The Botany Baymen
Convicts and cargoes did not find their own way to NSW. Ships had to be found and fitted out for the voyage, and people who knew the business had to commission and finance them. Someone had to procure suitable clothes, provisions and medicines. Mariners had to be engaged to navigate and sail these vessels, and someone charged with organizing the prisoners day-to-day throughout the voyage and overseeing their safety, security and salubrity. The transportation system would not have worked without a sophisticated legal, financial and administrative infrastructure.
The Britannia, Raven (a storeship) in Sydney Cove, 1793
(Detail of Unknown Artist, ‘A Partial View of Sydney Cove taken from the Sea Side before the Surgeon General’s House’, Watling Collection, Natural History Museum, London)
This section deals with the workings of the Botany Bay system: the convict contractors, the ship owners, the ships’ officers and crews, the charter parties, provisioning and insurance contracts; the physical layout of the convict ships; the routes they typically followed down through the Atlantic and across the Southern Ocean, the ports where they touched along the way.
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Botany Baymen acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and respects their connection to land, water and community.
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