One Night in Sydney Cove

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Historical context.

Before I write of the historical context, I first want to acknowledge the Cadigal people of the Eora Nation, who were the owners of Sydney Cove (known variously as Warane, Warrang and Wee-rong) and surrounding land and waters. Even though I barely mentioned the Indigenous people of Australia in this story, the events that took place when the First Fleet arrived in their waters and lands impacted upon them and their culture in the most devastating ways possible, and the effects of that day have rippled down through time, continuing through to this day. And so, to borrow the words of Tim Flannery from his dedication in his book, The Birth of Sydney, which I used as a source for this tale, I'd like to say it is 'with the greatest regret our shared history is not different...'

The First Fleet left England in May 1787 for the purpose of founding a penal settlement at Botany Bay, which was to be the first European settlement of Australia. The fleet comprised 11 ships carrying 1420 people, including 582 male and 193 female convicts (543 and 189 respectively surviving the voyage). A force of volunteers from the Royal Marines, known as the New South Wales Marine Corps, was raised for the colony and comprised of 247 men.

Arriving at Botany Bay between 18 and 20 January, 1788, the Commodore of the Fleet, Captain Arthur Phillip, decided the waters of the bay were too shallow for deep drafted ships to anchor close to shore, and were unprotected, plus land surrounding the bay was too poor for agriculture, and fresh water sources were limited. Thus, on 26 January the fleet moved from Botany Bay to Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), which Phillip described as '...the finest harbour in the world...'

Male convicts were immediately disembarked to begin work on the colony and were camped on the western shore of the cove below a sandstone headland ridge. To this day the area is still known as The Rocks and the top of the sandstone ridge supports the southern approach to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The females were kept aboard the ships for two weeks, likely so the men kept at their tasks without distraction, and on 6 February the women were finally brought ashore. As told in the excerpt from the diary of surgeon Arthur Bowes Smyth, which I added to the preface at the beginning of this tale, the disembarkation of women from the ships to shore was an all-day affair, ending at 6 p.m.

He then wrote, '...The men convicts got to them very soon after they landed, and it is beyond my abilities to give a just description of the scene of debauchery and riot that ensued during the night...' and also mentions the night of the '...most violent storm of thunder, lighting and rain I ever saw.' He mentions how a lighting strike on a tree in the camp killed sheep and hogs belonging to Major Ross, the man in charge of the Marines.

Several history books tell us this was a night where the male convicts rutted with the female convicts and that the sailors on the ships were given a double ration of rum '...to make merry with upon the women quitting the ship.'

Author Eleanor Dark wrote in her historical fiction, The Timeless Land, published in 1941 before history books told of the account, that '...Sailors had come ashore from some of the transports, bringing rum, and in the rows of tents and huts, and in the shadows of trees and rocks there was a wild uprising of too long frustrated desire, an orgy of emotional release. Drunk, not only with the hot, strong spirits, the convicts challenged the unforgiving grimness of their lives...in the dark rising storm, they snatched and drained them, wringing from them their last ounce of ecstasy, finding an instinctive retreat into primitive emotion...The Governor was nowhere to be seen -- in fact, all the officers were conspicuous in their invisibility.' Like I said, Eleanor Dark's The Timeless Land was published before the most authoritative history books on the subject, but was the product of countless hours of research by Dark, who wove her tale using many primary sources -- the journals and letters from First Fleeters.

In more recent times the events of the evening of 6 February, 1788, have been challenged by historian Grace Karskens as 'The Myth of Sydney's foundational orgy', citing a lack of evidence of debauchery occurring, since the Arthur Bowes Smyth's account, which is the only account of the event, states it was beyond his abilities to describe the scene of debauchery and riot because he was still stationed aboard his ship, and consequently not privy to what occurred onshore.

Whether Arthur Bowes Smyth's words have been used out of context in many history books, whatever happened that day and night when the women convicts were brought ashore was likely just another day to both the officers, sailors, marines and convicts, and perhaps this is why the moment attracted little attention in the diaries of these men. Perhaps they were used to sexual shenanigans between the convicts, sailors and marines, and so even a drunken orgy, if it even occurred, wouldn't have been a surprise.

One thing we do know is that many of the women were, indeed, promiscuous with sailors, marines and other convicts. John White, Surgeon on board the transport Charlotte, wrote en route that '...the desire of the women to be with the men was so uncontrollable that neither shame nor the fear of punishment could deter them from making their way through the bulkheads to the apartments assigned to the seamen.'

Ralph Clark, a Marine Second Lieutenant, wrote of how he was called up by the Captain of the transport Friendship who told him '...men had broken through the women convict's bulkhead again and he caught four of the women in the men's quarters...'

Apparently it was common for crew and the Marines to trade items of food and grog and other privileges with the women for sex. And who knows, when the women were brought ashore and the male convicts got to them, it is hard to imagine there wasn't some debauchery going on. Maybe some of the women encouraged it? Maybe even the officers turned a blind eye to any shenanigans that night, but whatever occurred was masked by a violent electrical storm which Arthur Bowes Smyth described as a 'tempest'.

While we can only speculate what occurred on 6 February, we do have a description of the goings on in the camp in the following days from Lieutenant Clark, who writes to his wife, Betsey Alicia, that on 'Monday 11 ...Several of the convicts married yesterday and amongst them that were have left wives and families at home -- a good God what a scene of whoredom is going on there in the woman's camp -- no sooner has one man gone in with a woman but another goes in with her -- I hope the Almighty will keep me free from them as he has heather to done but I need not be afraid as I promised you my Tender Betsey I will keep my word with you -- I never will have anything [to do with] any woman whatever except yourself my dear wife I will be true to my Betsey my love for you will keep me so...'

