convicts had been transported to New South Wales and other Australian colonies. Most convicts stayed in Australia after serving their sentences, and some became well-known, important people within the Australian colonies.

Convict settlement continued to have devastating effects on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the decades after 1788. Thousands died in conflicts with settlers and from diseases, and many more suffered from the loss of cultural traditions and languages.

Read a longer version of this Defining Moment on the National Museum of Australia’s website . 

What did you learn?

Related resources, australian journey episode 06: captivity narratives, 1.2 convicts sent to australia: ‘when prisoners walked the land’, convict punishment, collection highlights: convict love tokens.

Convict transportation peaks

Convict transportation ends

HISTORIC ARTICLE

May 13, 1787 ce: 'first fleet' sets sail for australia.

On May 13, 1787, the “First Fleet” of military leaders, sailors, and convicts set sail from Portsmouth, England, to found the first European colony in Australia, Botany Bay.

Geography, Social Studies, World History

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On May 13, 1787, a group of over 1,400 people in 11 ships set sail from Portsmouth, England. Their destination was a vaguely described bay in the continent of Australia, newly discovered to Europeans. In a stunning feat of planning and navigation , nearly all of the voyagers survived and arrived in Botany Bay several months later.

A wide variety of people made up this legendary “First Fleet .” Military and government officials, along with their wives and children, led the group. Sailors, cooks, masons, and other workers hoped to establish new lives in the new colony .

Perhaps most famously, the First Fleet included more than 700 convicts . The settlement at Botany Bay was intended to be a penal colony . The convicts of the First Fleet included both men and women. Most were British, but a few were American, French, and even African. Their crimes ranged from theft to assault. Most convicts were sentenced to seven years’ “transportation” (the term for the sending of prisoners to a usually far-off penal colony ).

The First Fleet departed from Portsmouth, then briefly docked in the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. The ships then crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where they took on huge stores of supplies. Then the fleet sailed back across the Atlantic to Cape Town, South Africa, where they took on even more food, including livestock . The main portion of the journey was across the entire Indian Ocean, from Cape Town to Botany Bay —they traveled about 24,000 kilometers (15,000 miles) throughout the entire journey.

Botany Bay was not as hospitable as the group had hoped. The bay was shallow, there was not a large supply of freshwater, and the land was not fertile . Nearby, however, officers of the First Fleet discovered a beautiful harbor with all those qualities. They named it after the British Home Secretary, Lord Sydney. The day the First Fleet discovered Sydney Harbor is celebrated as Australia’s national holiday , Australia Day.

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October 19, 2023

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First Fleet Fellowship Victoria Inc

Descendants of those who arrived with the First Fleet in 1788 with Captain Arthur Phillip

October 15, 2011 by Cheryl Timbury

How one London newspaper recorded history

Government is now about settling a colony in New Holland, in the Indian seas; and the Commissioners of the Navy are now advertising for 1500 ton of transports.  This settlement is to be formed at Botany Bay, on the west side of the island, where Captain Cook refreshed and staid for some time on his voyage in 1770.

As he first sailed around that side of the island. he called it New South Wales, and the two Capes at the mouth of the river were called by the names of Banks and Solander.

There are 680 men felons and 70 women felons to go, and they are to be guarded by 12 marines and a corporal in every transport, containing 150 felons.  There are several men of war and some frigates to go, but they all come back, but one or two of each, which are to remain there for some time to assist in establishing a garrison of 300 men intended to be left there.

The whole equipment, army, navy and felons, are to be landed with two years’ provisions, and all forms of implements for the culture of the earth, and hunting and fishing, and some light buildings are to be run up immediately till a proper fort and town-house are erected.  This place is nearly in the same latitude with the Cape of Good Hope, and about eight months’ voyage from land.

– The Daily Universal Register September 14, 1786

Chronology of the First Fleet 1776                       The American War of Independence begins.  The former American colonies refuse to accept British convicts 1781-2                     Two attempts to establish a convict colony in West Africa end in disaster with most of the convicts dying from disease or privation or escaping. 1783 August           Peace with America prompts the despatch of the Swift transport.  The convicts mutiny in the Channel and many escape at Rye, Sussex.  The remainder are sent on to Maryland. 1784 March             Mercury sails for America with 179 convicts.  A mutiny again takes place, and many escape at Torbay, Devon.  Those remaining on board are sent on to America and eventually landed on the Mosquito coast in Central America after being rejected by the newly Independent United States. 1776 August 18       Lord Sydney writes to the Treasury requesting the provision of ships to carry convicts to New South Wales.

Australia First Day Cover 6 August 1986 – New South Wales the decision to settle – stamps feature King George 111, Lord Sydney, Captain Arthur Phillip, Captain John Hunter (C Timbury collection)

1787 January 6         The first group of convicts are embarked on Alexander at Woolwich, London. 1787 May 13             The First Fleet sails from Portsmouth, Hampshire. 1787 June 3              Arrival at Madeira.  Water and fresh supplies taken on board. 1787 July 14              Fleet crosses equator. 1787 August 6           Arrival at Rio de Janiero.  Fleet undergoes repairs, takes on fresh water and supplies. 1787 September 4    Fleet departs Rio. 1787 October 14       Arrival at Cape of Good Hope.  Fresh supplies and livestock taken on board. 1787 November 12    Departs from the Cape (Table Bay). 1787 November 25    Captain Phillip divides the Fleet and sails ahead with the four fastest ships. 1787 December 25     Christmas Day Aboard Prince of Wales Being Christmas day, Latd 42 degrees 16.  Longd. 105 degrees 00 East, Wind Fair, Weather Heasey, Dinned off a pice of pork and apple Sauce a pice of Beef and plum pudding, and Crowned the Day with four bottles of Rum, Which was the Best.  Wee Vitr’ens Could Afford      James Scott Seargeant of Marines 1788 January 3           Coast of Van Diemans Land (Tasmania) sighted. 1788 January 18/19    The first division of the Fleet anchors at Botany Bay.

The First Fleet Entering Botany Bay

1788 January 20         The remainder of the Fleet arrives.

1788 January 26       All Fleet ships anchor in Sydney Cove, Port Jackson.  Captain Phillip and officers go ashore, raise the flag, and toast the new colony.  Two French ships commanded by La Perouse enter Botany Bay.

Route of First Fleet taken off ‘School Project – The First Fleet and Early Sydney 1788-1810’ School Projects can be purchased through Saleable items

1788 February 15        Supply  sails for Norfolk Island carrying a small party to establish a settlement. 1788 March 10              The La Perouse expedition leaves Botany Bay. 1788 May 5/ 6                 Charlotte, Lady Penrhyn and Scarborough sail for China. 1788 July 14                  Borrowdale, Alexander, Friendship and Prince of Wales sail for England. 1788 October 2              Golden Grove sails for Norfolk Island with a party of convicts, returning to Port Jackson. 1788 November 10        Sirius sails for Cape of Good Hope for supplies. 1788 November 19        Fishburn and Golden Grove sail for England.  Only Supply now remains. 1789 December 23        HMS Guardian carrying stores for the colony strikes an iceberg and is forced back to the Cape.  It never reaches New South Wales. 1790 March 19                Sirius wrecked off Norfolk Island. 1790 April 17                   Supply sent to Batavia, Java, for emergency food supplies. 1790 June 3                     Lady Juliana, which left England in July 1789, arrives only three weeks before the Second Fleet ships, saving the colony from starvation and bringing orders for the recall of the marines to be replaced by soldiers of the NSW corps. 1791 March 28                 Waaksamheld sails for England carrying the crew of Sirius. 1791 August/October      The Third Fleet arrives. 1791 December 18          HMS Gorgon sails for England carrying many First Fleet marines home to England. 1792 December 11           Atlantic sails for England carrying Governor Phillip and the remaining First Fleet marines who had chosen not to stay in the colony.

Captain Phillip’s first sight of  Port Jackson in Spy Sloop

Source: Gillen, Mollie The Founder of Australia – A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet , Libary of Australian History, Sydney 1989

Australian Settlers Monuments In Old Portsmouth on the walkway by the sea wall at the junction of Broad Street and High Street near Square Tower.. 

First Fleet memorial Portsmouth (Bruce Hunter)

First Fleet Memorial Portsmouth (Bruce Hunter) Its twin is located in Sydney

Memorial Bonds of Friendship was unveiled by The Queen on 11 July 1980.  The block of granite was quarried in NSW and given by the Citizens of Australia.

A twin monument was unveiled at Circular Quay, Sydney Australia, in 1980 as part of the Bicentenary Celebrations.  The memorial was later moved to Loftus Street Sydney

  Bicentenary Links, Loftus Street Sydney NSW (C Timbury)

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THE FIRST FLEET, BOTANY BAY AND THE BRITISH PENAL COLONY

The First Fleet of 11 ships, each one no larger than a Manly ferry, left Portsmouth in 1787 with more than 1480 men, women and children onboard. Although most were British, there were also African, American and French convicts. After a voyage of three months the First Fleet arrived at Botany Bay on 24 January 1788. Here the Aboriginal people, who had lived in isolation for 40,000 years, met the British in an uneasy stand off at what is now known as Frenchmans Beach at La Perouse.

On 26 January two French frigates of the Lapérouse expedition sailed into Botany Bay as the British were relocating to Sydney Cove in Port Jackson. The isolation of the Aboriginal people in Australia had finished. European Australia was established in a simple ceremony at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788.

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First Fleet convicts

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Key to library resources

The First Fleet, consisting of 11 vessels, was the largest single contingent of ships to sail into the Pacific Ocean. Its purpose was to find a convict settlement on the east coast of Australia, at Botany Bay.

The First Fleet sailed from England on 13 May 1787 and arrived at Botany Bay eight months later, 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.

The number of convicts transported in the First Fleet is unclear; there were between 750-780 convicts and around 550 crew, soldiers and family members.

Reference Flannery, T 1999,  The birth of Sydney , Text Publishing, Melbourne.

Ships of the First Fleet

• Golden Grove
• Lady Penrhyn
• Prince of Wales
• Scarborough
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First Fleet facts for kids

The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 British ships that brought the first British colonists and convicts to Australia. It was made up of 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 ( convicts , marines, sailors , civil officers and free settlers), 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.

Convict transports

Golden grove, preparing the fleet, leaving portsmouth, arrival in australia, first contact, after january 1788, last survivors, commemoration garden, first fleet park.

Lord Sandwich , together with the President of the Royal Society , Sir Joseph Banks , the eminent scientist who had accompanied Lieutenant James Cook on his 1770 voyage , was advocating establishment of a British colony in Botany Bay , New South Wales . Banks accepted an offer of assistance from the American Loyalist James Matra in July 1783. Under Banks's guidance, he rapidly produced "A Proposal for Establishing a Settlement in New South Wales" (24 August 1783), with a fully developed set of reasons for a colony composed of American Loyalists, Chinese and South Sea Islanders (but not convicts). The decision to establish a colony in Australia was made by Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney , Secretary of State for the Home Office. This was taken for two reasons: the ending of transportation of criminals to North America following the American Revolution , as well as the need for a base in the Pacific to counter French expansion .

In September 1786, Captain Arthur Phillip was appointed Commodore of the fleet, which came to be known as the First Fleet, which was to transport the convicts and soldiers to establish a colony at Botany Bay. Upon arrival there, Phillip was to assume the powers of Captain General and Governor in Chief of the new colony . A subsidiary colony was to be founded on Norfolk Island , as recommended by Sir John Call and Sir George Young, to take advantage for naval purposes of that island's native flax ( harakeke ) and timber.

The cost to Britain of outfitting and dispatching the Fleet was £84,000 (about £9.6 million, or $19.6 million as of 2015).

Royal Naval escort

On 25 October 1786 the 10-gun HMS  Sirius , lying in the dock at Deptford, was commissioned, and the command given to Phillip. The armed tender HMS  Supply under command of Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball was also commissioned to join the expedition. On 15 December, Captain John Hunter was assigned as second captain to Sirius to command in the absence of Phillip, whose presence, it was to be supposed, would be requisite at all times wherever the seat of government in that country might be fixed.

Sirius was Phillip’s flagship for the fleet. She had been converted from the merchantman Berwick , built in 1780 for Baltic trade. She was a 520 ton, sixth-rate vessel, originally armed with ten guns, four six-pounders and six carronades, Phillip had ten more guns placed aboard.

Supply was designed in 1759 by shipwright Thomas Slade, as a yard craft for the ferrying of naval supplies. Measuring 170 tons, she had two masts, and was fitted with four small 3-pounder cannons and six 1 ⁄ 2 -pounder swivel guns. Her armament was substantially increased in 1786 with the addition of four 12-pounder carronades.

Food and supply transports

Ropes, crockery , agricultural equipment and a miscellany of other stores were needed. Items transported included tools, agricultural implements, seeds, spirits, medical supplies, bandages, surgical instruments, handcuffs, leg irons and a prefabricated wooden frame for the colony's first Government House. The party had to rely on its own provisions to survive until it could make use of local materials, assuming suitable supplies existed, and grow its own food and raise livestock.

The reverend Richard Johnson, chaplain for the colony, travelled on the Golden Grove with his wife and servants.

Scale models of all the ships are on display at the Museum of Sydney . The models were built by ship makers Lynne and Laurie Hadley, after researching the original plans, drawings and British archives. The replicas of Supply , Charlotte , Scarborough , Friendship , Prince of Wales , Lady Penrhyn , Borrowdale , Alexander , Sirius , Fishburn and Golden Grove are made from Western Red or Syrian Cedar.

