Save on Family Finder, Y-DNA, mtDNA & bundles during our DNA Day Sale! Now through April 30.

Australian Convicts

For those who have convicts in their families
  • 708 members

About us











Updated 8 April 2014
Here are the First and Second fleets - the names have been gleaned/taken from Wikipedia.  More ships to come...

The First Fleet is the 11 ships which left Great Britain on 13 May 1787 to found a penal colony that would become the first European settlement in Australia. The fleet consisted of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports, carrying more than 1,000 convicts, marines and seamen, and a vast quantity of stores. From England, the Fleet sailed southwest to Rio de Janeiro, then east to Cape Town and via the Great Southern Ocean to Botany Bay, arriving in mid-January 1788, taking between 250 and 252 days from departure to final arrival.

Naval escort

The fleet included two Royal Navy escort ships, HMS Sirius and HMS Supply.


Ropes, crockery, agricultural equipment and a miscellany of other stores were needed. Items 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.[13] The party had to rely only on its own provisions to survive until it could make use of local materials, assuming suitable supplies existed, and could grow its own food and raise livestock.


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Second Fleet is the name of the second fleet of ships sent with settlers, convicts and supplies to colony at Sydney Cove in Port Jackson, Australia. The fleet comprised six ships: one Royal Navy escort, four convict ships, and a supply ship.

The ships were intended to sail to Australia together, arriving at Sydney Cove in 1789. However the escort was disabled en route and failed to make the destination, and one convict ship which was delayed arrived two months after the other ships.

Unlike the preceding First Fleet, where great efforts were taken to ensure the health of the convicts, the Second Fleet was contracted to private businesses who kept the convicts in horrific conditions. Upon arrival the sickly convicts were a drain on the already struggling colony.