Phillip's extraordinary leadership at Sydney Cove,1790
Memorial Day for Governor Arthur Phillip on 31 August 2014
Delivered to the gathering at First Fleet Park, Wallabadah NSW
My Lord Mayor, Councilors, distinguished guests, visitors to this wonderful park and First Fleet descendants.
I am delighted and proud to be here to-day to celebrate with you the 200dredth anniversary of the death of Admiral Arthur Phillip.
May I acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land and pay my respects to the elders past and present.
I want to talk today about the year 1790 which I feel was the pivotal year in the life of the colony of NSW. For during that year Phillip showed just what an extraordinary leader he was and by his personal involvement in all aspects of the life carried the colony through some desperate times.
As you all know the story began in August 1786 when Lord Sydney informed the Treasury of the decision to colonise NSW with convicts under the command of an obscure naval Captain, Arthur Phillip. Phillip had had wide experience in the navy having sailed to the Canaries, Rio and the Cape as well as Brazil, India and the West Indies. He was familiar with fitting out a large vessel for a long voyage to a distant colony and also the skills needed to manage that isolated colony. Besides an extensive naval career he also had some farming experience from his time at Lyndhurst and it is possible that he has experience in transporting convicts for the Portuguese navy when on secondment. His public and private lives had prepared him very well for the task now given him.
His ideas on how the colony should be administered showed a vision and depth of thought that was inciteful and daring. He was the first person to consider or enunciate that the colony was not just to be a penal settlement when in Feb 1787 he wrote:
“As I would not wish convicts to lay the foundation of an empire, I think they should ever remain separated from the garrison, and other settlers that may come from Europe, and not be allowed to mix with them, even after the 7 or 14 years for which they are transported may be expired.”
There is no mention in any other letter, note or report of establishing “an empire” nor of “other settlers from Europe” so Phillip’s ideas were unique and wholly at odds with the English government’s punitive ideas of establishing and managing a penal colony. In fact the First Fleet was a ‘one off’ to test the plausibility of such a venture.
He was given sole command of the fleet and the colony with extraordinary powers never before given to any English officer. His preparations for the voyage were detailed and covered every conceivable matter from the surgeon’s instruments to the allocation of an extra vessel, the Prince of Wales, to relieve the overcrowding amongst the convicts.
Above all he was opposed to slavery and would not allow it to be used in any way in the colony. The route to be taken from England to Botany Bay via Rio and the Cape had the advantage of providing the convicts with the best plan for survival being able to obtain fresh provisions at each place and to be given respite from the rigours of long reaches at sea.
The fleet sailed on the 13th May 1787 and a week later Phillip ordered the convicts’ shackles be removed. That was a brave decision as mutiny was always a concern and with 775 convicts in six vessels mutiny or trouble was always a possibility. He also ordered that all convicts’ meals were to be supervised by an officer either naval or marine and that the sailors were not to be bullied or struck with ropes to make them work. His command, humanity and strong leadership were exemplary from the outset. The success of that untroubled voyage was evidenced by the good health of all and the remarkably low loss of life.
The main problem that Phillip faced in NSW was the shortage of rations. The fleet had been sent out with supposedly sufficient rations to last for two years yet on the 2nd of October 1788 the Sirius was dispatched to South Africa for much needed food whilst at Sydney Cove, the first of the reduction in rations was ordered. The soil at Botany Bay and Sydney Cove was totally unsuitable for grain farming and therefore the colony would not be able to become self sufficient in grain production and would need re-supply for several years. The spectre of starvation was an ever present dilemma during Phillip’s entire governorship.
The ration issue improved slightly when the Sirius returned in May 1789 but because of the non-arrival of provisions from England the issue was reduced in November and again in March 1790. To try to improve matters Phillip sent about ½ the population and ½ the food stocks with Major Ross to Norfolk in the Sirius and Supply. Ross was to take command of the Island and send the Sirius on to China to obtain food for NSW. He was to send King back to Sydney to go to England to report to the authorities on the parlous state of the colony especially regarding the food supply.
Tragically on 19th March the Sirius struck the rocks at Norfolk Island and was lost without loss of life but with the loss of some of the food supplies. Norfolk settlers were better off than Sydney Cove with they being able to harvest the mutton birds and also obtain fish from the ocean. King returned to Sydney Cove with the tragic news of the sinking of the Sirius which shocked and caused great consternation amongst all. None-the-less on 17 April 1790 King was sent by Phillip to Batavia, now Jakarta, in the Supply to hire a ship to bring urgently required food to Sydney and then to find passage to England. The calculations were that it would take the Supply six months to sail to Batavia and back but the food on hand was sufficient for four months and if relief did not arrive from England then they would have exhausted their stocks of salt beef, pork, peas and rice and be living on flour and biscuits.