Nine Sydney harbour ferries built in the mid-1980s are named after First Fleet vessels. The unused names are Lady Penrhyn and Prince of Wales .

The majority of the people travelling with the fleet were convicts, all having been tried and convicted in Great Britain , almost all of them in England. Many are known to have come to England from other parts of Great Britain and, especially, from Ireland; at least 14 are known to have come from the British colonies in North America; 12 are identified as black (born in Britain, Africa, the West Indies, North America, India or a European country or its colony). The convicts had committed a variety of crimes, including theft, perjury, fraud, assault, robbery, for which they had variously been sentenced to death, which was then commuted to penal transportation for 7 years, 14 years, or the term of their natural life.

Four companies of marines volunteered for service in the colony, these marines made up the New South Wales Marine Corps, under the command of Major Robert Ross , a detachment on board every convict transport. The families of marines also made the voyage.

A number of people on the First Fleet kept diaries and journals of their experiences, including the surgeons, sailors, officers, soldiers, and ordinary seamen. There are at least eleven known manuscript Journals of the First Fleet in existence as well as some letters.

The exact number of people directly associated with the First Fleet will likely never be established, as accounts of the event vary slightly. A total of 1,420 people have been identified as embarking on the First Fleet in 1787, and 1,373 are believed to have landed at Sydney Cove in January 1788. In her biographical dictionary of the First Fleet, Mollie Gillen gives the following statistics:

While the names of all crew members of Sirius and Supply are known, the six transports and three store ships may have carried as many as 110 more seamen than have been identified – no complete musters have survived for these ships. The total number of persons embarking on the First Fleet would, therefore, be approximately 1,530 with about 1,483 reaching Sydney Cove.

According to the first census of 1788 as reported by Governor Phillip to Lord Sydney, the non-indigenous population of the colony was 1,030 and the colony also consisted of 7 horses, 29 sheep, 74 swine, 6 rabbits, and 7 cattle.

The following statistics were provided by Governor Phillip:

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.

Notable members of First Fleet

• Captain Arthur Phillip , R.N, Governor of New South Wales
• Major Robert Ross , Lieutenant Governor and commander of the marines
• Captain David Collins , Judge Advocate
• Augustus Alt, Surveyor
• John White , Principal Surgeon
• William Balmain, assistant Surgeon
• Richard Johnson, chaplain
• Lieutenant George Johnston
• Captain Watkin Tench
• Lieutenant William Dawes
• Lieutenant Ralph Clark
• Captain John Hunter, commander of HMS Sirius
• Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, commander of HMS Supply
• Lieutenant William Bradley, 1st lieutenant of HMS Sirius
• Lieutenant Philip Gidley King , commandant of Norfolk Island
• Arthur Bowes Smyth , ship’s surgeon on Lady Penrhyn
• Lieutenant John Shortland, Agent for Transports
• John Shortland , son of above, 2nd mate of HMS Sirius
• Thomas Barrett, first person executed in colony
• Mary Bryant, with her husband, children and 6 other convicts escaped the colony and eventually returned to England
• John Caesar , bushranger
• Matthew Everingham, a 'profligate person', attorney's clerk. First person to come ashore, first man married in NSW and Father of the first child born in NSW, later explored Blue Mountains.
• Henry Kable, businessman
• James Martin, was part of the escape with Mary Bryant, wrote autobiography
• James Ruse , farmer, one of the only ones in the colony at its establishment
• Robert Sidaway, baker, opened the first theatre in Sydney
• James Squire, brewer
• Frances Williams , first Welsh woman to settle in Australia

In September 1786 Captain Arthur Phillip was chosen to lead the expedition to establish a colony in New South Wales . On 15 December, Captain John Hunter, was appointed Phillip’s second. By now HMS  Sirius had been nominated as flagship, with Hunter holding command. The armed tender HMS  Supply under command of Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball had also joined the fleet.

With Phillip in London awaiting Royal Assent for the bill of management of the colony, the loading and provisioning of the transports was carried out by Lieutenant John Shortland, the agent for transports.

On 16 March 1787, the fleet began to assemble at its appointed rendezvous, the Mother Bank , Isle of Wight . His Majesty's frigate Sirius and armed tender Supply , three store-ships, Golden Grove , Fishburn and Borrowdale , for carrying provisions and stores for two years; and lastly, six transports; Scarborough and Lady Penrhyn , from Portsmouth ; Friendship and Charlotte , from Plymouth ; Prince of Wales , and Alexander , from Woolwich . On 9 May Captain Phillip arrived in Portsmouth, the next day coming aboard the ships and give orders to prepare the fleet for departure.

Phillip first tried to get the fleet to sail on 10 May, but a dispute by sailors of the Fishburn about pay, they refused to leave until resolved. The fleet finally left Portsmouth, England on 13 May 1787. The journey began with fine weather, and thus the convicts were allowed on deck. The Fleet was accompanied by the armed frigate HMS  Hyaena until it left English waters. On 20 May 1787, one convict on Scarborough reported a planned mutiny; those allegedly involved were flogged and two were transferred to Prince of Wales . In general, however, most accounts of the voyage agree that the convicts were well behaved. On 3 June 1787, the fleet anchored at Santa Cruz at Tenerife . Here, fresh water, vegetables and meat were brought on board. Phillip and the chief officers were entertained by the local governor, while one convict tried unsuccessfully to escape. On 10 June they set sail to cross the Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro , taking advantage of favourable trade winds and ocean currents.

The weather became increasingly hot and humid as the Fleet sailed through the tropics. Vermin, such as rats, and parasites such as bedbugs, lice , cockroaches and fleas, tormented the convicts, officers and marines. Bilges became foul and the smell, especially below the closed hatches, was over-powering. While Phillip gave orders that the bilge-water was to be pumped out daily and the bilges cleaned, these orders were not followed on Alexander and a number of convicts fell sick and died. Tropical rainstorms meant that the convicts could not exercise on deck as they had no change of clothes and no method of drying wet clothing. Consequently, they were kept below in the foul, cramped holds. In the doldrums , Phillip was forced to ration the water to three pints a day.

The Fleet reached Rio de Janeiro on 5 August and stayed for a month. The ships were cleaned and water taken on board, repairs were made, and Phillip ordered large quantities of food. The women convicts' clothing had become infested with lice and was burnt. As additional clothing for the female convicts had not arrived before the Fleet left England, the women were issued with new clothes made from rice sacks. While the convicts remained below deck, the officers explored the city and were entertained by its inhabitants. A convict and a marine were punished for passing forged quarter-dollars made from old buckles and pewter spoons.

The Fleet left Rio de Janeiro on 4 September to run before the westerlies to the Table Bay in southern Africa, which it reached on 13 October. This was the last port of call, so the main task was to stock up on plants, seeds and livestock for their arrival in Australia. The livestock taken on board from Cape Town destined for the new colony included two bulls, seven cows, one stallion, three mares, 44 sheep, 32 pigs, four goats and "a very large quantity of poultry of every kind". Women convicts on Friendship were moved to other transports to make room for livestock purchased there. The convicts were provided with fresh beef and mutton, bread and vegetables, to build up their strength for the journey and maintain their health. The Dutch colony of Cape Town was the last outpost of European settlement which the fleet members would see for years, perhaps for the rest of their lives. "Before them stretched the awesome, lonely void of the Indian and Southern Oceans, and beyond that lay nothing they could imagine."

Assisted by the gales in the " Roaring Forties " latitudes below the 40th parallel, the heavily laden transports surged through the violent seas. In the last two months of the voyage, the Fleet faced challenging conditions, spending some days becalmed and on others covering significant distances; Friendship travelled 166 miles one day, while a seaman was blown from Prince of Wales at night and drowned. Water was rationed as supplies ran low, and the supply of other goods including wine ran out altogether on some vessels. Van Diemen's Land was sighted from Friendship on 4 January 1788. A freak storm struck as they began to head north around the island, damaging the sails and masts of some of the ships.

On 25 November, Phillip had transferred to Supply . With Alexander , Friendship and Scarborough , the fastest ships in the Fleet, which were carrying most of the male convicts, Supply hastened ahead to prepare for the arrival of the rest. Phillip intended to select a suitable location, find good water, clear the ground, and perhaps even have some huts and other structures built before the others arrived. This was a planned move, discussed by the Home Office and the Admiralty prior to the Fleet's departure. However, this "flying squadron" reached Botany Bay only hours before the rest of the Fleet, so no preparatory work was possible. Supply reached Botany Bay on 18 January 1788; the three fastest transports in the advance group arrived on 19 January; slower ships, including Sirius , arrived on 20 January.

This was one of the world's greatest sea voyages – eleven vessels carrying about 1,487 people and stores had travelled for 252 days for more than 15,000 miles (24,000 km) without losing a ship. Forty-eight people died on the journey, a death rate of just over three percent.

It was soon realised that Botany Bay did not live up to the glowing account that the explorer Captain James Cook had provided. The bay was open and unprotected, the water was too shallow to allow the ships to anchor close to the shore, fresh water was scarce, and the soil was poor. First contact was made with the local indigenous people, the Eora , who seemed curious but suspicious of the newcomers. The area was studded with enormously strong trees. When the convicts tried to cut them down, their tools broke and the tree trunks had to be blasted out of the ground with gunpowder. The primitive huts built for the officers and officials quickly collapsed in rainstorms. The marines had a habit of not guarding the convicts properly, whilst their commander, Major Robert Ross , drove Phillip to despair with his arrogant and lazy attitude. Crucially, Phillip worried that his fledgling colony was exposed to attack from those described as "Aborigines" or from foreign powers. Although his initial instructions were to establish the colony at Botany Bay, he was authorised to establish the colony elsewhere if necessary.

On 21 January, Phillip and a party which included John Hunter, departed the Bay in three small boats to explore other bays to the north. Phillip discovered that Port Jackson , about 12 kilometres to the north, was an excellent site for a colony with sheltered anchorages, fresh water and fertile soil. Cook had seen and named the harbour, but had not entered it. Phillip's impressions of the harbour were recorded in a letter he sent to England later: "the finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in the most perfect security ...". The party returned to Botany Bay on 23 January.

On the morning of 24 January, the party was startled when two French ships, the Astrolabe and the Boussole , were seen just outside Botany Bay. This was a scientific expedition led by Jean-François de La Pérouse . The French had expected to find a thriving colony where they could repair ships and restock supplies, not a newly arrived fleet of convicts considerably more poorly provisioned than themselves. There was some cordial contact between the French and British officers, but Phillip and La Pérouse never met. The French ships remained until 10 March before setting sail on their return voyage. They were not seen again and were later discovered to have been shipwrecked off the coast of Vanikoro in the present-day Solomon Islands .

On 26 January 1788, the Fleet weighed anchor and sailed to Port Jackson . The site selected for the anchorage had deep water close to the shore, was sheltered, and had a small stream flowing into it. Phillip named it Sydney Cove , after Lord Sydney , the British Home Secretary . This date is celebrated as Australia Day , marking the beginning of British settlement. Contrary to popular belief, the British flag was not officially planted until 7 February 1788 when possession was formally proclaimed. There was, as always, a British naval ensign erected at the site of the military encampment, and this had been performed on the evening of 25 January 1788 in a small ceremony conducted by Phillip and some officers and marines from Supply , with the remainder of Supply ' s crew and the convicts observing from on board ship. The remaining ships of the Fleet did not arrive at Sydney Cove until later that day.

The First Fleet encountered Indigenous Australians when they landed at Botany Bay . The Cadigal people of the Botany Bay area witnessed the Fleet arrive and six days later the two ships of French explorer La Pérouse , the Astrolabe and the Boussole , sailed into the bay. When the Fleet moved to Sydney Cove seeking better conditions for establishing the colony, they encountered the Eora people, including the Bidjigal clan. A number of the First Fleet journals record encounters with Aboriginal people.

Although the official policy of the British Government was to establish friendly relations with Aboriginal people, and Arthur Phillip ordered that the Aboriginal people should be well treated, it was not long before conflict began . The colonists did not sign treaties with the original inhabitants of the land. Between 1790 and 1810, Pemulwuy of the Bidjigal clan led the local people in a series of attacks against the colonists.

The ships of the First Fleet mostly did not remain in the colony. Some returned to England, while others left for other ports. Some remained at the service of the Governor of the colony for some months: some of these were sent to Norfolk Island where a second penal colony was established.

• 15 February – HMS Supply sails for Norfolk Island carrying a small party to establish a settlement.
• 5/6 May – Charlotte , Lady Penrhyn and Scarborough set sail for China.
• 14 July – Borrowdale , Alexander , Friendship and Prince of Wales set sail to return to England.
• 2 October – Golden Grove sets sail for Norfolk Island with a party of convicts, returning to Port Jackson 10 November, while HMS Sirius sails for Cape of Good Hope for supplies.
• 19 November – Fishburn and Golden Grove set sail for England. This means that only HMS Supply now remains in Sydney cove.
• 23 December – HMS  Guardian carrying stores for the colony strikes an iceberg and is forced back to the Cape. It never reaches the colony in New South Wales.
• 19 March – HMS Sirius is wrecked off Norfolk Island.
• 17 April – HMS Supply sent to Batavia, Dutch East Indies, for emergency food supplies.
• 3 June – Lady Juliana , the first of six vessels of the Second Fleet , arrives in Sydney cove. The remaining five vessels of the Second Fleet arrive in the ensuing weeks.
• 19 September – HMS Supply returns to Sydney having chartered the Dutch vessel Waaksamheyd to accompany it carrying stores.

