Third Fleet (Australia)

1791 prisoner transport convoy to Australia

The Third Fleet comprised 11 ships that set sail from the Kingdom of Great Britain in February, March and April 1791, bound for the Sydney penal settlement, with more than 2,000 convicts aboard. The passengers comprised convicts, military personnel and notable people sent to fill high positions in the colony. More important for the fledgling colony was that the ships also carried provisions.

The first ship to arrive in Sydney was the Mary Ann with its cargo of female convicts and provisions on 9 July 1791. Mary Ann had sailed on her own to Sydney Cove, and there is some argument about whether she was the last ship of the Second Fleet, or the first ship of the Third Fleet, or simply sailing independently, as was HMS Gorgon. The vessels that unambiguously belong to the third fleet all left together.

The ships that make up each fleet, however, are decided from the viewpoint of the settlers in Sydney Cove. For them, the second set of ships arrived in 1790 (June), and the third set of ships arrived in 1791 (July–October). The Mary Ann was a 1791 arrival.

The next ship to arrive just over three weeks later, on 1 August 1791, was Matilda. With Matilda came news that there were another nine ships making their way for Sydney, and which were expected to arrive shortly. The final vessel, Admiral Barrington, did not arrive until 16 October, nearly 11 weeks after Matilda, and 14 weeks after Mary Ann.

## Ships of the Third Fleet

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Ship  | Master  | Dep. England  | Arr. Sydney  | Duration  | Male convicts: arrived [deaths] (boarded)  | Female convicts: arrived [deaths] (boarded)

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Mary Ann | Mark Munro  | 16 Feb 1791  | 9 Jul 1791  | 143 days  |  | 141 [9] (150)
HMS Gorgon | Commander John Parker, RN  | 15 Mar 1791  | 21 Sep 1791  | 190 days  | 30 [1] (31)  |
Matilda | Matthew Weatherhead  | 27 Mar 1791  | 1 Aug 1791  | 127 days  | 225 [25] (250)  |
Atlantic | Archibald Armstrong  | 27 Mar 1791  | 20 Aug 1791  | 147 days  | 202 [18] (220)  |
Salamander | John Nichol  | 27 Mar 1791  | 21 Aug 1791  | 148 days  | 155 [5] (160)  |
William and Ann | Eber Bunker | 27 Mar 1791  | 28 Aug 1791  | 154 days  | 181 [7] (188)  |
Active | John Mitchinson  | 27 Mar 1791  | 26 Sep 1791  | 183 days  | 154 [21] (175)  |
Queen (came from Cork, Ireland)  | Richard Bowen  | 19 Apr 1791  | 26 Sep 1791  | 160 days  | 126 [7] (133)  | 22 [-] (22)
Albemarle | George Bowen  | 27 Mar 1791  | 13 Oct 1791  | 200 days  | 250 [32] (282)  | 6 [-] (6) (arrival of females is a mystery)
Britannia | Thomas Melvill  | 27 Mar 1791  | 14 Oct 1791  | 201 days  | 129 [21] (150)  |
Admiral Barrington | Robert Abbon Marsh  | 27 Mar 1791  | 16 Oct 1791  | 203 days  | 264 [36] (300)  |
TOTAL |  |  |  |  | 1716 [173] (1889) | 169 [9] (178)

Atlantic, Salamander, and William and Ann departed from Plymouth; their naval agent was Lieutenant Richard Bowen. Albemarle, Active, Admiral Barrington, Britannia, and Matilda departed from Portsmouth; their naval agent was Lieutenant Robert Parry Young. Queen departed from Cork, Ireland; she had her own naval agent, Lieutenant Samuel Blow.

After having delivered their convicts, Active, Admiral Barrington, Albemarle, and Queen sailed for India. French privateers captured Active and Albemarle as they were almost home. Pirates murdered most of Admiral Barrington's crew near Bombay, but she was apparently recovered. A French privateer captured her in 1797.

Britannia, Mary Ann, Matilda, Salamander, and William and Ann went whaling. Britannia was wrecked off the coast of New South Wales some years later, in 1806. Matilda was wrecked on a shoal in February 1792.

## People of the Third Fleet

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From the above table it can be seen that 173 male convicts and 9 female convicts died during this voyage. Though this death rate was high, it was nowhere near as high as that which occurred on the Second Fleet. Convict arrivals on the Third Fleet included:[1]

* Simeon Lord, pioneer merchant and magistrate
* Isaac Nichols, first postmaster (1810)
* Joseph Luker, police officer
* James Underwood, shipbuilder

## See also

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* First Fleet
* Fourth Fleet
* Penal transportation

## References

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1. ^ "Convicts of the First Fleet". members.iinet.net.au. Retrieved 25 February 2020.

## External sources

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* Bateson, Charles, The Convict Ships, 1787-1868, Sydney, 1974. ISBN 0-85174-195-9
* Hughes, Robert, The Fatal Shore, London, Pan, 1988 ISBN 0-394-75366-6
* Keneally, Thomas (2006), A Commonwealth of Thieves, Sydney, Random House, ISBN 978-1-74166-121-7

* v
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Convicts in Australia

* Assignment
* Australia Day
* Emancipation
* Female factories
* Freedom
* History of Australia (1788–1850)
* New Holland
* Women

Penal colonies|

* Cockatoo Island
* Rosehill
* Sydney Cove
* Moreton Bay
* Redcliffe
* Maria Island
* Port Arthur
* Richmond
* Risdon Cove
* Macquarie Harbour (History)
* Norfolk Island (History)
* Saltwater River
* Sullivans Cove
* Western Australia