It was a brave decision by Phillip and an example of his strong leadership because in sending the Supply to Batavia he was effectively isolating the colony from England and they had no other method of communicating or obtaining re-supply. He was gambling that relief vessels would arrive before they ran out of food though there was nothing to support his contention but his own strong belief and faith in Lord Sydney and the English authorities. They were alone and could do nothing but wait for the hoped for relief vessels from England.
Today we can hardly imagine the feelings of the 530 odd souls at Sydney Cove as they stood among the half empty houses and deserted streets and watched their sole method of returning to England sail out of the harbour. They were in dreadful low spirits and even leaders such as Surgeon White the chief medical officer, Captain Collins Phillip’s secretary and the Judge Advocate as well as Captain Watkin Tench the ebullient Marine officer, were all despondent and fearful of their fate. White wrote “In the name of heaven what has the Ministry been about?” and, as the Supply sailed away “Lord have mercy on us!” Tench recorded in his diary that “We followed her with anxious eyes until she was no longer visible” and quoted Virgil saying “Our frail state depends entirely on you.”
Not so Phillip. Despite being physically unwell from a pain in his side that never left him, he remained upbeat and positive in his attitude and never for a moment lost his vision for the colony. In an amazing letter to Lord Sydney, he calmly and methodically laid out their circumstances and advised Sydney of the sending of ½ the inhabitants to live at Norfolk and of the reduction in rations from 2/3 to just under ½ noting that they would survive for a further few months. He phlegmatically advised Sydney of the loss of the Sirius as though it was a natural occurrence and not of that great importance. In his private correspondence there was not the slightest hint of negativity or despair and he wrote to Evan Nepean that “we will not starve though 7/8th of the colony deserves nothing better.”
This was Phillip’s finest hour and for the next 7 weeks he alone carried the colony forward by the strength of his iron will and determined leadership. In an egalitarian gesture he gave his own personal flour supply into the commissariat and ordered that every man, himself included, irrespective of rank or position would be given the same ration issue. It was a decisive action and at one stroke precluded all complaints about the paucity of the rations and bound the small colony into a cohesive unit with everyone suffering the same privations. It had a unifying effect which was extraordinary amongst such a disparate group of Royal Navy personnel, Marine officers and men, medical officers, civilians as well as the 291 male and female convicts. They were united and secure under Phillip’s leadership.
To give you some idea of the state of the food supplies it has been calculated that the calorific value of those rations was less than the calorific value of the rations served in the Japanese POW camps to the Australian soldiers working on the Burma-Thai railway during WW2. Phillip retained strict ration conditions until the day he departed in December 1792 much to the chagrin of the officers and men of the NSW Corps.
There was little or no work done yet Phillip remained busy trying every method he could to maintain morale and positivity amongst all the inhabitants. He organised night-time fishing expeditions with an officer in every vessel to ensure that all the catch was put into the commissariat. He organised shooting parties of the best shots both marines and convicts to hunt kangaroos and gave the fishermen and hunters a small increase in rations to facilitate their endeavours.
Phillip also encouraged everyone to grow their own vegetables and severely punished those who stole from those plots with the death penalty or floggings of 2000 lashes. Surprisingly despite the chronic shortage of food there were only 8 deaths in total from April to June.
Not only was food in short supply but the marines and convicts were chronically short of clothing as their initial issue of three years ago had worn out and some marines were parading barefooted and most were in rags. To add to Phillip’s woes, Bennelong with whom Phillip was establishing a good relationship and who lived in luxurious captivity at the governor’s house, took the opportunity of escaping which saddened Phillip as he was fond of his young companion and had given him as much food as could be spared.
Then on the 2nd of June 1790 the Lady Juliana sailed into Sydney Cove to the tearful enjoyment of all the colonists. Her arrival signaled that they had not been and would not be abandoned or forgotten by England and that Phillip’s belief and trust in England was justified. When, on 20th June the store ship Justinian arrived with much needed provisions, the mood in the colony was buoyant and upbeat as they realised that they had survived a stern test and had come through alive because of Phillip’s leadership. Thus despite their living in rags, being barefooted and half starved the first colonists still could feel great compassion for the dreadful state of the convicts who arrived late in June in the Second Fleet. Of 1038 convicts who had boarded the transports in England, 273 had died on the voyage and a further 124 died at Sydney in July and August from their ill treatment. The 124 deaths in those two months equaled the total number of deaths that had occurred during the 30 months since the initial landing in January 1788.