On Sat 26 January 1842 The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser reported "The Government has ordered a pension of one shilling per diem to be paid to the survivors of those who came by the first vessel into the Colony. The number of these really 'old hands' is now reduced to three, of whom, two are now in the Benevolent Asylum, and the other is a fine hale old fellow, who can do a day's work with more spirit than many of the young fellows lately arrived in the Colony." The names of the three recipients were not given, and is academic as the notice turned out to be false, not having been authorised by the Governor. There were at least 25 persons still living who had arrived with the First Fleet, including several children born on the voyage. A number of these contacted the authorities to arrange their pension and all received a similar reply to the following received by John McCarty on 14 Mar 1842 "I am directed by His Excellency the Governor to inform you, that the paragraph which appeared in the Sydney Gazette relative to an allowance to the persons of the first expedition to New South Wales was not authorised by His Excellency nor has he any knowledge of such an allowance as that alluded to". E. Deas Thomson, Colonial Secretary.

Following is a list of persons known to be living at the time the pension notice was published, in order of their date of death. At this time New South Wales included the whole Eastern seaboard of present day Australia except for Van Diemen's Land which was declared a separate colony in 1825 and achieved self governing status in 1855-6. This list does not include marines or convicts who returned to England after completing their term in NSW and who may have lived past January 1842.

• Rachel Earley: (or Hirley), convict per Friendship and Prince of Wales died 27 April 1842 at Kangaroo Point, VDL (said to be aged 75).
• Roger Twyfield: convict per Friendship died 30 April 1842 at Windsor, aged 98 (NSW reg as Twifield).
• Thomas Chipp: marine private per Friendship died 3 July 1842, buried Parramatta, aged 81 (NSW Reg age 93).
• Anthony Rope: convict per Alexander died 20 April 1843 at Castlereagh NSW, aged 84 (NSW Reg age 89).
• William Hubbard: Hubbard was convicted in the Kingston Assizes in Surrey, England, on 24 March 1784 for theft. He was transported to Australia on Scarborough in the First Fleet. He married Mary Goulding on 19 December 1790 in Rose Hill. In 1803 he received a land grant of 70 acres at Mulgrave Place. He died on 18 May 1843 at the Sydney Benevolent Asylum. His age was given as 76 when he was buried at Christ Church St. Lawrence, Sydney on 22 May 1843.
• Thomas Jones: convict per Alexander died October 1843 in NSW, aged 87.
• John Griffiths: marine private per Friendship who died 5 May 1844 at Hobart, aged 86.
• Benjamin Cusely: marine private per Friendship died 20 June 1845 at Windsor/Wilberforce, aged 86 (said to be 98).
• Henry Kable: convict per Friendship died 16 March 1846 at Windsor, aged 84.
• John McCarty: McCarty was a marine private who sailed on Friendship . McCarty claimed to have been born in Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland, circa Christmas 1745. He first served in the colony of New South Wales, then at Norfolk Island where he took up a land grant of 60 acres (Lot 71). He married first fleet convict Ann Beardsley on Norfolk Island in November 1791 after his marine discharge a month earlier. In 1808, at the impending closure of the Norfolk Island settlement, he resettled in Van Diemen's Land later taking a land grant (80 acres at Herdsman's Cove Melville) in lieu of the one forfeited on Norfolk Island. The last few years of his life were spent at the home of Mr. William H. Budd, at the Kinlochewe Inn near Donnybrook, Victoria. McCarty was buried on local land 24 July 1846, six months past his 100 birthday, although this is very likely an exaggerated age.
• John Alexander Herbert: convict per Scarborough died 19 November 1846 at Westbury Van Diemen's Land, aged 79.
• Robert Nunn: convict per Scarborough died 20 November 1846 at Richmond, aged 86.
• John Howard: convict per Scarborough died 1 January 1847 at Sydney Benevolent Asylum, aged 94.
• John Limeburner: The South Australian Register reported, in an article dated Wednesday 3 November 1847: "John Limeburner, the oldest colonist in Sydney, died in September last, at the advanced age of 104 years. He helped to pitch the first tent in Sydney, and remembered the first display of the British flag there, which was hoisted on a swamp oak-tree, then growing on a spot now occupied as the Water-Police Court. He was the last of those called the 'first-fleeters' (arrivals by the first convict ships) and, notwithstanding his great age, retained his faculties to the last." John Limeburner was a convict on Charlotte . He was convicted on 9 July 1785 at New Sarum, Wiltshire of theft of a waistcoat, a shirt and stockings. He married Elizabeth Ireland in 1790 at Rosehill and together they establish a 50-acre farm at Prospect. He died at Ashfield 4 September 1847 and is buried at St John's, Ashfield, death reg. as Linburner aged 104.
• John Jones: Jones was a marine private on the First Fleet and sailed on Alexander . He is listed in the N.S.W. 1828 Census as aged 82 and living at the Sydney Benevolent Asylum. He is said to have died at the Benevolent Asylum in 1848.
• Jane/Jenny Rose: (nee Jones), child of convict Elizabeth Evans per Lady Penrhyn died 29 August 1849 at Wollongong, aged 71.
• Samuel King: King was a scribbler (a worker in a scribbling mill) before he became a marine. He was a marine with the First Fleet on board Sirius  (1786) . He shipped to Norfolk Island on Golden Grove in September 1788, where he lived with Mary Rolt, a convict who arrived with the First Fleet on Prince of Wales . He received a grant of 60 acres (Lot No. 13) at Cascade Stream in 1791. Mary Rolt returned to England on Britannia in October 1796. King was resettled in Van Diemen's Land, boarding City of Edinburgh on 3 September 1808, and landed in Hobart on 3 October. He married Elizabeth Thackery on 28 January 1810. He died on 21 October 1849 at 86 years of age and was buried in the Wesleyan cemetery at Lawitta Road, Back River.
• Mary Stevens: (nee Phillips), convict per Charlotte and Prince of Wales died 22 January 1850 at Longford Van Diemen's Land, aged 81.
• John Small: Convicted 14 March 1785 at the Devon Lent Assizes held at Exeter for Robbery King's Highway. Sentenced to hang, reprieved to 7 years' transportation. Arrived on Charlotte in First Fleet 1788. Certificate of freedom 1792. Land Grant 1794, 30 acre "Small's Farm" at Eastern Farms (Ryde). Married October 1788 Mary Parker also a First Fleet convict who arrived on Lady Penrhyn . John Small died on 2 October 1850 aged 90 years.
• Edward Smith: aka Beckford, convict per Scarborough died 2 June 1851 at Balmain, aged 92.
• Ann Forbes: (m.Huxley), convict per Prince of Wales died 29 December 1851, Lower Portland NSW, aged 83.
• Henry Kable Jnr: aka Holmes, b. 1786 in Norwich Castle prison, son of convict Susannah Holmes per Friendship and Charlotte , died 13 May 1852 at Picton, New South Wales aged 66.
• Lydia Munro: (m.Goodwin) per Prince of Wales died 29 June 1856 at Hobart, reg as Letitia Goodwin, aged 85.
• Elizabeth Thackery: Elizabeth "Betty" King (née Thackery) was tried and convicted of theft on 4 May 1786 at Manchester Quarter Sessions, and sentenced to seven years' transportation. She sailed on Friendship , but was transferred to Charlotte at the Cape of Good Hope. She was shipped to Norfolk Island on Sirius  (1786) in 1790 and lived there with James Dodding. In August 1800 she bought 10 acres of land from Samuel King at Cascade Stream. Elizabeth and James were relocated to Van Diemen's Land in December 1807 but parted company sometime afterwards. On 28 January 1810 Elizabeth married "First Fleeter" Private Samuel King (above) and lived with him until his death in 1849. Betty King died in New Norfolk, Tasmania on 7 August 1856, aged 89 years. She is buried in the churchyard of the Methodist Chapel, Lawitta Road, Back River, next to her husband, and the marked grave bears a First Fleet plaque.
• John Harmsworth: marine's child b.1788 per Prince of Wales died 21 July 1860 at Clarence Plains Tasmania, aged 73 years.

Historians have disagreed over whether those aboard the First Fleet were responsible for introducing smallpox to Australia's indigenous population, and if so, whether this was the consequence of deliberate action.

In 1914, J. H. L. Cumpston, director of the Australian Quarantine Service put forward the hypothesis that smallpox arrived in Australia with First Fleet. Some researchers have argued that any such release may have been a deliberate attempt to decimate the indigenous population. Hypothetical scenarios for such an action might have included: an act of revenge by an aggrieved individual, a response to attacks by indigenous people, or part of an orchestrated assault by the New South Wales Marine Corps, intended to clear the path for colonial expansion. Seth Carus, a former Deputy Director of the National Defense University in the United States wrote in 2015 that there was a "strong circumstantial case supporting the theory that someone deliberately introduced smallpox in the Aboriginal population."

Other historians have disputed the idea that there was a deliberate release of smallpox virus and/or suggest that it arrived with visitors to Australia other than the First Fleet. It has been suggested that live smallpox virus may have been introduced accidentally when Aboriginal people came into contact with variolous matter brought by the First Fleet for use in anti-smallpox inoculations.

In 2002, historian Judy Campbell offered a further theory, that smallpox had arrived in Australia through contact with fishermen from Makassar in Indonesia, where smallpox was endemic. In 2011, Macknight stated: "The overwhelming probability must be that it [smallpox] was introduced, like the later epidemics, by [Indonesian] trepangers ... and spread across the continent to arrive in Sydney quite independently of the new settlement there."

There is a fourth theory, that the 1789 epidemic was not smallpox but chickenpox – to which indigenous Australians also had no inherited resistance – that happened to be affecting, or was carried by, members of the First Fleet. This theory has also been disputed.

After Ray Collins, a stonemason, completed years of research into the First Fleet, he sought approval from about nine councils to construct a commemorative garden in recognition of these immigrants. Liverpool Plains Shire Council was ultimately the only council to accept his offer to supply the materials and construct the garden free of charge. The site chosen was a disused caravan park on the banks of Quirindi Creek at Wallabadah, New South Wales . In September 2002 Collins commenced work on the project. Additional support was later provided by Neil McGarry in the form of some signs and the council contributed $28,000 for pathways and fencing. Collins hand-chiselled the names of all those who came to Australia on the eleven ships in 1788 on stone tablets along the garden pathways. The stories of those who arrived on the ships, their life, and first encounters with the Australian country are presented throughout the garden. On 26 January 2005, the First Fleet Garden was opened as the major memorial to the First Fleet immigrants. Previously the only other specific memorial to the First Fleeters was an obelisk at Brighton-Le-Sands, New South Wales . The surrounding area has a barbecue, tables, and amenities.

First Fleet Park is situated in The Rocks , near the site of the First Fleet's landing. The area has remained in public ownership continually since 1788, under the control of various agencies. It was previously used for a hospital, Queen's Wharf, shops and houses, the first Commissariat Store and the first post office. Archaeological remains are extant on the site dating back to the earliest days of settlement.

• James Talbot, The Thief Fleet , 2012, ISBN : 978-1-4699148-2-4
• Colleen McCullough , Morgan's Run , ISBN : 0-09-928098-1
• Timberlake Wertenbaker, Our Country's Good , ISBN : 0-413-73740-3
• Thomas Keneally , The Playmaker , ISBN : 0-340-42263-7
• William Stuart Long, The Exiles , ISBN : 978-0-8398-2824-2 (hardcover, 1984) ISBN : 978-0-440-12369-9 (paperback, 1979) ISBN : 978-0-440-12374-3 (mass market paperback, 1981)
• William Stuart Long, The Settlers , ISBN : 978-0-86824-020-6 (hardcover, 1980) ISBN : 978-0-440-15923-0 (paperback, 1980) ISBN : 978-0-440-17929-0 (mass market paperback, 1982)
• William Stuart Long, The Traitors , ISBN : 978-0-8398-2826-6 (hardcover, 1984) ISBN : 978-0-440-18131-6 (mass market paperback, 1981)
• D. Manning Richards, Destiny in Sydney: An epic novel of convicts, Aborigines, and Chinese embroiled in the birth of Sydney, Australia , ISBN : 978-0-9845410-0-3
• Marcus Clarke , For the Term of his Natural Life. Melbourne, 1874
• Australian frontier wars
• Convicts in Australia
• Convict women in Australia
• European exploration of Australia
• History of Australia (1788–1850)
• History of Indigenous Australians
• Journals of the First Fleet
• Penal transportation
• Prehistory of Australia
• Second Fleet (Australia)
• Terra nullius
• Third Fleet (Australia)
• Banished (TV series) - a short-lived 2015 dramatisation
• This page was last modified on 10 June 2024, at 09:55. Suggest an edit .

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The First Fleet and Australia’s unforgiving weather

Passengers onboard the First Fleet received a harsh introduction to their new home’s climate before they even landed. Their diaries and letters reveal just how hard it was

By Dr Joëlle Gergis, University of Melbourne

The women screamed as the huge waves crashed loudly on the wooden deck. Horrified, they watched the foaming torrent wash away their blankets. Many dropped to their knees, praying for the violent rocking to stop. The sea raged around them as the wind whipped up into a frenzy, damaging all but one of the heavily loaded ships.