Events|

* First Fleet (1788)
* Second Fleet (1789)
* Third Fleet (1791)
* Lady Shore mutiny (1797)
* Castle Hill Rebellion (1804)
* Rum Rebellion (1808)
* Capture of the brig Emu (1813)
* Argo disappearance (1814)
* Norfolk Island mutinies (1826–1846)
* Cyprus mutiny (1829)
* Bathurst Rebellion (1830)
* Badger escape (1833)
* Frederick escape (1834)
* Wreck of the George III (1835)
* Wreck of the Hive (1835)
* Wreck of the Neva (1835)
* Cooking Pot Uprising (1846)
* Catalpa rescue (1876)
* Anti-Transportation League

Convict ships|

* First Fleet
* Second Fleet
* Third Fleet
* New South Wales
* Norfolk Island
* Tasmania
* Western Australia

Governors and
commandants|

* Arthur
* Bligh
* Bourke
* Brisbane
* Collins
* Darling
* Davey
* Denison
* Eardley-Wilmot
* Franklin
* Gipps
* Hunter
* Johnston
* King
* Logan
* Macquarie
* Paterson
* Phillip
* Sorell

Notable convicts
and personnel|

| Surgeons|

* William Bland
* Arthur Bowes Smyth
* William Redfern
* D'Arcy Wentworth

|

Entrepreneurs|

* Enoch Barratt
* Daniel Connor
* Daniel Cooper
* John Davies
* William Field
* William Hutchinson
* Mary Hyde
* Henry Kable
* Solomon Levey
* Simeon Lord
* Mary Reibey
* Robert Sidaway
* James Squire
* John Tawell
* Samuel Terry

Architects|

* James Blackburn
* Francis Greenway

Bushrangers
and escapees|

* Charlotte Badger
* Matthew Brady
* Mary Bryant
* William Bryant
* William Buckley
* Moondyne Joe
* John Caesar
* Martin Cash
* William Chopin
* Michael Howe
* Lawrence Kavenagh
* John Mitchel
* Thomas Muir
* John Boyle O'Reilly
* Alexander Pearce
* William Westwood

Artists|

* Joseph Backler
* Thomas Bock
* Richard Browne
* Knud Bull
* Edmund Edgar
* John Eyre
* William Buelow Gould
* Joseph Lycett
* Charles Rodius
* Thomas Griffiths Wainewright
* Thomas Watling
* James Walsh

Politicians|

* William Cuffay
* William Henry Groom
* Kevin Izod O'Doherty

Chroniclers|

* Denis Cashman
* Margaret Catchpole
* Frank the Poet
* Henry Savery
* James Hardy Vaux
* John Acton Wroth

Explorers|

* John Baxter
* James Meehan
* Joseph Wild

Other
convicts|

* Esther Abrahams
* John Baughan
* James Bloodsworth
* Billy Blue
* John Cadman
* Elizabeth Callaghan
* Margaret Dawson
* Laurence Hynes Halloran
* Mark Jeffrey
* Jørgen Jørgensen
* William Smith O'Brien
* Robert Palin
* Isaac Nichols
* Joseph Potaski
* James Ruse
* Elizabeth Thackery
* Mary Wade

Popular culture|

| Music|

* Transportation ballads
* "Botany Bay"
* "Moreton Bay"
* "Jim Jones at Botany Bay"
* "Van Diemen's Land"

|

Film|

* For the Term of His Natural Life (1908)
* The Assigned Servant (1911)
* It Is Never Too Late to Mend (1911)
* The Lady Outlaw (1911)
* The Life of Rufus Dawes (1911)
* The Mark of the Lash (1911)
* One Hundred Years Ago (1911)
* The Romantic Story of Margaret Catchpole (1911)
* Sentenced for Life (1911)
* Moondyne (1913)
* Transported (1913)
* The Tenth Straw (1926)
* For the Term of His Natural Life (1927)
* To New Shores (1937)
* Red Sky at Morning (1944)
* Under Capricorn (1949)
* Botany Bay (1953)
* Adam's Woman (1970)
* Journey Among Women (1977)
* The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce (2008)
* Van Diemen's Land (2009)
* The Nightingale (2017)

Television|

* The Devil Makes Sunday (1961)
* The Devil Makes Sunday (1962)
* Against the Wind (1978)
* Sara Dane (1982)
* For the Term of His Natural Life (1983)
* The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant (2005)
* Banished (2015)
* The Secret River (2015)

Literature|

* Journals of the First Fleet
* It's Never Too Late to Mend (1856)
* The Broad Arrow (1859)
* Great Expectations (1861)
* The Wild Goose (1867)
* For the Term of His Natural Life (1872)
* Moondyne (1879)
* Bring Larks and Heroes (1967)
* A Fringe of Leaves (1973)
* The Playmaker (1987)
* Remembering Babylon (1993)
* The Potato Factory (1995)
* Jack Maggs (1997)
* Gould's Book of Fish (2001)
* The Secret River (2005)
* The Lieutenant (2008)
* Parrot and Olivier in America (2010)

Stage|

* The Transports (1977)
* Our Country's Good (1988)

Art|

* Charlotte Medal
* Port Jackson Painter
* Rajah Quilt
* Sydney punchbowls
* Twenty Dollar Note

Australian
Convict Sites|

* Brickendon Estate
* Cadmans Cottage
* Cascades Female Factory
* Coal Mines
* Commissariat Store, Brisbane
* Darlington Probation Station
* Elizabeth Farm
* Experiment Farm Cottage
* Fremantle Prison
* Great North Road
* Hyde Park Barracks
* Kingston and Arthur's Vale
* Lennox Bridge
* Old Government House
* Parramatta Female Factory
* Port Arthur
* Richmond Bridge
* Richmond Gaol
* Ross Female Factory
* The Old Windmill, Brisbane
* Vaucluse House
* Woolmers Estate

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