Phillip was appalled at the condition of those new arrivals and quickly set about attending to their physical and spiritual needs and absorption into the social network that Phillip had developed. Though nearly 500 sick and debilitated convicts arrived in June 1790 only 124 died which was testament to the compassion and generous care afforded by those first fleeters. They had suffered and bonded together under Phillip’s leadership and extended that bond of comfort to the new arrivals.
One of the most intriguing aspects of society in the new colony which was composed of career criminals, was the surprisingly low crime rate. Despite there being almost 1750 convicts in NSW and Norfolk Island in late 1790, the rule of law prevailed and most never re-offended and those that did, rarely did so again. It was as though in coming to the new settlement where under Phillip’s strong leadership the rule of law was seen as being fundamental to life in NSW, the new arrivals abandoned their old criminal ways and responded to Phillip’s vison of a free society predicated on the wide open streets of Sydney and Parramatta.
One further very important point was that there was no jail so everyone lived virtually free lives unfettered and unsupervised in their own homes. This little known fact added greatly to their sense of well-being and developed a new found self-respect and optimism for their future. There was no central jail in Sydney until 1819 when Macquarie finished the Hyde Park Barracks.
By July 1790 the colony had sufficient food for rations to be increased and life settled down though there was to be one more instance of Phillip’s extraordinary leadership. In September he was invited by Bennelong to a feast at Manly Cove. Once arrived in the long-boat Phillip was greeted exuberantly by Bennelong and shown a ceremonial spear which he placed at the feet of a nervous warrior standing to one side. Bennelong knew Phillip prized native artifacts and when Phillip approached seeking to acquire the spear the warrior flicked the spear up into his woomera and from close range threw it with great force and accuracy into Phillip’s right shoulder and out through his back.
As you can imagine pandemonium broke out as Aborigines, marines and seamen ran in all directions and many spears whistled through the air though, strangely, all fell harmlessly. Phillip staggered about with a 3 metre spear in him, the butt of which jagged into the sand as he stumbled towards the boat. The spear was broken off and he was rushed back to medical attention at Sydney Cove with all, including Phillip, fearing that the wound was mortal. Incredibly, he dictated his will to Lt. Waterhouse as they rowed him back to Sydney Cove. To everyone’s delight, Surgeon Balmain removed the shaft and announced that the wound was not fatal and that Phillip would make a full recovery which he did in a short time.
Again, in keeping with Phillip’s proven skills as a leader, he forbad any punitive action to be taken against the Aborigines claiming that it was a misunderstanding brought about by his own actions. Even though the whole affair was probably deliberately orchestrated by Bennelong, Phillip welcomed him back into his house and their friendship developed to such a depth that they returned to England together in December 1792.
1790 then was a pivotal year during which Phillip clearly demonstrated his vision for the type of colony he wanted to establish which vision was anathema to the ideas of Lord Sydney, the British government and English society. They saw the inhabitants of a penal colony at the ends of the earth as being deserving of severe punishment and their settlement was to be treated with derision and scorn. They imagined that crime and every form of degradation were rife, that the convicts formed a “bunyip aristocracy” and lived a subsistence life of hand to mouth existence.
From the outset Phillip had envisaged the colony as a place where the convicts could find a new life where they would marry and raise families in towns similar to those in rural England yet without the problems of overcrowded cities. And so he created both Sydney Town and Parramatta with wide streets and separate dwellings, which were nothing like the tenements, slums and mean crowded streets of London where crime and disease were rife. Australian towns were deliberately designed to facilitate the rule of law and a healthy life for everyone and not just those privileged by an accident of birth.
He also led the colony in establishing relationships with the Eora Aboriginal people who called him “Be-Anna” that is father and he forbad punitive expeditions against them, adjudging all their acts of aggression to be the fault of the colonists for not understanding the Aborigines’ culture.
Phillip’s leadership was sustained by his extraordinary and unique vision that had been shaped by his experiences of sailing to and experiencing life in many and varied places around the world. It was his strong and sustained leadership that enabled him to maintain control in Sydney and establish an “empire” at the opposite side of the world. Despite the feelings of abandonment and despair engendered by the traumatic events of 1790 being;
It is right that to-day we should celebrate the memory of an extraordinary English naval officer who has recently been honored with a plaque being laid in Westminster Cathedral in his memory. His was truly an inspired vison that was enthusiastically embraced by the convicts who, despite a previous criminal lifestyle seldom re-offended in their new surroundings.