The severe storm was yet another taste of the ferocious weather that slammed the First Fleet as it made its way across the Southern Ocean in December 1787. Now, after an eight-month journey from England in a ship riddled with death and disease, the passengers’ introduction to Australia was also far from idyllic.

The unforgiving weather that greeted the First Fleet was a sign of things to come. More than once, intense storms would threaten the arrival of the ships and bring the new colony close to collapse.

So how did the early arrivals to Australia deal with such extreme weather? Have we always had a volatile climate? To answer these questions, we need to follow Australia’s colonial settlers back beyond their graves and trace through centuries-old documents to uncover what the climate was like from the very beginning of European settlement.

Restoring one of the world's rarest maps

By poking around in the settlers’ old diaries, letters and newspaper clippings, we can begin to piece together an idea of what the country’s climate was like long before official weather measurements began.

When the British sailed into Australian waters, they had no idea of what awaited them. Perhaps they expected that life would resemble their other colonial outposts like India, or an undeveloped version of England. With enough hard work, surely the land could be tamed to support their needs.

But when the First Fleet sailed into Sydney Cove, they unknowingly entered an ancient landscape with an unforgiving climate.

Even before Governor Arthur Phillip set foot in Botany Bay, violent storms had battered the overcrowded ships of the First Fleet. During the final eight-week leg of the journey from Cape Town to Botany Bay, the ships had sailed into the westerly winds and tremendous swells of the Southern Ocean. Ferocious weather hit the First Fleet as it made its way through the roaring forties in November–December 1787.

Although the strong westerlies were ideal for sailing, conditions on the ships were miserable. Lieutenant Philip Gidley King described the difficult circumstances on board HMS Supply : ‘Very strong gales … with a very heavy sea running which keeps this vessel almost constantly under water and renders the situation of everyone on board her, truly uncomfortable’. Unable to surface on deck in the rough seas, the convicts remained cold and wet in the cramped holds.

Captain John Hunter described how the rough seas made life on the Sirius very difficult for the animals on board:

The rolling and labouring of our ship exceedingly distressed the cattle, which were now in a very weak state, and the great quantities of water which we shipped during the gale, very much aggravated their distress. The poor animals were frequently thrown with much violence off their legs and exceedingly bruised by their falls.

How a quest for the past found a living present

It wasn’t until the first week of January 1788 that the majority of the First Fleet sailed past the south-eastern corner of Van Diemen’s Land, modern-day Tasmania. As his boat navigated the coast, surgeon John White noted: ‘We were surprised to see, at this season of the year, some small patches of snow’.

According to Bowes Smyth, faced with a ‘greater swell than at any other period during the voyage’, many of the ships were damaged, as were seedlings needed to supply the new colony with food. Bowes Smyth continued:

The sky blackened, the wind arose and in half an hour more it blew a perfect hurricane, accompanied with thunder, lightening and rain … I never before saw a sea in such a rage, it was all over as white as snow … every other ship in the fleet except the Sirius sustained some damage … during the storm the convict women in our ship were so terrified that most of them were down on their knees at prayers.

Finally, on 19 January, the last ships of the First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay. But after just three days there, Phillip realised that the site was unfit for settlement. It had poor soil, insufficient freshwater supplies, and was exposed to strong southerly and easterly winds.

With all the cargo and 1400 starving convicts still anchored in Botany Bay, Phillip and a small party, including Hunter, quickly set off in three boats to find an alternative place to settle. Twelve kilometres to the north they found Port Jackson.

On 23 January 1788, Phillip and his party returned to Botany Bay and gave orders for the entire fleet to immediately set sail for Port Jackson. But the next morning, strong headwinds blew, preventing the ships from leaving the harbour. A huge sea rolling into the bay caused ripped sails and a lost boom as the ships drifted dangerously close to the rocky coastline. According to Lieutenant Ralph Clark:

The Irish Rising that shaped Australia

If it had not been by the greatest good luck, we should have been both on the shore [and] on the rocks, and the ships must have been all lost, and the greater part, if not the whole on board drowned, for we should have gone to pieces in less than half of an hour.

By 3 p.m. on 26 January 1788, all eleven ships of the First Fleet had safely arrived in Port Jackson. Meanwhile, while waiting for the others to arrive, Phillip and a small party from the Supply had rowed ashore and planted a Union Jack, marking the beginning of European settlement in Australia.

After such an epic journey, the whole ordeal was washed away with swigs of rum. Unknowingly, it marked the start of our rocky relationship with one of the most volatile climates on Earth.

This is an edited extract from Joelle Gergis’s Sunburnt Country: The History and Future of Climate Change in Australia , out 2 April from Melbourne University Press. RRP $34.99, Ebook $16.99, from mup.com.au and all good bookstores.

This article has been co-published with The Conversation .

Banner image: The H.M. Bark Endeavour, part of Captain Cook’s first voyage of discovery to Australia and New Zealand from 1769 to 1771, Oswald Brett

First Fleet Timeline

Leaving england.

Last Sight of England

Reaching the Canary Islands

Departing the Canary Islands

Passing Cape Verde Islands

Crossing the Equator

Islands of Rio de Janeiro in Sight

Docks at Rio de Janeiro

Departs Rio de Janeiro

Cape of Good Hope sighted

Anchors in Table Bay for supplies

Departs Table Bay

The Advance Party

Sighting Van Diemen's Land

HMS Supply arrives in Botany Bay

Entire Fleet arives at Botany Bay

Captain Phillip and Captain Hunter go to the North

Entire Fleet anchors in Port Jackson

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A timeline of the US-built Gaza pier and the challenges it’s faced

A string of security, logistical and weather problems has battered the plan to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza through  a U.S. military-built pier .

Broken apart by strong winds and heavy seas just over a week after it became operational, the project faces criticism that it hasn’t lived up to its initial billing or its  $320 million  price tag.

Military’s novel floating pier arrives in Gaza amid security concerns

The gaza aid pier is made possible by an oft-neglected but vital military capability known as joint logistics over-the-shore, or jlots..

U.S. officials say, however, that the steel causeway connected to the beach in Gaza and the floating pier  are being repaired  and reassembled at a port in southern Israel, then will be reinstalled and working again next week.

While early Pentagon estimates suggested the pier could deliver up to 150 truckloads of aid a day when in full operation,  that has yet to happen . Bad weather has hampered progress getting aid into Gaza from the pier, while the  Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah  has made it difficult, if not impossible at times, to get aid into the region by land routes.

Aid groups have had mixed reactions — both welcoming any amount of aid for starving Palestinians besieged by the nearly eight-month-old Israel-Hamas war and decrying the pier as a distraction that took pressure off Israel to open more border crossings, which are far more productive.

It’s “a side-show,” said Bob Kitchen, a top official of the International Rescue Committee.

The Biden administration has said from the start that the pier wasn’t meant to be a total solution and that any amount of aid helps.

“Nobody said at the outset that it was going to be a panacea for all the humanitarian assistance problems that still exist in Gaza,” national security spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday. “I think sometimes there’s an expectation of the U.S. military — because they’re so good — that everything that they touch is just going to turn to gold in an instant.”

“We knew going in that this was going to be tough stuff,” he added. “And it has proven to be tough stuff.”

Before the war, Gaza was getting about 500 truckloads of aid on average every day. The United States Agency for International Development says it needs a steady flow of 600 trucks a day to ease the struggle for food and bring people back from  the brink of famine .

The aid brought through the pier was enough to feed thousands for a month, but U.N. data shows it barely made a dent in the overall need of Gaza’s 2.3 million people.

Here’s a look at the timeline of the pier, the problems it faced and what may come next:

March: Announcement and prep

March 7:   President Joe Biden announces  his plan for the U.S. military to build a pier during his State of the Union address.

“Tonight, I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the coast of Gaza that can receive large shipments carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters,” he said.

But even in those first few moments, he noted the pier would increase the amount of humanitarian aid getting into Gaza but that Israel “must do its part” and let more aid in.

March 8: Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon spokesman, tells reporters it will take “up to 60 days” to deploy the forces and build the project.

March 12: Four U.S. Army boats loaded with tons of equipment and steel pier segments leave Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia and head to the Atlantic Ocean for what is expected to be a monthlong voyage to Gaza.

The brigade’s commander, Army Col. Sam Miller, warns that the transit and construction will be heavily dependent on the weather and any high seas they encounter.

Late March: U.S. Army vessels hit high seas and rough weather as they cross the Atlantic, slowing their pace.

April: Construction and hope

April 1: Seven  World Central Kitchen aid workers  are killed in an Israeli airstrike as they travel in clearly marked vehicles on a delivery mission authorized by Israel.

The strike fuels ongoing worries about security for relief workers and prompts aid agencies to pause delivery of humanitarian assistance in Gaza.

April 19: U.S. officials confirm that the U.N. World Food Program has agreed to help deliver aid brought to Gaza via the maritime route once construction is done.

April 25: Major construction of the port facility on the shore near Gaza City begins to take shape. The onshore site is where aid from the causeway will be delivered and given to aid agencies.

April 30: Satellite photos show the U.S. Navy ship USNS Roy P. Benavidez and Army vessels working on assembling the pier and causeway about 6.8 miles from the port on shore.

May: The pier opens … then closes

May 9: The U.S. vessel Sagamore is the first ship loaded with aid to leave Cyprus and head toward Gaza and ultimately the pier. An elaborate security and inspection station has been built in Cyprus to screen the aid coming from a number of countries.

May 16: Well past the 60-day target time,  the construction and assembly of the pier  off the Gaza coast and the causeway attached to the shoreline are finished after more than a week of weather and other delays.

May 17: The  first trucks carrying aid  for the Gaza Strip roll down the newly built pier and into the secure area on shore, where they will be unloaded and the cargo distributed to aid agencies for delivery by truck into Gaza.

May 18: Crowds of desperate Palestinians overrun a convoy of aid trucks coming from the pier, stripping the cargo from 11 of the 16 vehicles before they reach a U.N. warehouse for distribution.

May 19-20: The  first food from the pier  — a limited number of high-nutrition biscuits — reaches people in need in central Gaza, according to the World Food Program.

Aid organizations suspend deliveries from the pier for two days while the U.S. works with Israel to open alternate land routes from the pier and improve security.

May 24: So far, a bit more than 1,000 metric tons of aid has been delivered to Gaza via the U.S.-built pier, and USAID later says all of it has been distributed within Gaza.

May 25: High winds and heavy seas damage the pier and cause four U.S. Army vessels operating there to become beached, injuring three service members, including one who is in critical condition.

Two vessels went aground in Gaza near the base of the pier and two went aground near Ashkelon in Israel.

May 28: Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh says large portions of the causeway are being pulled from the beach and moved to an Israeli port for repairs. The base of the causeway remains at the Gaza shore.

She also says that aid in Cyprus is being loaded onto vessels and will be ready to unload onto the pier once it is back in place.

May 29: Two of the Army vessels that ran aground in the bad weather are now back at sea and the other two near the pier are being freed, with the aid of the Israeli navy.

What’s next?

In the coming days, the sections of the causeway will be put back together, and by the middle of next week will be moved back to the Gaza shore, where the causeway will once again be attached to the beach, the Pentagon says.

“When we are able to re-anchor the pier back in, you’ll be able to see that aid flow off in a pretty steady stream,” Singh said Tuesday. “We’re going to continue to operate this temporary pier for as long as we can.”

AP writer Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed.

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Russia is patrolling the Black Sea with submarines after its surface fleet got walloped, Ukraine says

Russia is using four submarines to monitor the Black Sea, a Ukrainian official told national TV.

Dmitry Pletenchuk said three were cruise missile carriers and that two "periodically" go to sea.

Russia has ramped up the pace of its subs production, with one type worrying NATO officials.

Russia has started using submarines to patrol the Black Sea after suffering major naval losses, according to a Ukrainian official.

Dmitry Pletenchuk, a spokesman for Ukraine's southern military command, made the statement on Ukrainian national television on Monday, per Ukrainska Pravda .

According to Pletenchuk, Russia is now deploying four submarines, three of which are cruise missile carriers, to patrol the Black Sea.

Russian forces "have already established practice where these submarines rotate in the morning," Pletenchuk said, per the Kyiv Independent .

He added that the submarines were operating in the Azov-Black Sea region, with two "periodically" going to sea, per the outlet.

Pletenchuk's statements came after Russia's navy suffered a series of major losses in the Black Sea.

Ukraine has deployed drones, missiles, and other weaponry to go after Russian warships, including smaller vessels like tugboats . Earlier this year, Ukraine's military claimed to have destroyed a third of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

The UK's defense ministry declared the fleet "functionally inactive" in March.

The attacks have forced Russia's fleet to seek safer ports further away from Crimea.

But even there, Russian forces have come under attack, with Ukrainian drones targeting the Novorossiysk port last month.

The Novorossiysk Fuel oil terminal and Transneft terminal were attacked on May 17, the Kyiv Independent reported, with satellite images taken on May 18 showing traces of a fire.

Pletenchuk also said that three Russian landing ships and three Buyan-M-class missile ships were now stationed in the Azov Sea, and that Russia was "building structures such as barges and background fences" to try to protect its ships.

Russia is known to have used submarines in the Black Sea, with some having suffered damages . One type — the Yasen-class submarines — has become a top concern for NATO.

Russia spent twenty years building its first Yasen-class submarine , also known as the Severodvinsk class, which entered service in 2013, but the pace has quickened since then.

Two more entered service in 2021, and a fourth was scheduled to join the fleet last November.

Five others are being built or have already been launched, BI's Christopher Woody reported in December.

