HMS Sirius (1786)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Berwick was built by Watsons of Rotherhithe in 1780 for the East India trade. She is best known under the name HMS Sirius, as the flagship of the First Fleet, which set out from England in 1787 to establish the first European colony in New South Wales.

She had a displacement of 511 tons and after being burnt in a fire was bought and rebuilt by the Royal Navy in 1786 and renamed Sirius. She sailed under the command of Captain John Hunter and carried Arthur Phillip, the Governor of the colony which was to be established. She also carried Major Robert Ross commander of the marines responsible for guarding the convicts in the colony. The surgeons on this ship were George Bouchier Worgan and Thomas Jamison. She left Portsmouth on 13 May 1787, and arrived at Port Jackson on 26 January 1788. She remained in the colony until 2 October 1788 when she was sent from Port Jackson to the Cape of Good Hope to get flour and other supplies for the almost starving colony, a voyage that took over seven months.

On 19 March 1790 Sirius was wrecked on the reef at Norfolk Island while landing stores. With the settlement still on the brink of starvation this was a major catastrophe as it left the colonists with only one ship. Her crew was stranded there until 21 February 1791 when they were rescued and eventually returned to England. Hunter returned to New South Wales as Governor from 1795 to 1799.

Sirius' anchor was retrieved from the wreck site and is now mounted in Macquarie Place, Sydney.

See HMS Sirius for other ships of this name.