The legacy of Phillip’s leadership of 1790 was a free, healthy law-abiding society that was inclusive of all peoples to which we stand as a testament here today.
Thank You.
Dr Stephen Cunneen
Email: [email protected]
NOTES:
Arthur Phillip 1738-1814
. Born 11 October 1738 the son of a German language teacher and an English mother whose first husband had been in the Royal Navy.
· Joined the merchant navy as an apprentice aged 15 and after two years in a whaling ship in the Atlantic and the Med he transferred to the RN in October 1755 when England began the 7 years war with France.
· Fought at the Battle of Minorca in May 1756 and in June 1759 was promoted to Midshipman in the Aurora cruising the Chanel and the European coast. He gained valuable experience in seamanship, navigation, large warship operations as well as leadership and the maintenance of health at sea.
· September 1760 he sailed to the West Indies and patrolled the Caribbean Sea and southern Atlantic Ocean learning about life in the tropical equatorial regions and the value of fresh fruit (oranges, lemons, pineapples, bananas etc.) to health. Appointed Lieutenant in June 1761 with duties of watch keeping, navigation, sailing skills and ship’s maintenance in tropical waters (hurricanes?), health of seaman against tropical diseases (yellow fever, typhus, malaria etc) and minor disciplinary/leadership matters. Oversaw punishments of floggings and executions so as to learn the difference between discipline and brutality. Importantly he observed life and survival activities in an isolated British colony dependent upon naval resupply from a far distant England and also developed an abhorrence of slavery. Participated in the siege of Havana, Cuba in 1762. Earned the patronage of Captain Hervey.
· On 19 July 1763 aged 24 he married a rich 41 y/o widow Charlotte Denison and being on ½ pay from the Navy after 2 years in London they moved to Lyndhurst in Devon, to his wife’s farm of approx. 24 acres and purchased another 12 acres thereafter. Separated April 1769 and rejoined Navy in Nov. 1770.
· Gained engineering and military skills in the mid 1770s though his health was not good as was to happen for much of his life. Spied on the French fleet preparations?
· In 1774 aged 36 he was an experienced naval officer and was familiar with ports in England, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy as well as the Med. and the West Indies.
· In 1774 the Portuguese Govt. asked the British Govt. for some experienced RN officers on ½ pay to be seconded to the navy they were establishing to protect their Sth American interests against the Spanish. Phillip was seconded to the Portuguese navy on 22 Dec 1774 in the rank of Captain. It was a lucrative posting which gave him added experience as well as valuable knowledge of the ports and waters of South America. He also was required to supervise the preparations for a large warship getting ready to sail for a far distant colony, skills he would use 11 years later with the preparations for the First Fleet. Arrived at Rio de Janeiro in April 1775 and observed how to manage a colony far distant from the home country. Provision of water as well as agriculture/farming, buildings, housing, city planning and harbour developments were all important activities to be dealt with. Phillip also learned diplomacy and quickly gained the confidence of the Viceroy which skills were much required later at Botany Bay. Became familiar with much of the coastline as well as the ports of Rio and Buenos Aries and the trade opportunities, all important intelligence for the British Admiralty. In August 1778 he returned to Lisbon, resigned his commission and rejoined the British Navy in Sept 1778 as 1st Lt and was promoted to the rank of Master and Commander Sept 1779 having gained invaluable experience as a naval officer and as an observer of colonial life in an isolated colonial outpost.
· November 1781 promoted Post Captain and appointed captain of Ariadne to escort a transport vessel from Germany to India. But was confined because of the winter and forced to beach her for fear of being crushed by winter ice. Given command of the Europe a 64 gun fourth rated battle ship in December 1782.
· 1784-86 Phillip engaged in spying on the French naval preparations under orders from Evan Nepean.
Neither did the meat supply improve, as the four cows and two bulls brought out had escaped in June 1788 and were not seen again until 1795. In fact the settlement did not become self sufficient in meat until late in Macquarie’s tenure in the 19th century.
Dr Stephen Cunneen
Email: [email protected]
Side image courtesy of G. Doyle
31/8/14
Memorial Day for Governor Arthur Phillip on 31 August 2014
Delivered to the gathering at First Fleet Park, Wallabadah NSW
My Lord Mayor, Councilors, distinguished guests, visitors to this wonderful park and First Fleet descendants.