The designated nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine has what looks like improved sonar and a smaller and quieter reactor than earlier models, and can also fire land-attack and anti-ship cruise missiles.

This has alarmed Western authorities, as they worry it could allow the subs to reach and target key locations in Europe and North America.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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ROTHSCHILD, Wis. (WSAW) - The United States Postal Service has notified the village of Rothschild it’s moving forward with a plan to accommodate a fleet of EVs.

Earlier this year, the Postal Service announced a plan to convert approximately 400 selected sites into sorting and delivery centers nationwide. Previously, USPS hoped to have a fleet of 66,000 electric vehicles deployed by 2028.

The site is located 400 Creske Ave. The first phase in Rothschild will include parking lot improvements, storm sewer additions and electrical trenching. A timeline wasn’t provided in the village board agenda packet on Monday night.

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Mechanical problem behind 12-day delay for 1st voyage of Marine Atlantic's new ferry

3,600 affected ala'suinu passengers will be rebooked on additional routes on other vessels.

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Marine Atlantic says a problem with its new ferry has pushed back the date of its first voyage nearly two weeks.

Last week, Marine Atlantic announced a mechanical error with the lubrication system had been found during a review of the vessel.

Captain Anderson Noel, Marine Atlantic's director of fleet operations, said Thursday the Ala'suinu — which had been scheduled to begin its Argentia-North Sydney run on June 14 — will have its inaugural voyage on June 26.

Noel said the problem isn't one he had expected.

"This one's a little outside of what we would normally anticipate when we look at similar vessel constructions and projects over time," Noel told reporters Thursday at a news conference.

"We are adapting to it as we move forward. It doesn't appear that it is as significant as what we would have first first realized when we start looking at the equipment itself."

Noel said they expected some issues to pop up when the new vessel arrived and had scheduled time for a "debugging" process. But bringing the ship to Canada took longer than expected, he said, cutting into the time they had to correct any problems.

The vessel is currently tied up in North Sydney, he said.

3,600 impacted passengers

Colin Tibbo, Marine Atlantic's vice-president of customer experience, said about 3,600 passengers who were booked on the Ala'suinu will be rebooked on other routes.

He said the Crown ferry corporation will be adding 13 routes on other ferries to get affected passengers to their destinations and cut down on port times.

"Every cancelled sailing on Argentia will be replaced with a new sailing on the Gulf route," said Tibbo.

Employees are equipped for the additional crossings, he added.

"Our crew, our terminal staff, our employees, they're really dedicated and they understand the importance of our customers," Tibbo said.

"They understand the importance of moving traffic as efficiently as possible and they are committed."

• New Marine Atlantic ferry Ala'suinu will soon set sail for Atlantic Canada
• Start date for Marine Atlantic's new ferry in jeopardy after review finds mechanical issue

In compensation, he said. each affected adult and senior passenger are getting $200 vouchers that can be spent on travel and meals with Marine Atlantic. Children will get $100.

The Ala'suinu is owned by Swedish company Stena North Sea, which built the ferry in China. Marine Atlantic is leasing the vessel for five years, after which it will determine whether it wants to purchase the ferry.

Noel said the lubrication problem is covered under warranty. He did not provide an estimate on how Marine Atlantic will be financially impacted by the delay.

"Our focus right now is solely on fixing the issue. It's not about costing out the issue itself. This is a ship warranty issue, a new ship warranty issue, for us."

Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Click here to visit our landing page .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elizabeth Whitten is a journalist and editor based in St. John's.

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Australia's aerial firefighting fleet set to expand to help respond to natural disasters

Australia's aerial firefighting fleet is being expanded to include planes that can respond not just to fires but to other disasters, such as floods and major storms.

It comes as longer and overlapping fire seasons are placing greater pressure on the country's existing fleet.

The recent federal budget included an extra $35 million to source more multi-use aircraft, while a national audit is underway to ensure Australia has the capacity to meet building demand.

National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) deputy coordinator general Joe Buffone said recent fire seasons had shown the demand for more versatile aircraft.

"The key focus is to broaden the fleet so that it's multi-use," Mr Buffone said.

"This means aircraft will be able to be changed around so they can do evacuation, resupply, support remote communities and help other emergencies way beyond just fire."

NEMA is working with the states and territories and the National Aerial Firefighting Centre (NAFC) to determine the best aircraft to fill the gap.

Mr Buffone said this should also lessen the need for the Australian Defence Force to step in during disasters.

Aircraft in increasing demand

"There are some pressures on the system — we've got the northern hemisphere [fire season] that quite often overlaps with the southern hemisphere, so there's more demand on aircraft," he said.

"We're trying to make sure that we can actually have aircraft for aerial firefighting and for other emergencies, for longer periods of time as well."

Australia has about 162 aircraft contracted under the NAFC of which about 133 are Australian owned and registered.

That includes several large air tankers, 15 rotary wing helicopters that can carry up to 11,000 litres of retardant, along with a mix of smaller aircraft.

SA's fleet grows

Country Fire Service state aviation operations manager Nik Stanley said South Australia deployed its largest-ever aerial fleet last summer.

"We had 31 aircraft for this season and we have that number for the next four seasons to come," Mr Stanley said.

"We are continuously evaluating our fleet every year … looking at the capabilities that we have available, are they still suitable for us moving forward, and then also looking at what's emerging nationally and internationally with different airframe types".

SA's fleet included a helicopter dubbed the "multi-mission machine", which features a side basket capable of carrying extra equipment and a bucket for water drops.

"We just don't look at firefighting aircraft as in dropping water, but we also look at them for the other capabilities that they're able to do," he said.

"We can use that multi-machine machine in many different ways, just not fire-bombing with water."

International fire season overlap

Mr Stanley agreed competition for vital aerial resources between the northern and southern hemispheres was an increasing challenge.

"In the past, it used to be just those very large air tankers that were in North America and Europe, and then that would come down to Australia for our summer," he said.

"We're now seeing our fixed wing bomber more and more so from Australian companies going over to Europe at this time.

"So as our season extends longer, there's less time for maintenance for the contractors to get their aircraft ready to deploy over to Europe or North America.

"And then conversely, once the season finishes in the northern hemisphere, they've got to get them back so they're ready for us to commence contract when our season starts."

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The Mayday Call: How One Death at Sea Transformed a Fishing Fleet

The opioid epidemic has made a dangerous job even more deadly. And when there’s an overdose at sea, fishermen have to take care of one another.

Hollis Nevells aboard the Karen Nicole, a fishing vessel based in Massachusetts whose owner adopted a Narcan training program because of rising opioid overdoses in the industry. Credit... David Guttenfelder for The New York Times

Supported by

By C.J. Chivers

C.J. Chivers is a staff writer for the magazine. He reported from fishing ports in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey for several months.

• June 6, 2024

The call from the Atlantic Ocean sounded over VHF radio on a midsummer afternoon. “Mayday, mayday, mayday,” the transmission began, then addressed the nearest U.S. Coast Guard command center. “Sector Delaware Bay, this is the vessel Jersey Pride. Come in.”

Listen to this article, read by James Patrick Cronin

About 40 miles east-southeast of Barnegat Light, N.J., the Jersey Pride, a 116-foot fishing vessel with a distinctive royal blue hull, was towing a harvesting dredge through clam beds 20 fathoms down when its crew found a deckhand unresponsive in a bunk. The captain suspected an overdose. After trying to revive the man, he rushed to the radio. “Yes, Coast Guard, uh, I just tried to wake a guy up and he’s got black blood in his nose,” he said, sounding short of breath on Channel 16, the international hailing and distress frequency for vessels at sea. “I got guys working on him. Come in.”

The seas were gentle, the air hot. In cramped crew quarters in the forepeak, the deckhand, Brian Murphy, was warm but not breathing in a black tee and jeans. He had no discernible pulse. Dark fluid stained his nostrils. A marine welder and father of four, Murphy, 40, had been mostly unemployed for months, spending time caring for his children while his wife worked nights. A few days earlier, while he was on a brief welding gig to repair the Jersey Pride at its dock, the captain groused about being short-handed. Murphy agreed to fill in. Now it was July 20, 2021, the third day of the first commercial fishing trip of his life. Another somber sequence in the opioid epidemic was nearing its end.

“Captain,” a Coast Guard petty officer asked, “is there CPR in progress?”

“Yes, there is,” the captain replied.

About 17 miles to the Jersey Pride’s southeast, the fishing vessel Karen Nicole was hauling back its two scallop dredges and preparing to swing aboard its catch. Through the low rumble of the 78-foot boat’s diesel engine and the high whine of its winches, the mate, Hollis Nevells, listened to the conversation crackling over a wheelhouse radio. Nevells had lost a brother-in-law and about 15 peers to fatal overdoses. When the Jersey Pride’s captain broadcast details of his imperiled deckhand — “His last name is Murphy,” he said — Nevells understood what he heard in human terms. That’s someone’s son or brother, he thought.

Nevells knew the inventory of his own vessel’s trauma kit. It contained bandages, tape, tourniquets, splints, analgesics and balms, but no Narcan, the opioid antidote. Without it, there was little to do beyond hope the Jersey Pride’s captain would announce that the other deckhands successfully revived their co-worker. Only then, Nevells knew, would the Coast Guard send a helicopter.

Murphy remained without vital signs. His pupils, the captain told the Coast Guard, had dilated to “the size of the iris.” The Jersey Pride swung its bow shoreward toward the Manasquan River, where medical examiners would meet the boat at its dock. Another commercial fisherman was gone.

Since the opioid crisis hit the United States in the late 1990s, no community has been spared. First with prescription painkillers, then with heroin after tighter prescription rules pushed people dependent on opioids to underground markets, and more recently with illicitly manufactured fentanyl and its many analogues, the epidemic has killed roughly 800,000 people by overdose since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With fatalities averaging more than 80,000 a year for three years running, it is the nation’s leading cause of accidental death.

The death toll includes victims from all walks of life, but multiple studies illuminate how fatalities cluster along occupational lines. A 2022 report by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health noted that employees in fishing, forestry, agriculture and hunting had the highest rates of all industries, closely followed by workers in construction trades. The news affirmed what was visible on these jobs. Federal data had long established that such workers — at risk from falls, equipment mishaps or drowning — were the most likely to die in workplace accidents in the United States. Now opioids stalked their ranks disproportionately, too.

In fishing fleets, the reasons are many and clear. First is the grueling nature of the job. “The fishing industry and the relationship to substance use is the story of pain, mental and physical pain, and the lack of access to support,” says J.J. Bartlett, president and founder of Fishing Partnership Support Services, a nonprofit that provides free safety training to fishing communities in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic.

The risk is also rooted in how fishery employment is organized. Crew members on fishing vessels are typically independent contractors paid a fraction of the profit (a “share,” in industry jargon) after each trip. They generally lack benefits or support common to full-time employment on land, including health insurance, paid sick time and access to human-resource departments or unions. Physical conditions factor in, too. Offshore fishing boats tend to operate ceaselessly. Captains divide crew work into long, overlapping watches that offer little sleep and require arduous labor on slick, pitching decks, sometimes in extreme weather. The work can assume an ultramarathon character. When a valuable catch is running, as squid do in summer south of Nantucket, many boats will fill holds or freezers over several days, return to port to offload, then immediately take on food, fuel and ice and head back out, a practice known as “turn and burn” that can leave crews haggard. Stress, pain and injuries are inherent in such circumstances, including common musculoskeletal injuries and, on scallop vessels, an unusual and excruciating affliction known as “the grip” — caused by constant shucking — that can make hands curl and seize up for days. No matter the suffering, deckhands are expected to keep pace. Those who can are rewarded with checks, sometimes large checks, and respect, an intangible more elusive than wealth. Those who can’t are not invited back.

Its hardships notwithstanding, the industry is a reservoir of human drive and ocean-roaming talent, providing good wages and meaningful work to the independent-minded, the rugged, the nomadic and the traditionally inclined, along with immigrants and people with criminal records or powerful allergies to the stultifying confines of office life. On the water, pedigree and background checks mean little. Reputation is all. In this way, the vessels preserve a professional culture as old as human civilization and bring to shore immense amounts of healthful food, for which everyone is paid by the pound, not by the hour.

Taken together, these circumstances pressure deckhands to work through fatigue, ailments and injuries. One means is via stimulants or painkillers, or both, making it no surprise that in the fentanyl era fishing crews suffer rates of fatal overdose up to five times that of the general population. “This is an unaddressed public-health crisis,” Bartlett says, “for workers without a safety net.”

Commercial fishing in the United States also operates in a gap in the legal framework governing other industries running vessels at sea. The federal regulations mandating drug-testing for mariners on vessels in commercial service — including ferries, tugs and cargo ships as well as research and charter boats — exempt all fishing boats except the very largest. Some companies screen anyhow. But with no legal requirement, captains and crews are generally tested only after a serious incident, like a sinking, collision or death on deck. Toxicology tests are also performed on fishermen’s corpses, when the authorities manage to recover them. “We always find out too late,” says Jason D. Neubauer, deputy chief of the Coast Guard’s Office of Investigations & Casualty Analysis. One of Neubauer’s uncles, a lumberjack, was addicted to heroin for decades. “I take this personally every time I see a mariner dying from drugs,” he says, “because I have seen the struggle.”