I've cleaned up Ralph Clark's original spelling and grammar, which would be ripped apart by modern grammar pedants, but the words are his, giving us one description we have of what was happening in the convict camp during the days and nights after the women convicts were brought ashore. This passage also shows how quick some were to marry, even those who already had wives and families back home, and so the lightning courtship between my Henrietta and Nathaniel isn't completely out of the question.

We know from Clark's journal and letters that he had a great dislike of convicts, particularly the females, who he often describes as whores. However, these women were not prostitutes, or at least they weren't transported for prostitution because it wasn't deemed a crime. If they were promiscuous, it's more than likely they did what they did to survive the brutal man's world they lived in. And despite his obvious contempt for the women convicts and promise to be faithful to Betsey Alicia, Clark fathered a child with a convict named Mary Branham, naming the girl Alicia after his own wife!

The convicts were often people born and bred in slums and rookeries, who spoke the 'flash' language of the thieves most of them were. They swore regularly and could be abusive. For example, once again Lieutenant Clark writes an explicit description of an interaction between a convict, Elizabeth 'Betty' Barber, who was apparently 'very much in liquor', and the Marines and Crew of the transport Friendship, where she '...abused the Doctor in a most terrible manner and said that he wanted to f___ her...She began to abuse Capt. Meridith in a much worse manner than she had done the doctor -- she called him everything but a gentleman and said she was no more a whore than his wife...She hoped and she was certain that she should see us all thrown overboard before we got to Botany Bay...She desired Merdith to come and kiss her C___ for he was nothing but a lousy rascal as we were all -- I wish to god she was out of the ship...I would rather have a hundred more men than to have a single woman...' Part of Clark's wish came true, because Barber was transferred to another ship, the Prince of Wales.

Many of the convicts lived hard lives, existing hand to mouth, and some were initially sentenced to hang for crimes before their sentence was commuted to transportation. They'd been used and abused, treated as slaves, the women as sex slaves, flogged repeatedly, and saw the worst life could throw at them, and so I wanted some of my characters to reflect a toughness of those who endure such circumstance. After all, it's no wonder many Australian's romanticise about the character of convicts and circumstances leading to their transportation, believing most of them committed whatever crime they committed simply to survive. Many of them probably even did.

But not all of them were hardened criminals, and some, if they ever were a hardened criminal, reformed and a few even became successful. In a moment of rare generosity, Ralph Clark mentioned the names of '...Six Very best Women we have in the Ship...' which included Ann Beardsley, who he lamented was to be transferred from his ship, the Friendship, to the transport Charlotte.

In my tale my protagonist Henrietta and her lover Nathaniel are entirely fictional. However, most of the characters I mention are based on real people, hence the confusing overuse of names such as John, Mary and Elizabeth.

Captain Watkin Tench - a company commander of the NSW Marine Corps, and he published several accounts of his experiences, which are considered some of the best descriptions of the early colony. His earlier service really did see him captured as a prisoner of war in the American War of Independence, when the ship on which he served, HMS Mermaid, was driven ashore by the French. I strongly considered making Tench the love interest, but there is no record of him spending any time with a convict girl, and he eventually left the colony in 1791 and married the daughter of a surgeon in Devonport back in England. Tench was later captured by the French during another battle and held for six months, before he was liberated in an exchange. At the end of his career he retired with the rank of Lieutenant-General.

Mary Cleaver - a convict from Bristol, transported for burglary of unknown value. She met convict John Baughan in the convict hulk Dunkirk, before they embarked to NSW on separate ships of the First Fleet. Mary gave birth to their son, James, en route, and married convict Baughan soon after they reunited at Sydney Cove.

Ann Beardsly - a convict from Derby, transported for stealing clothing, and later married Marine Private John McCarthy, who she met on the ship Friendship. As mentioned above, Ann was later transferred to the Charlotte. An internet search indicates it's possible John McCarthy lived to 100 years old!

Jane Fitzgerald - a convict from Bristol who later married Marine Private William Mitchell.

Charlotte Ware -- a convict from London, transported for assault and attempted robbery. One of the most interesting convicts of the fleet (and I considered making her the protagonist, storming the beach and taking on all comers!), she had several prior convictions before they finally transported her. By all accounts she was a known fighter who was flogged for fighting, so I doubt she would have shown fear in the male dominated world of the First Fleet and early colony of Sydney. She and Private John Hayes were recorded as 'cohabitating' from 1795, but would have been familiar to one another before that time.

Elizabeth Bason - a convict from Salisbury, transported for stealing material, and eventually married a crewman from the HMS Sirius and later left the colony with him.

Briefly mentioned characters:

Second Lieutenant Ralph Clark - officer with the NSW Marine Corps. As I've mentioned above, Clark wrote a very personal journal expressing his contempt of the convicts.

Corporal James Bagley - a Marine in Captain Tench's company.

Mary Broad - a convict who married another convict, William Bryant. On 28 March, 1791, they escaped with several other convicts in the Governor's sailing cutter, eventually reaching Koepang in Timor.

Elizabeth 'Betty' Thackery - a convict transported for stealing a number of handkerchiefs. She was considered a trouble maker in the fleet, mentioned several times by Ralph Clark, and punished for fighting with other women and being with the sailors. She would have made an interesting and exciting protagonist, except she claimed to be the first white woman ashore in Australia, thus her landing occurring in the morning, and thus harder to fit into the 'One night in XXX' narrative. Despite her claim to be the first white woman ashore, she may not have known that several wives of the Marines were already ashore. Elizabeth eventually settled in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and was considered the last female survivor of the First Fleet when she died in 1856.

James Squire - a convict transported for highway robbery, and perhaps the first person to brew beer in the colony.

Major Ross -- officer commanding the NSW Marine Corps. The men had a low opinion of him and he regularly argued with other officers, including Commodore/Governor Arthur Phillip.