I am delighted and proud to be here to-day to celebrate with you the 200dredth anniversary of the death of Admiral Arthur Phillip.
May I acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land and pay my respects to the elders past and present.
I want to talk today about the year 1790 which I feel was the pivotal year in the life of the colony of NSW. For during that year Phillip showed just what an extraordinary leader he was and by his personal involvement in all aspects of the life carried the colony through some desperate times.
As you all know the story began in August 1786 when Lord Sydney informed the Treasury of the decision to colonise NSW with convicts under the command of an obscure naval Captain, Arthur Phillip. Phillip had had wide experience in the navy having sailed to the Canaries, Rio and the Cape as well as Brazil, India and the West Indies. He was familiar with fitting out a large vessel for a long voyage to a distant colony and also the skills needed to manage that isolated colony. Besides an extensive naval career he also had some farming experience from his time at Lyndhurst and it is possible that he has experience in transporting convicts for the Portuguese navy when on secondment. His public and private lives had prepared him very well for the task now given him.
His ideas on how the colony should be administered showed a vision and depth of thought that was inciteful and daring. He was the first person to consider or enunciate that the colony was not just to be a penal settlement when in Feb 1787 he wrote:
“As I would not wish convicts to lay the foundation of an empire, I think they should ever remain separated from the garrison, and other settlers that may come from Europe, and not be allowed to mix with them, even after the 7 or 14 years for which they are transported may be expired.”
There is no mention in any other letter, note or report of establishing “an empire” nor of “other settlers from Europe” so Phillip’s ideas were unique and wholly at odds with the English government’s punitive ideas of establishing and managing a penal colony. In fact the First Fleet was a ‘one off’ to test the plausibility of such a venture.
He was given sole command of the fleet and the colony with extraordinary powers never before given to any English officer. His preparations for the voyage were detailed and covered every conceivable matter from the surgeon’s instruments to the allocation of an extra vessel, the Prince of Wales, to relieve the overcrowding amongst the convicts.
Above all he was opposed to slavery and would not allow it to be used in any way in the colony. The route to be taken from England to Botany Bay via Rio and the Cape had the advantage of providing the convicts with the best plan for survival being able to obtain fresh provisions at each place and to be given respite from the rigours of long reaches at sea.
The fleet sailed on the 13th May 1787 and a week later Phillip ordered the convicts’ shackles be removed. That was a brave decision as mutiny was always a concern and with 775 convicts in six vessels mutiny or trouble was always a possibility. He also ordered that all convicts’ meals were to be supervised by an officer either naval or marine and that the sailors were not to be bullied or struck with ropes to make them work. His command, humanity and strong leadership were exemplary from the outset. The success of that untroubled voyage was evidenced by the good health of all and the remarkably low loss of life.
The main problem that Phillip faced in NSW was the shortage of rations. The fleet had been sent out with supposedly sufficient rations to last for two years yet on the 2nd of October 1788 the Sirius was dispatched to South Africa for much needed food whilst at Sydney Cove, the first of the reduction in rations was ordered. The soil at Botany Bay and Sydney Cove was totally unsuitable for grain farming and therefore the colony would not be able to become self sufficient in grain production and would need re-supply for several years. The spectre of starvation was an ever present dilemma during Phillip’s entire governorship.
The ration issue improved slightly when the Sirius returned in May 1789 but because of the non-arrival of provisions from England the issue was reduced in November and again in March 1790. To try to improve matters Phillip sent about ½ the population and ½ the food stocks with Major Ross to Norfolk in the Sirius and Supply. Ross was to take command of the Island and send the Sirius on to China to obtain food for NSW. He was to send King back to Sydney to go to England to report to the authorities on the parlous state of the colony especially regarding the food supply.
Tragically on 19th March the Sirius struck the rocks at Norfolk Island and was lost without loss of life but with the loss of some of the food supplies. Norfolk settlers were better off than Sydney Cove with they being able to harvest the mutton birds and also obtain fish from the ocean. King returned to Sydney Cove with the tragic news of the sinking of the Sirius which shocked and caused great consternation amongst all. None-the-less on 17 April 1790 King was sent by Phillip to Batavia, now Jakarta, in the Supply to hire a ship to bring urgently required food to Sydney and then to find passage to England. The calculations were that it would take the Supply six months to sail to Batavia and back but the food on hand was sufficient for four months and if relief did not arrive from England then they would have exhausted their stocks of salt beef, pork, peas and rice and be living on flour and biscuits.