None of these employment factors are new. Working fishermen have always faced pain, exhaustion and incentives to work through both. (A weeklong trip aboard a scalloper, among the most remunerative fishing jobs, can pay $10,000 or more — a check no deckhand wants to miss.) Heroin, cocaine and amphetamines were common in ports a generation ago. Veteran captains say drug use was much more widespread then, before smaller catch limits and tighter regulations forced the industry to trim fleets and sometimes the size of crews. Contraction, employers say, compelled vessels to hire more selectively, reducing the presence of illicit drugs.

If use is down, potency is up. Much of the increased danger is because of fentanyl, which the Drug Enforcement Administration considers 50 times stronger than heroin. Fentanyl suppresses respiration and can kill quickly, challenging the industry’s spirit of self-reliance. When offshore, laboring between heaving seas and endless sky, fishermen cook for themselves, repair damaged equipment themselves and rely on one another for first aid. Everything depends on a few sets of able hands. Barring calamity, there exists no expectation of further help. The ethos — simultaneously celebrated and unsettling — is largely the same over the horizon off the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts, in fisheries bringing billions of pounds of seafood to consumers each year. When the severity of an ailment or injury is beyond what crews can manage alone, a baked-in math restricts access to trauma care. Fishing vessels routinely operate eight hours or more from land, putting employees in circumstances utterly different from those of most workers in the United States, where response times for E.M.T.s are measured in minutes. The Coast Guard runs a highly regarded search-and-rescue service, but when a vessel’s location is remote or a storm howling, Coast Guard aircraft might require hours to arrive. Urgency does not eliminate distance and weather. A fentanyl overdose can kill in minutes, a timeline no Coast Guard asset can beat.

As the epidemic has claimed crew member after crew member, the death toll has been behind a push to bring harm-reduction strategies out onto the ocean. Chief among them are efforts to train crews to identify and treat an overdose and a push to saturate fleets with naloxone, the opioid antagonist, commonly administered as a nasal spray under the trade name Narcan, that can reverse overdoses and retrieve a fading patient from a mortal slide. The initiatives have made some inroads. But in a proud industry where names are made on punishing work and high-seas savvy, naloxone distribution has also faced resistance from vessel owners or captains concerned about the message carrying Narcan might send. Where proponents have succeeded, they have done so in part by demonstrating that harm reduction isn’t an abdication of fishermen’s responsibility — but a natural extension of it.

Before venturing into commercial fishing, Brian Murphy endured a run of difficult years. He separated from his wife in 2015 and moved to Florida, where he found, then lost, employment before running low on cash during the pandemic. He returned in late 2020 to his wife’s home in Vineland, reuniting their children with both parents and putting himself within an hour or so of commercial fishing docks along the shore. He hoped to find work welding for the fleet as he co-parented and put his life in order. “He was getting there,” his wife, Christina, says. “All he needed was a job.”

The deckhand position looked like the break he sought. It paid roughly $1,000 for three days at sea. The captain, Rodney Bart, seemed more than accommodating. Though he lived about 70 miles away, he agreed to pick up Murphy before the trip. Murphy told his wife he might put his wages toward a car, which could help him find a land job. Christina had reservations. She had heard stories of captains’ working crews past exhaustion and tolerating drugs on board. But she understood that her husband needed work. The back of his neck bore a small tattoo of the letter M adorned with a crown. “King Murph,” he called himself. He longed for that old stride.

What his family did not know was that the Jersey Pride, a boat that formerly enjoyed an excellent reputation, was in decline. Its hull and bulkheads were thick with rust. Its big gray-bearded captain, Bart, struggled with addiction to opioids and meth. A friend warned Murphy the vessel was “bad news,” says Murphy’s father, Brian Haferl. Murphy took the job anyhow.

On July 17, 2021, the evening before Murphy departed, he stayed up playing Call of Duty with a younger brother, Doug Haferl. Christina worked the night shift at a trucking firm. She returned home in the darkness and gave Brian a bag of bedding and clean clothes. When Bart showed up before dawn, Murphy dipped into the bedroom to say goodbye. Christina shared what cash she had — about $15 — to put toward cigarettes. “I didn’t have much else to give him,” she says. Then her husband left, off to make a check.

For two days Christina wondered how Brian was doing and whether he was getting sleep. I hope that blanket was enough, she thought. On the third day, a friend from a boatyard called. He said that Murphy was unconscious on the boat and that the Coast Guard might be flying out to help. Christina chose hope. “I figured they’d probably get the helicopter out there and revive him,” she says. About a half-hour later, a Coast Guard captain arrived at her home to inform her Brian was dead.

The captain shared what investigators gleaned at the dock: Murphy hurt his back, was pacing back and forth and had been in an argument with another deckhand. He got into a bunk to rest, and was soon found lifeless. “They just said he was acting really weird,” she says. The Coast Guard captain also said a small plastic bag had been found with him that appeared to contain drug residue. Christina was suspicious. Her husband had no money to buy drugs, and though he occasionally used Percocet pills and meth in the past, had not been using since returning home.

The same night, a police officer called Murphy’s father to notify him. Haferl was enraged. He told the officer that someone on the vessel must have given his son drugs and that he was heading to the dock with a rifle. “The guys on that boat better duck,” he said. The officer advised against this. If he caused a disturbance boatside, Haferl recalls him saying, “We’re going to be fishing you out of the river.”

Haferl could not rush to the Jersey Pride anyhow. Fishermen are paid by what they catch. Once medical examiners took custody of Murphy’s body, the vessel slipped back out the inlet to continue clamming. Murphy had boarded the boat with a duffel from home. He was carried off in jeans, socks and a T-shirt. Not even his shoes came back. When the Jersey Pride completed its trip, his family started calling Bart, the captain, seeking answers and Brian’s personal effects. Bart did not return calls. Neither did the owner, Doug Stocker. Eventually, Christina said, the friend from the boatyard dropped off her husband’s wallet and a phone. Both were sealed in plastic bags. Silence draped over the case. “No one was telling anyone anything,” Murphy’s father said.

Stocker, the Jersey Pride’s owner, relieved Bart of his position in fall 2021, then died that December. Bart died in 2023. Murphy’s family learned little beyond the contents of the autopsy report from the Ocean County Medical Examiner’s office. Its toxicology results were definitive. They showed the presence of fentanyl, methamphetamine and the animal tranquilizer xylazine in Murphy’s cardiac blood, leading the examiner to rule his death a result of “acute toxic effects” of three drugs. (Xylazine is another recent adulterant in black-market drug supplies.)

The report also revealed a surprise: Murphy’s blood contained traces of naloxone. Why he died nonetheless raised more unanswered questions. There were possible explanations. The crew may have administered naloxone perimortem, at the moment of death, too late to save his life but in time to show up in his blood. Alternately, the fentanyl may have been too potent for the amount of naloxone on board and failed to revive Murphy at all. A more disturbing possibility, which suggested a potential lapse in training, was that after Murphy received Narcan, Bart opted to let him rest and recover, and either the naloxone wore off or the other drugs proved lethal without intervention.

The last possibility was both maddening to consider and hard to fathom, given Bart’s personal experience with the sorrows of the epidemic. His adult daughter, Maureen, became dependent on prescription painkillers after a hip injury, completed rehab and relapsed fatally in 2018. Wracked with grief, Bart, who in 2017 completed an outpatient detox program for his own addiction, resumed use, one relative said. In March 2018 he overdosed aboard the Jersey Pride while it was alongside an Atlantic City dock. Narcan saved the captain that day. His pain deepened. His son, Rodney Bart Jr., followed him into clamming as a teenager and rose to become a mate on another clamming vessel, the John N. In 2020, about a year before Murphy died, Bart’s son fatally overdosed on fentanyl and heroin while towing a dredge off the Jersey Shore.

A federal wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Rodney Jr.’s family in early 2023 sketched a work force in addiction’s grip. It claimed that for more than six months before Rodney Jr.’s overdose, he complained that “the entire crew including the captain were using heroin during fishing operations”; that the captain supplied heroin to the crew, including to Rodney Jr.; that another crew member almost died by overdose on board in 2019; that Rodney Jr. nearly stepped on a needle on the boat; and that he saw “the captain nodded out” in the wheelhouse several times. Immediately after Rodney Jr.’s death, the suit claimed, the captain discussed with the crew “fabricating a story to the United States Coast Guard that decedent had died at the dock.” That night, the suit claimed, the captain falsely told the authorities that Rodney Jr. suffered a heart attack.

The parties settled early this year for an undisclosed sum. In telephone interviews, an owner of the vessel, John Kelleher, said he had zero tolerance for drug use and was not aware his crew was injecting heroin. After the death, he said, “I fired everybody that was on that boat.” Kelleher’s vessels now carry Narcan, though he was ambivalent about its presence. “It says it’s OK to have a heroin addict on the boat?” he asked. “I don’t want to promote that on the boat. We owe millions of dollars to the bank. You can’t have crews out there to catch clams driving around in circles.”

Hours after Murphy died, the Karen Nicole’s mate, Hollis Nevells, used a satellite phone to call his wife, Stacy Alexander-Nevells, in Fairhaven, Mass. The Karen Nicole is part of a large family-run enterprise in greater New Bedford, the most lucrative fishing port in the United States. Alexander-Nevells, a daughter of the business’s founder, grew up in commercial fishing. She sensed something was wrong. “Is everyone OK?” she asked.

“I just heard someone die on the radio,” Nevells said. “It was so close, so close, and I couldn’t help.”

Hearing strain in his voice, Alexander-Nevells was swept with pain. Her brother Warren Jr., a shore worker in the family business, died of a prescription-opioid overdose in 2009. She lived quietly in that shadow. Thinking of Murphy’s fellow crew members, and of other boats listening as the captain publicly broadcast Murphy’s deathbed symptoms, she felt an inner wall fall. “That was the first time I started processing how far-reaching one death could be, especially a preventable one,” she says. “For days I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

In a conversation with a girlfriend, her friend mentioned Narcan. Alexander-Nevells knew of the drug, but thought of it as something administered only by emergency medical workers. That was no longer true. In 2018 Massachusetts authorized pharmacies to dispense Narcan without a prescription to opioid users, their families and “persons in a position to assist individuals at risk of experiencing an opioid-related overdose.” The Alexander fleet, employing more than 100 people in a high-risk industry, qualified. (Last year the Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan for over-the-counter sales, removing more barriers to distribution.) Had the Karen Nicole carried naloxone, Alexander-Nevells thought, Murphy might still be alive. Still she balked. She realized she knew almost nothing about the drug. “I didn’t know dose,” she says. “I didn’t know how to use it.”

All around the harbor there were signs of need. For as long as any commercial fisherman could remember, greater New Bedford suffered from widespread substance use. Before recent pockets of shoreline gentrification appeared, some of the city’s former bars, notably the National Club, were the stuff of coastal legend. Older fishermen say there was little in the 1990s like the National during nor’easters and hurricanes, when scores of boats lashed together in port, rain and gales blasted the streets and crews rode out the weather at the bar. Booze flowed. Drugs were easy to find. And fishermen between trips often had wads of cash. “We were basically pirates back then,” one older scalloper says. “The way we lived, the way we fished. It was a free-for-all.” The scalloper, later incarcerated in Maine for heroin possession, says he stopped using opioids before fentanyl tainted the heroin supply. “I got out just in time,” he says. “It’s the only reason I’m still alive.” (His girlfriend’s son, a young fisherman, overdosed fatally the week before; to protect his household’s privacy, he asked that his name be withheld.) Capt. Clint Prindle, who commands the Coast Guard sector in southeastern New England, also recalls the era. As a young officer he was stationed in New Bedford on the cutter Campbell. The tour, he says, “was the only time in my career I was issued puncture-resistant gloves” — a precaution against loose syringes on fishing vessels.

For all these stories, the fishing industry was hardly the sole driver of the city’s underground trade, and drug use there remains widespread independent of the fleet. An investigation by The New Bedford Light, a nonprofit news site, found that one in every 1,250 city residents died of an overdose in 2022, more than twice the rate statewide. (Nationally, about one in 4,070 people died of opioid overdoses in 2022.) The report also found that about one out of eight New Bedford residents had enrolled in drug- or alcohol-addiction treatment since 2012. Such data aligns with the experience of Tyler Miranda, a scallop-vessel captain who grew up in the city. “The people who had money were drug dealers or fishermen,” he says. “When I was young, I knew a few fishermen, but most of my friends were in the other business.” These conditions helped make overdoses part of the local medical routine, prompting the city, with help from organizations like Fishing Partnership, to distribute free Narcan.

The movement has still not been fully embraced. A survey of commercial fishing captains published last year in The American Journal of Industrial Medicine suggested that skepticism about stocking Narcan persisted. Of 61 captains, 10 had undergone naloxone training, and only five said their vessels carried the drug. The survey’s data ended in 2020, and Fishing Partnership says the numbers have risen. Since 2016, the partnership’s opioid-education and Narcan-distribution program has trained about 2,500 people in the industry from Maine to North Carolina, about 80 percent of them in the last three years, says Dan Orchard, the partnership’s executive vice president. But with resistance lingering, Alexander-Nevells was unsure whether she could get Narcan on her family’s fleet. That would depend on her father, Warren J. Alexander.

