Heave away! We’re bound for Botany Bay

Press, 16 July 1987, Page 21

Heave away! We’re bound for Botany Bay

COLIN MONTEATH

reports as 11 square-

rigged sailing snips, two of them from New Zealand, progress on the second leg of a reenactment voyage scheduled to end in Sydney Harbour on January 26, 1988.

Queen Elizabeth H fired a starting gun at ; Portsmouth Harbour on May 13, /sending 11 graceful ladies of wft off on a .voyage to the Southern Ocean. Thousands of school children < Cheered unfurled » their sails ‘arid a course for | Botany Bay, Awralia. The squareriggers came together fromjap over the world to create the Fleet Re-enact-ment VoyaJe, a part of Aus-' tralia's Bicentennial celebrations. Each: crewed by a mixture of profession! and “trainee” sailors, ttey are presently punching thetf' way into the Atlantic Ocean, Sound for South America, they are due to reach Rio de Janeiio on July 26, where they will change crews before heading t>r Capetown. Tie First Fleet Re-enactment Project is the brainchild of Dr Jonathan King, a direct descendjnt of Lt Philip King from K.M.S. Sirius, a 35-metre naval Warship that served as flagship the original fleet. <7 Dr King is marketing the voy/age through Sydney-based World / Expeditions and Auckland-based 7 Venturetreks. He has thrown out a challenge to adventurers, and perhaps to a few crusty old seadogs to cast their lot with these ships for one or all of the seven main legs of the voyage. You have to work your passage alongside the core of professional crew, tasting the bite of the wind as you grapple with unruly ropes and canvas. So far, 13 New Zealanders have signed on before the mast. There are still spare shackles available on legs of the voyage from Capetown onwards, via Mauritius and Fremantle. Not many fully square-rigged vessels are left in the world. Two of those selected for the voyage, from 21 ships, hail from New Zealand ports. The Bounty, the 30-metre star of the film, “The Bounty,” was built in New Zealand in 1978. The R. Tucker Thompson is a 20-metre brigantine normally engaged in film work and sail training in New Zealand waters. The other nine fleet vessels are a mixture of brigs, brigantines and fully square-rigged ships, including the Soren Larsen

(from “The Onedin Line” television series), The Tradewind Amsterdam, Amorina Stockholm .and the British Kaskalot. On January 26, 1788, Australia was founded when after an eightmonth voyage, the First Fleet sailed into what is now Sydney Harbour following one of history’s most extraordinary expeditions. The British had decided to settle Australia as a new territory where they could rehabilitate criminals, obtain valuable resources like flax, timber and minerals and secure a strategic outstation in the region with associated trade among Asian and Pacific nations. On May 13, 1787, the 11 square-riggers set sail from Portsmouth with 1350 people on board, . 759 of them convicts. Following the traditional wind and ocean patterns, they battered their way to Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro and Capetown before heading on to Botany Bay. The success of this remarkable voyage of colonisation across the globe was unqualified. An official report noted “Thus under the blessing of God, was happily completed, in eight months and one week, a voyage which, before it was undertaken, the mind hardly dared venture to contemplate. We had sailed five thousand and twenty one leagues; had touched at the South American and African continents; and had at last rested within a few days sail of the antipodes of our native country without meeting any accident in a fleet of eleven sail.” Of all the convoys to follow in their wake, none other had such a brilliant performance. Perhaps much of the credit lies with the First Fleet Expedition Leader, Captain Arthur Philip. He had cut his teeth during the 1757 Seven Years War and the 1776 American War of Independence. Crossing the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the convoy passed schools of whales, dolphins, sharks and even icebergs. It survived broken masts and yards, torn sails, outbreaks of violence among the convicts, rebellions, drunkenness, disease and depression. Beyond all this lay the promised land.