It was a brave decision by Phillip and an example of his strong leadership because in sending the Supply to Batavia he was effectively isolating the colony from England and they had no other method of communicating or obtaining re-supply. He was gambling that relief vessels would arrive before they ran out of food though there was nothing to support his contention but his own strong belief and faith in Lord Sydney and the English authorities. They were alone and could do nothing but wait for the hoped for relief vessels from England.
Today we can hardly imagine the feelings of the 530 odd souls at Sydney Cove as they stood among the half empty houses and deserted streets and watched their sole method of returning to England sail out of the harbour. They were in dreadful low spirits and even leaders such as Surgeon White the chief medical officer, Captain Collins Phillip’s secretary and the Judge Advocate as well as Captain Watkin Tench the ebullient Marine officer, were all despondent and fearful of their fate. White wrote “In the name of heaven what has the Ministry been about?” and, as the Supply sailed away “Lord have mercy on us!” Tench recorded in his diary that “We followed her with anxious eyes until she was no longer visible” and quoted Virgil saying “Our frail state depends entirely on you.”
Not so Phillip. Despite being physically unwell from a pain in his side that never left him, he remained upbeat and positive in his attitude and never for a moment lost his vision for the colony. In an amazing letter to Lord Sydney, he calmly and methodically laid out their circumstances and advised Sydney of the sending of ½ the inhabitants to live at Norfolk and of the reduction in rations from 2/3 to just under ½ noting that they would survive for a further few months. He phlegmatically advised Sydney of the loss of the Sirius as though it was a natural occurrence and not of that great importance. In his private correspondence there was not the slightest hint of negativity or despair and he wrote to Evan Nepean that “we will not starve though 7/8th of the colony deserves nothing better.”
This was Phillip’s finest hour and for the next 7 weeks he alone carried the colony forward by the strength of his iron will and determined leadership. In an egalitarian gesture he gave his own personal flour supply into the commissariat and ordered that every man, himself included, irrespective of rank or position would be given the same ration issue. It was a decisive action and at one stroke precluded all complaints about the paucity of the rations and bound the small colony into a cohesive unit with everyone suffering the same privations. It had a unifying effect which was extraordinary amongst such a disparate group of Royal Navy personnel, Marine officers and men, medical officers, civilians as well as the 291 male and female convicts. They were united and secure under Phillip’s leadership.
To give you some idea of the state of the food supplies it has been calculated that the calorific value of those rations was less than the calorific value of the rations served in the Japanese POW camps to the Australian soldiers working on the Burma-Thai railway during WW2. Phillip retained strict ration conditions until the day he departed in December 1792 much to the chagrin of the officers and men of the NSW Corps.
There was little or no work done yet Phillip remained busy trying every method he could to maintain morale and positivity amongst all the inhabitants. He organised night-time fishing expeditions with an officer in every vessel to ensure that all the catch was put into the commissariat. He organised shooting parties of the best shots both marines and convicts to hunt kangaroos and gave the fishermen and hunters a small increase in rations to facilitate their endeavours.
Phillip also encouraged everyone to grow their own vegetables and severely punished those who stole from those plots with the death penalty or floggings of 2000 lashes. Surprisingly despite the chronic shortage of food there were only 8 deaths in total from April to June.
Not only was food in short supply but the marines and convicts were chronically short of clothing as their initial issue of three years ago had worn out and some marines were parading barefooted and most were in rags. To add to Phillip’s woes, Bennelong with whom Phillip was establishing a good relationship and who lived in luxurious captivity at the governor’s house, took the opportunity of escaping which saddened Phillip as he was fond of his young companion and had given him as much food as could be spared.
Then on the 2nd of June 1790 the Lady Juliana sailed into Sydney Cove to the tearful enjoyment of all the colonists. Her arrival signaled that they had not been and would not be abandoned or forgotten by England and that Phillip’s belief and trust in England was justified. When, on 20th June the store ship Justinian arrived with much needed provisions, the mood in the colony was buoyant and upbeat as they realised that they had survived a stern test and had come through alive because of Phillip’s leadership. Thus despite their living in rags, being barefooted and half starved the first colonists still could feel great compassion for the dreadful state of the convicts who arrived late in June in the Second Fleet. Of 1038 convicts who had boarded the transports in England, 273 had died on the voyage and a further 124 died at Sydney in July and August from their ill treatment. The 124 deaths in those two months equaled the total number of deaths that had occurred during the 30 months since the initial landing in January 1788.