Alexander is a tall, reserved man with neatly combed white hair who entered commercial fishing in the 1960s at age 13 by packing herring on weekends at Cape May. As a young man he lobstered, potted sea bass and worked on trawlers and clammers before setting out on his own with the purchase of a decades-old wooden schooner. The boat sank near Cape May while returning in a storm; Alexander tells the story of hearing its propeller still turning as he treaded water above the descending hull. Undeterred, he gambled big, having steel clamming vessels built in shipyards in the Gulf of Mexico and bringing them north. By the 1990s he was one of New Jersey’s most successful clam harvesters, and odds were good that any can of clam chowder in the United States contained shellfish scraped from the sea floor by an Alexander dredge. He moved the business to New England in 1993, weathering two more sinkings and a pair of fatal accidents as it continued to grow. In the ensuing years, he left clamming and largely switched to scalloping, and now owns more than 20 steel vessels, which he watches over from a waterfront warehouse, greeting captains and crews with the soft-spoken self-assurance of a man who has seen it all.

His daughter knew him as more than a fleet manager. He was a father who lost his son, Warren Jr., to opioids. He lived the torturous contours of the epidemic firsthand. She pitched her idea with shared loss in mind. Warren listened and ruled. “I’m not going to mandate it,” he said. “But if you can get captains to agree to it, you can give it a try.”

The Fishing Partnership’s program to put naloxone on boats and provide crews with overdose first-aid training began after Debra Kelsey, a community health worker, met a grieving fisherman at an event of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association in 2015. The man’s son fatally overdosed about six months before. “He told me his ex-wife had been instrumental in getting Narcan into the hands of the police in Quincy, where he was from,” she says. Kelsey was intrigued — first by the lifesaving value of naloxone, but also by who was trained and designated to carry it.

She lived with a fisherman. She knew the industry and admired its inviolable code: Out on the ocean, fishing boats rushed to help each other. Whether flooding, fire or medical emergency, they came to one another’s aid, and in many cases were first on the scene. “In a mayday call,” she says, “a fishing vessel will often get there before the Coast Guard.” In the particular conditions of work on the water, fishermen functioned as first responders. Kelsey wondered if this ancient trait could be harnessed to save lives in new ways. Naloxone dispensers felt like a suddenly necessary component in vessel safety kits — just like fire extinguishers and throwable lifesaving rings.

In 2017, in part at her urging, Fishing Partnership introduced overdose education and naloxone distribution into the free first-aid classes it offered to captains and crews. Buoyed by a federal grant to New Bedford, the program expanded in 2019 and found an ally in the Coast Guard, which often hosted the partnership’s training sessions at its stations in fishing ports. Its officers echoed Kelsey’s view that naloxone dispensers had become essential onboard equipment.

Naloxone still faced barriers, often from fishermen themselves. Many captains insisted that they forbade illicit drugs and that carrying naloxone functioned as a hypocritical wink, a suggestion that drugs were allowed. Stigma, too, played a role. “People were like, ‘These fishermen are drunks, they’re addicts, they’re living the wild life,’” Kelsey says. She disagreed — addiction isn’t a moral failure, she’d say, it’s a disease — and pressed her message. Stocking naloxone did not mean condoning drug use. It meant a vessel was more fully aligned with the mariner’s code.

Stigma was not the only obstacle. Fear played a role as well. The Coast Guard, for all its support, is a complicated harm-reduction partner. It operates as both a rescue and law-enforcement agency, which leaves many fishermen with a split-screen perception of the organization — appreciating the former role while bristling at the latter. Worries about inviting police action on a boat already dealing with a crew member down make some captains reluctant to report drug-related medical issues, says Captain Prindle, the service’s sector commander. “Often we’ll get a case where the master of a vessel reports they have a cardiac issue or shortness of breath or anxiety issues,” he says. “They leave out the opioids piece.”

Upon returning to the region in 2021, Prindle began attending the partnership’s Narcan training sessions, at which he assured attendees that if they made a mayday call for an overdose, Coast Guard teams would focus on saving a mariner’s life, not on searching for contraband. His message aligned with the experience of service members who patrol the waters. “I don’t think any of us on this boat, when we have an opioid overdose to deal with, want to arrest anybody,” says Petty Officer Third Class Justus Christopher, who runs a 47-foot motor lifeboat out of Martha’s Vineyard. Christopher recalls a vessel with a deckhand in withdrawal. “We got a call that a guy was afraid for his life, and it was a guy dopesick in his bunk,” he says. Other crew members, seething that the deckhand stopped working for his share, were hazing him. Someone defecated in his hat, Christopher said, and smeared Icy Hot in his bedding. The boarding team removed the man. “It never went through our minds to search the boat for drugs,” Christopher said.

With naloxone now available, converts to harm reduction are becoming plentiful around ports. Nuno Lemos, 50, a deckhand in his eighth year of abstinence, moved to New Bedford from Portugal as a teenager. While in high school he did his first commercial trip, working on a trawler and earning $1,200 in five days. On some boats back then, he said, captains dispensed stimulants and painkillers as performance enhancers. His use grew heavy. Between fishing trips, he smoked crack for days, then snorted heroin to come down. “Chasing the dragon,” he says. The habit consumed his income, so he supplemented wages by pinching cash from fellow deckhands’ wallets and hiding fish and scallops under ice below deck, then retrieving the stolen product at the dock for black-market wholesalers. His professional reputation plummeted. He spiraled at home too. Lemos had a son with a woman also battling addiction. In no condition to raise their child, they both lost access to the boy. Her parents took over his care. “I was selfish and self-centered,” he says. “The drugs ran the show.”

In 2016, Lemos hit bottom. He walked off a fishing boat that was laid up in Provincetown during a storm and binge-drank for hours, then burglarized a home to fund a bus ride back to New Bedford. That afternoon he took refuge in the unfinished basement of a bakery and injected what he thought was heroin. He collapsed. His mother, who rented an apartment upstairs, summoned paramedics, who reversed the overdose with naloxone. Lemos shrugged off his brush with death. “I was in the hospital for a few hours, and I got high right after,” he says. But the experience left its impression. He got his hands on Narcan and kept two other people alive. One was a fisherman named Mario, the other “a kid on Rivet Street,” he says, whom he barely knew. Later that year, ashamed and worried he would die without knowing his son, he checked into rehab. Months later he resumed work, first hanging drywall, then back on scalloper decks. As his sobriety lasted, he reunited with his son. His praise of naloxone now borders on liturgy. “Narcan is a God-given thing that should be part of everybody’s training, especially in the business that I am in,” he says. “It’s a pivotal tool of survival that should be on every boat.”

Another fisherman, Justin Souza, 38, started fishing at age 20 and soon was taking opioid pills to manage pain. He moved to heroin when OxyContin became scarce on the streets. When fentanyl entered underground markets, he says, it started killing his friends, ultimately claiming about 20 people he knew, a half-dozen of them fishermen. His first encounter with naloxone was jarringly personal: He was in an apartment with a friend who slipped into unconsciousness and was gargling for breath. “My buddy was dying, and I had a bag of drugs,” he said. “It was either call 911 or my buddy is dead. So I called 911, hid the stuff, and they came and hit him with Narcan.” The man survived. Souza was arrested on an unrelated possession charge in 2017. In jail he changed course. “I cried out to Jesus,” he said, “and he showed up.”

Upon release he entered treatment and has been abstinent since, for which he credits God. Reliable again, Souza was hired by Tyler Miranda, captain of the scallop vessel Mirage, who promoted him to engineer, the crew member responsible for maintaining the boat’s winches and power plant. The Mirage’s crew is a testament to the power of redemption. Once addicted to opioids himself, Miranda has abstained since 2017. He became captain two years into his sobriety, and stocked naloxone onboard shortly after.

Eight days after Brian Murphy died, Kelsey and a co-worker showed up at the Ocean Wave, one of Alexander’s scallopers, to train its crew. The instructors mixed demonstrations on how to administer Narcan — one spray into one nostril, the second into the other — with assurances that the drug was harmless if used on someone suffering a condition other than overdose. The training carried another message, which was not intuitive: Merely administering Narcan was not enough. Multiple dispensers were sometimes required to restore a patient’s breathing, and this was true even if a patient resumed seemingly normal respiration. If the opioids were particularly potent, a patient might backslide as the antagonist wore off. Patients in respiratory distress also often suffered “polysubstance overdoses,” like fentanyl mixed with other drugs, including cocaine, amphetamines or xylazine. Alcohol might be involved, too. With so many variables, anyone revived with naloxone should be rushed to professional care. In an overdose at sea, they said, a victim’s peers should make a mayday call, so the Coast Guard could hurry the patient to a hospital.

After the partnership trained two more Alexander crews, Warren heard positive feedback from his captains. He issued his judgment. “Now it’s mandatory,” he said. Within weeks of the Jersey Pride’s mayday call, Narcan distribution and training became permanent elements of the company’s operation. Alexander-Nevells credits Murphy. He spent about 72 hours as a commercial fisherman, died on the job and left a legacy. “He changed my dad’s fleet,” she says. “I know for a fact that without Brian Murphy, this program doesn’t exist.”

In New Jersey, where Murphy’s family suffered the agonies of sudden, unexpected loss, followed by the humiliation of being ghosted by those who knew what happened to him aboard the Jersey Pride, the changes to the Alexander fleet came as welcome news. His brother, Doug Haferl, recalls his sibling with warmth and gratitude. Their parents divorced when the kids were young, and their father worked long hours as a crane operator. Brian assumed the role of father figure. “He took me and my brother Tom under his wing,” he says. The thought that Brian’s death helped put naloxone on boats and might one day save a life, he says, “is about the best thing I could hope for.”

Deckhands and captains come and go. Naloxone dispensers expire. To keep the fleet current, Alexander-Nevells booked refresher training throughout 2023 and into 2024. At one class, Kelsey met the Karen Nicole’s captain and five-person crew. The group gathered in the galley. Everyone present had lost friends. Kelsey recited symptoms. “If someone overdoses,” she said, “they will make a noise — ”

“It’s a gargle,” said Myles Jones, a deckhand. “I know what it is.”

He stood by a freezer, a compact, muscular man in a white sleeveless tee. “I’ve lost a son,” he said. The room fell still.

“I’m sorry,” Kelsey said. She stepped across the galley and wrapped him in a hug. Jones managed a pained smile. “I lost an uncle, too,” he said.

Kelsey continued the class, then examined the Narcan aboard to ensure it had not expired. The boat headed to sea.

In the wheelhouse, the mate, Hollis Nevells, said that Narcan fit a mentality fishing jobs require. He shared a story of a drunk fisherman who crashed a house party years ago in his hometown on Deer Isle, Maine. To prevent him from driving his pickup truck, other guests took his keys and stashed them atop a refrigerator. Furious, the man produced a pistol, pointed it at Nevells’s face and demanded the keys’ return. Thus persuaded, Nevells retrieved them. The man drove away only to call a short while later, upset. His truck was stuck in mud. He wanted help. Several fishermen drove to him, separated him from the pistol and beat the truck with baseball bats until it was totaled. “Island justice,” Nevells said. In his view, carrying Narcan matched this rough, self-help spirit: On the ocean, crews needed to solve problems themselves, and with Narcan came the power to save a life. Nevells had lost many peers to overdoses, among them the man who leveled the pistol at his face. He remembered feeling helpless as the Jersey Pride broadcast graphic descriptions at the hour of Murphy’s death. He did not want to feel that way again.

The captain, Duane Natale, agreed. He had seen firsthand how delaying death bought time for a rescue. Scallopers tow massive steel dredges that cut furrows through the ocean bottom and snatch scallops along the way. By winch and boom, the dredges are periodically lifted above deck to shake out catch, then lowered again. The procedure is exceptionally dangerous. A swinging dredge, about 15 feet wide and weighing more than a ton, can crush a man in one sickening crunch. In the 1990s, Natale saw a falling dredge shear off a deckhand’s extended right arm. A makeshift tourniquet tightened around the stump kept the man alive until a helicopter lifted him away. Had they not been trained, the deckhand would have died. Natale saw a similar role for Narcan: a means to stop a fatality and let the Coast Guard do its work. “I like it a lot,” he said. “Last thing I want on my conscience is someone dying on my boat.”

In water 45 fathoms deep the boat steamed at 4.8 knots, towing dredges through sandy muck while the crew sweated through an incessant loop. From a hydraulic control station at the wheelhouse’s aft end, Nevells or Natale periodically hoisted the dredges and shook out tons of scallops, which slid out onto the steel deck in rumbling cascades of pink-and-white shells. Working fast, Hollis and the deckhands shoveled the catch into baskets and hustled it to sheltered cutting stations, where with stainless-steel knives they separated each scallop’s adductor muscle — the portion that makes its way to seafood cases and restaurant plates — from its gob of guts. Hands worked fast, flicking adductors into buckets and guts down chutes that plopped them onto greenish water beside the hull. Large sharks swam lazy circles alongside, turning to flash pale undersides while inhaling easy meals. Music thumped and blared: metal one hour, techno the next. When enough buckets were full of meat and rinsed in saltwater, two deckhands transferred the glistening, ivory-colored catch into roughly 50-pound cloth sacks, handed them down a hatch into the cool fish-hold and buried them beneath ice. Everyone else kept shucking.

The deckhands worked in staggered pairs: 11 hours of shoveling and shucking followed by four hours to shower, eat, sleep and bandage hands, then back on deck for 11 more hours. It continued for days. Daylight became dusk; dusk became night; night became dawn. Sea states changed. Fog and mist soaked the crew and shrouded the vessel, then lifted, revealing other boats on the horizon doing the same thing. The work never stopped. As exhaustion set in, people swayed where they stood, still hauling heavy baskets and shucking. To stay awake they downed coffee and Red Bull, smoked cigarettes and spoke little. One man wore a T-shirt stenciled with a solitary word. It read as both a personal statement and command to everyone else: Grind. Early on the fifth day, the Karen Nicole reached its 12,000-pound federal trip limit. Natale turned the boat toward New Bedford, almost a 24-hour steam away, and cooked everyone a rib-eye steak. The crew showered, ate and slept a few hours, then woke to scrub the boat. On shore two days later, each deckhand received his share: $9,090.61.