Phillip was appalled at the condition of those new arrivals and quickly set about attending to their physical and spiritual needs and absorption into the social network that Phillip had developed. Though nearly 500 sick and debilitated convicts arrived in June 1790 only 124 died which was testament to the compassion and generous care afforded by those first fleeters. They had suffered and bonded together under Phillip’s leadership and extended that bond of comfort to the new arrivals.
One of the most intriguing aspects of society in the new colony which was composed of career criminals, was the surprisingly low crime rate. Despite there being almost 1750 convicts in NSW and Norfolk Island in late 1790, the rule of law prevailed and most never re-offended and those that did, rarely did so again. It was as though in coming to the new settlement where under Phillip’s strong leadership the rule of law was seen as being fundamental to life in NSW, the new arrivals abandoned their old criminal ways and responded to Phillip’s vison of a free society predicated on the wide open streets of Sydney and Parramatta.
One further very important point was that there was no jail so everyone lived virtually free lives unfettered and unsupervised in their own homes. This little known fact added greatly to their sense of well-being and developed a new found self-respect and optimism for their future. There was no central jail in Sydney until 1819 when Macquarie finished the Hyde Park Barracks.
By July 1790 the colony had sufficient food for rations to be increased and life settled down though there was to be one more instance of Phillip’s extraordinary leadership. In September he was invited by Bennelong to a feast at Manly Cove. Once arrived in the long-boat Phillip was greeted exuberantly by Bennelong and shown a ceremonial spear which he placed at the feet of a nervous warrior standing to one side. Bennelong knew Phillip prized native artifacts and when Phillip approached seeking to acquire the spear the warrior flicked the spear up into his woomera and from close range threw it with great force and accuracy into Phillip’s right shoulder and out through his back.
As you can imagine pandemonium broke out as Aborigines, marines and seamen ran in all directions and many spears whistled through the air though, strangely, all fell harmlessly. Phillip staggered about with a 3 metre spear in him, the butt of which jagged into the sand as he stumbled towards the boat. The spear was broken off and he was rushed back to medical attention at Sydney Cove with all, including Phillip, fearing that the wound was mortal. Incredibly, he dictated his will to Lt. Waterhouse as they rowed him back to Sydney Cove. To everyone’s delight, Surgeon Balmain removed the shaft and announced that the wound was not fatal and that Phillip would make a full recovery which he did in a short time.
Again, in keeping with Phillip’s proven skills as a leader, he forbad any punitive action to be taken against the Aborigines claiming that it was a misunderstanding brought about by his own actions. Even though the whole affair was probably deliberately orchestrated by Bennelong, Phillip welcomed him back into his house and their friendship developed to such a depth that they returned to England together in December 1792.
1790 then was a pivotal year during which Phillip clearly demonstrated his vision for the type of colony he wanted to establish which vision was anathema to the ideas of Lord Sydney, the British government and English society. They saw the inhabitants of a penal colony at the ends of the earth as being deserving of severe punishment and their settlement was to be treated with derision and scorn. They imagined that crime and every form of degradation were rife, that the convicts formed a “bunyip aristocracy” and lived a subsistence life of hand to mouth existence.
From the outset Phillip had envisaged the colony as a place where the convicts could find a new life where they would marry and raise families in towns similar to those in rural England yet without the problems of overcrowded cities. And so he created both Sydney Town and Parramatta with wide streets and separate dwellings, which were nothing like the tenements, slums and mean crowded streets of London where crime and disease were rife. Australian towns were deliberately designed to facilitate the rule of law and a healthy life for everyone and not just those privileged by an accident of birth.
He also led the colony in establishing relationships with the Eora Aboriginal people who called him “Be-Anna” that is father and he forbad punitive expeditions against them, adjudging all their acts of aggression to be the fault of the colonists for not understanding the Aborigines’ culture.
Phillip’s leadership was sustained by his extraordinary and unique vision that had been shaped by his experiences of sailing to and experiencing life in many and varied places around the world. It was his strong and sustained leadership that enabled him to maintain control in Sydney and establish an “empire” at the opposite side of the world. Despite the feelings of abandonment and despair engendered by the traumatic events of 1790 being;
- Sending half of the Sydney community to Norfolk,
- The loss of the Sirius,
- The enforced starvation,
- The dispatch of the Supply to Batavia,
- The arrival of the sick and dying in the Second Fleet and his near-fatal spearing at Many Cove, Phillip never doubted his ability to lead and fashion a new society.
It is right that to-day we should celebrate the memory of an extraordinary English naval officer who has recently been honored with a plaque being laid in Westminster Cathedral in his memory. His was truly an inspired vison that was enthusiastically embraced by the convicts who, despite a previous criminal lifestyle seldom re-offended in their new surroundings.
The legacy of Phillip’s leadership of 1790 was a free, healthy law-abiding society that was inclusive of all peoples to which we stand as a testament here today.
Thank You.
Dr Stephen Cunneen
Email: [email protected]
NOTES:
Arthur Phillip 1738-1814
. Born 11 October 1738 the son of a German language teacher and an English mother whose first husband had been in the Royal Navy.
· Joined the merchant navy as an apprentice aged 15 and after two years in a whaling ship in the Atlantic and the Med he transferred to the RN in October 1755 when England began the 7 years war with France.
· Fought at the Battle of Minorca in May 1756 and in June 1759 was promoted to Midshipman in the Aurora cruising the Chanel and the European coast. He gained valuable experience in seamanship, navigation, large warship operations as well as leadership and the maintenance of health at sea.
· September 1760 he sailed to the West Indies and patrolled the Caribbean Sea and southern Atlantic Ocean learning about life in the tropical equatorial regions and the value of fresh fruit (oranges, lemons, pineapples, bananas etc.) to health. Appointed Lieutenant in June 1761 with duties of watch keeping, navigation, sailing skills and ship’s maintenance in tropical waters (hurricanes?), health of seaman against tropical diseases (yellow fever, typhus, malaria etc) and minor disciplinary/leadership matters. Oversaw punishments of floggings and executions so as to learn the difference between discipline and brutality. Importantly he observed life and survival activities in an isolated British colony dependent upon naval resupply from a far distant England and also developed an abhorrence of slavery. Participated in the siege of Havana, Cuba in 1762. Earned the patronage of Captain Hervey.
· On 19 July 1763 aged 24 he married a rich 41 y/o widow Charlotte Denison and being on ½ pay from the Navy after 2 years in London they moved to Lyndhurst in Devon, to his wife’s farm of approx. 24 acres and purchased another 12 acres thereafter. Separated April 1769 and rejoined Navy in Nov. 1770.
· Gained engineering and military skills in the mid 1770s though his health was not good as was to happen for much of his life. Spied on the French fleet preparations?
· In 1774 aged 36 he was an experienced naval officer and was familiar with ports in England, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy as well as the Med. and the West Indies.
· In 1774 the Portuguese Govt. asked the British Govt. for some experienced RN officers on ½ pay to be seconded to the navy they were establishing to protect their Sth American interests against the Spanish. Phillip was seconded to the Portuguese navy on 22 Dec 1774 in the rank of Captain. It was a lucrative posting which gave him added experience as well as valuable knowledge of the ports and waters of South America. He also was required to supervise the preparations for a large warship getting ready to sail for a far distant colony, skills he would use 11 years later with the preparations for the First Fleet. Arrived at Rio de Janeiro in April 1775 and observed how to manage a colony far distant from the home country. Provision of water as well as agriculture/farming, buildings, housing, city planning and harbour developments were all important activities to be dealt with. Phillip also learned diplomacy and quickly gained the confidence of the Viceroy which skills were much required later at Botany Bay. Became familiar with much of the coastline as well as the ports of Rio and Buenos Aries and the trade opportunities, all important intelligence for the British Admiralty. In August 1778 he returned to Lisbon, resigned his commission and rejoined the British Navy in Sept 1778 as 1st Lt and was promoted to the rank of Master and Commander Sept 1779 having gained invaluable experience as a naval officer and as an observer of colonial life in an isolated colonial outpost.
· November 1781 promoted Post Captain and appointed captain of Ariadne to escort a transport vessel from Germany to India. But was confined because of the winter and forced to beach her for fear of being crushed by winter ice. Given command of the Europe a 64 gun fourth rated battle ship in December 1782.
· 1784-86 Phillip engaged in spying on the French naval preparations under orders from Evan Nepean.
Neither did the meat supply improve, as the four cows and two bulls brought out had escaped in June 1788 and were not seen again until 1795. In fact the settlement did not become self sufficient in meat until late in Macquarie’s tenure in the 19th century.
Dr Stephen Cunneen
Email: [email protected]
Side image courtesy of G. Doyle
31/8/14