Within a year of its mayday call, the Jersey Pride entered a transformation. After the death in 2021 of the vessel’s owner, Doug Stocker, the boat passed to the family of his brother, Clint. A recently retired detective sergeant from the Middle Township Police Department, Clint Stocker was not affiliated with the Jersey Pride when Rodney Bart was its captain, and he knew little of what happened to Murphy, whom he never met. His view on opioid use was clear. “I tolerate none of that,” he says. He also needed no introduction to Narcan, having administered it as a police officer. The boat carries dispensers, he says, “just in case.”

In the midnight blackness this spring after the Jersey Pride returned to port, the vessel’s mate and deckhands described a job-site turnaround. The mate, Justin Puglisi, joined the crew about two months after Murphy’s death. His personal history in commercial fishing began with a loss that resonated through the industry: His father was taken by the sea with the vessel Beth Dee Bob, one of four clam boats that went to the bottom over 13 days in 1999, killing 10 fishermen. As a teenager Puglisi claimed his place in the surviving fleet. The Jersey Pride, he said, was in rough shape when he signed on. The bunk where Murphy overdosed remained unoccupied, the subject of vague stories about a deckhand’s death. Rodney Bart, still the captain, was using fentanyl onboard. “It was blatant,” Puglisi said. “He was leaving empty bags in the wheelhouse.” Two deckhands were heavy users, too. One wandered the boat with a syringe behind his ear. Puglisi had slipped into addiction himself. He was 32, had been using opioids for 15 years and was regularly buying and snorting fentanyl and crystal meth, which he bought in bulk. “I started with pills like everyone else, then switched to the cheaper stuff,” he said.

Bart was fired in fall 2021. But it was after Clint Stocker’s family took over that the operation markedly changed. Clint and his son Craig, who managed the boat’s maintenance, hired new crew members, invested in new electronics and implemented a schedule that gave crew members a week off work after two weeks onboard. They replaced the outriggers and eventually had the boat’s twin diesel engines rebuilt. Puglisi stood at a wheelhouse window. Around him were signs of attentive upkeep: new hoses, valves and a hydraulic pump; fresh upholstery on the wheelhouse bench; a new computer monitor connected to a satellite navigation system. The owners planned to repaint the boat, Puglisi said, but focused on more important maintenance first. “They put their money where it matters,” he said.

The overhaul was more than mechanical. In summer 2022, Puglisi fell asleep in the galley after getting high. When the Stockers heard, they helped find him a bed at rehab for six weeks, then gave him time to attend 90 Narcotics Anonymous meetings in 90 days. “They were like, ‘Go, and your job will be here when you get back,’” he said. When he returned, they put him straight to work. “It was all business,” Puglisi said. He rolled up his left sleeve to reveal a forearm tattoo — “One day at a time,” it read — and described the Jersey Pride as a good boat and fine workplace, unlike when Murphy was invited aboard. “I’ve worked for a lot of owners,” he said, “and this is the best boat I have been on. They take care of their crew.”

It was 1 a.m. A cold April wind blew hard from the northeast. Below Puglisi, three deckhands labored methodically under spotlights to offload catch. One, Bill Lapworth, was a former opioid user also in recovery now. His story matched countless others: He started with pills for pain relief, switched to heroin when the pills became harder to find and almost died when fentanyl poisoned the supply. He was revived by Narcan twice: first by E.M.T.s in an apartment, then by a friend as he slumped near death in a pickup truck. His friend had picked up free Narcan through a community handout program. Smoking a cigarette in the gusts as a crane swung metal cages of ocean quahogs overhead, Lapworth flashed the mischievous grin of a man pulled from the grave not once but twice, then offered a three-word endorsement of the little plastic dispensers to which he owed his life: “I got saved.”

Read by James Patrick Cronin

Audio produced by Elena Hecht

Narration produced by Anna Diamond

Engineered by Quinton Kamara

C.J. Chivers is a staff writer for the magazine and the author of two books, including “The Fighters: Americans in Combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.” He won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 2017 for a profile of a former Marine with PTSD. David Guttenfelder is a photojournalist focusing on geopolitical conflict and conservation.

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Cape May-Lewes Ferry guide: What to know about pricing, schedules, amenities and terminals

A sunny day is the perfect reason to enjoy the outdoors, and what better way to do that than a trip on the Cape May-Lewes Ferry? 

If your ferry knowledge is a bit rusty or if you’ve never taken a ride on it, don’t worry.  

Here’s everything you need to know about the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, including what to see and do in Cape May, New Jersey, and Lewes, passenger fare and what to expect on board.  

Where is the Cape May-Lewes Ferry located?  

The ferry sets sail from Lewes for a short trip across the Delaware Bay to Cape May. Passengers can travel by vehicle, bicycle or on foot.   

How long is the trip?    

The ferry takes about 85 minutes one-way and about three hours for a roundtrip voyage.   

Cape May is 17 miles from Lewes, and open waters are home to breathtaking views and animal friends are likely to make an appearance along the way. Passengers may see osprey, bald eagles, dolphins, egrets, gannets, horseshoe crabs, piping plovers, red knots, seals and whales while on the ferry route or while getting on or off the boat.  

What is the schedule?  

Summer fare run through Aug. 31. Fall fare runs from Sept. 1 to Oct. 31. Winter fare runs from Nov. 1 to March 31, 2025.  

Daily departure times from both the Cape May and Lewes terminals vary based on day. Consult the seasonal schedule for more information about arrival and departure times. 

How much does it cost? 

According to the summer fare, adults ages 14 to 61 years old pay $10 for a one-way ticket and $18 for a round trip. Seniors aged 62 years old and up pay $8 for a one-way ticket and $14 for a round trip. Children between ages 6 and 13 years pay $3 for a one-way ticket and $5 for a round trip. Children under 6 years of age ride free.  

Discounts are available for AAA members, military personnel and first responders. With a valid ID or membership number provided, individuals in these categories can get a one-way ticket for $8 and a round trip for $14.  

Bicycle fare is free with the purchase of a passenger ticket.   

Vehicle fares, which do not include the driver, are as follows:  

• Cars, SUVs and pickup trucks (under 20 feet) cost $38 one-way and $68 for a round trip (Monday through Thursday). Friday through Sunday and holidays, a one-way ticket is $41 and a round trip is $82. 
• Motorcycles cost $32 one-way and $57 for a round trip (Monday through Thursday). Friday through Sunday and holidays, a one-way ticket is $32 and a round trip is $64. 
• Three-wheel motorcycles or motorcycles with trailers cost $32 one way and $57 round trip (Monday through Thursday). Friday through Sunday and holidays, a one-way ticket is $32 and a round trip is $64.  
• Scooters cost $16 one way and $28 round trip (Monday through Thursday). Friday through Sunday and holidays, a one-way ticket is $16 and a round trip is $32. 
• RVs and long vehicles vary in pricing. Consult the website for more information.  

According to the winter fare, adults ages 14 to 61 years old pay $8 for a one-way ticket and $14 for a round trip. Seniors, ages 62 years old and up, pay $6 for a one-way ticket and $11 for a round trip.  

Children aged 13 years old and younger ride for free.

Discounts are available for AAA members, military personnel and first responders. With a valid ID or membership number provided, individuals in these categories can get a one-way ticket for $6 and a round trip for $11.  

• Cars, SUVs and pickup trucks (under 20 feet) cost $22 one-way and $39 for a round trip. 
• Motorcycles cost $18 one-way and $31 for a round trip.  
• Three-wheel motorcycles or motorcycles with trailers cost $19 one way and $32 round trip.  
• Scooters cost $9 one way and $15 round trip.   
• RVs and long vehicles vary in pricing. Consult the website for more information. 

Bicycle fare is always free with the purchase of a passenger ticket. Vehicles are subject to inspection, and drivers will likely be asked to pop their trunks before boarding.  

If you use the ferry often, consider purchasing a Frequent Traveler Book online or by calling (800) 643-3779. Books come in packs of six or 12. 

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What you should know before you set sail  

Reservations are required to board the ferry. Passengers can reserve a spot by booking online or calling customer service during normal hours. 

Reservations require the length of your vehicle if it is not a standard car, truck or van; the number of passengers including the driver; and your credit card number. An email and phone number will be noted for contact in case of booking changes or other issues.   

Check-in begins 45 minutes to one hour before departure, and reservations may be forfeited if check-in is not completed 30 minutes prior to scheduled departure. Stand-by tickets will be available at this time.  

Bookings can be rescheduled free of charge, but if canceled, a nonrefundable cancelation fee of $6 per one-way and $12 per round-trip booking will be imposed. No-shows will result in the cancelation of the crossing and a non-refundable no-show fee of $26 will be charged. 

Paid, unused reservations may be applied to future trips, with some restrictions. Ferry tickets are valid for two years from the date of purchase.   

Cape May-Lewes Ferry restrictions  

Before you board, make sure you have all needed items and none of the restricted ones.   

A government-issued photo ID is required for all drivers and foot passengers over 14 years old. Foreign travelers must present a valid passport or international driver’s license.   

Children under age 14 must be accompanied by someone at least 14, and that person must present a school ID, passport state ID or driver's license. A maximum of two children between the ages of 2 and 13 can travel with an unaccompanied passenger between 14 and 18 years old.   

Passengers are prohibited from bringing opened alcoholic beverages on or off the ferry by Delaware and New Jersey law. Alcoholic beverages sold on each vessel and or in each terminal must be discarded before boarding or disembarking. Unopened beverages are allowed but must be kept stored.   

The ferry and its terminals and surrounding areas have been tobacco-free since 2017. No smoking or other forms of tobacco are allowed. This includes vaping, cigarettes, cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco or smoking-related products.   

Pets are permitted on the ferry but must stay on outside decks or in vehicles. Passengers with pets cannot bring them inside the cabin near food areas. If restroom or food court facilities are needed, contact a crew member for assistance.   

The Cape May-Lewes Ferry notes that “pets must be sociable when on passenger decks and remain on a leash or in an appropriate carrier,” or the owner will be asked to return the pet to the vehicle. All vehicles with pet passengers must have the windows open for air.   

Is parking available at the terminals?  

Parking is available for free at both the Cape May and Lewes terminals. 

Cars can be left in the ferry parking lot overnight as long as license plate numbers are registered at the ticket counter in the terminal or with the police after hours in the police building in either city.   

There is no winter shuttle to Cape May, but seasonal shuttles are available. In Lewes, the DART Route 204 bus picks up and drops off in front of the Lewes terminal. 

Ferry amenities   

The ferries have various amenities including internet service and food and drink options available for passengers.   

The Lewes Terminal features Grain on the Rocks, a great dinner option once you complete your round trip, while the Cape May Terminal has Café 64 in colder months and more dining options from Exit 0 in season.  

Ferry vessels have indoor and outdoor seating, along with elevators to help get between decks. Table, bench seating and reclining seats are available indoors. Adirondack chairs, wooden benches, Lido Bar seating and metal chairs and tables are available outdoors.   

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What to do in Lewes  

In Lewes, there are plenty of shops, historic sites and nature views to enjoy and lots of places to eat your way through.   

A bike trail is across the street from the ferry terminal and local eateries such as Grain On the Rocks and Crooked Hammock Brewery are nearby.  

Local beaches are a short drive or bike ride away, and seasonal events and beer rides are always on tap. 

What to do in Cape May  

While in Cape May , you can visit Cape May Point State Park, the Cape May Lighthouse, Washington Street Mall, the Lobster House, Cape May Brewery, Beach Plum Farm and much more.  

Cape May (and Lewes) have electric bikes available for rental during your trip that can help expand your exploration of the area and give you a workout!  

More Cape May area attractions include the Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation, Cape May County Park and Zoo, Willow Creek Winery and Farm, Emlen Physick Estate (a historic Victorian house and museum) and many annual events.   

Cape May-Lewes Ferry upgrades  

The Cape May-Lewes Ferry has been running since its first voyage on July 1, 1964.   

The ferry has three vessels, with a capacity of 100 vehicles and about 800 people each, each the length of a football field.   

Although the ferry has been improved throughout the years, the Delaware River and Bay Authority announced in 2023 that the current vessels are set to retire as a new fleet awaits the water.   

The proposed fleet will have four vessels that are smaller than the ferry’s current boats. Each new vessel will have a capacity of 75 vehicles and about 330 passengers each, according to a spokesperson for the Delaware River and Bay Authority.  

Although the new boats will be smaller, a fourth vessel will allow for greater schedule flexibility. The Delaware River and Bay Authority expects the new fleet to be more environmentally friendly, meet or beat the current total trip times and improve customer and crew amenities.  

The $320 million project will be completed in phases, with the first new vessel expected to arrive in late 2026. Plans have not been finalized yet, but a public information session was held last June that considered vessel profile options, discussed plans and reviewed the project timeline. 

The three most recent design layouts were voted on by attendees, with profile B coming out as the winner. Profile C was a close second, followed by profile A. More information about the master plan and profile options can be found on www.cmlf.com/marine-master-plan.  

Got a tip or a story idea? Contact Krys'tal Griffin at [email protected] .