The Ships in the Cove, August 1788

The earliest known drawing of Sydney Cove was a sketch made by the second captain of the Sirus, John Hunter, dated the 20th of August 1788. The original is missing, and we know of it through an engraving published in Hunter’s Historical Journal (1793), and a watercolour made in 1802 by his 1st Lieutenant, William Bradley.

Hunter shows two ships moored in the cove, one over the east side, near the rocky projection then known as Cattle Point (and today as Bennelong Point) - she has been hauled down, so the hull can be cleaned. The other, flying a red ensign, is anchored in the middle of the cove. The identity of these ships has not previously been established. 

There were only four ships in the colony at this time, the two naval vessels, Sirius and Supply, and two storeships, Fishburn and Golden Grove. We can rule out the Supply, which was a two-masted brig – the ships shown by Hunter have three masts.

The vessel being careened on the eastern side of the cove was the Golden Grove. which was heaved down between the 22nd and 25th of August. The Sirius had been ‘heeled’ in April to repair some copper sheathing and the Fishburn wasn’t careened until October.

So the second ship is either the Sirius or the Fishburn. The following drawings of the Sirius from late 1788 and 1789 made by George Raper, a midshipman on that vessel, show a figurehead, distinctive gunports along the side, and scrollwork across the stern. A number of Bradley’s paintings also show the gunports. These distinctive details are missing from the second vessel in the Hunter sketch.

George Raper, Detail of ‘Ice Islands as Seen on Our Passage round Cape Horn in 1788, Natural History Museum, London, Raper Drawing, No.19

William Bradley, 'Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, 1788', State Library of NSW Safe 1/14

The vessels shown by Hunter as anchored in the cove in August 1788 are the Fishburn and the Golden Grove. The Australian National Maritime Museum holds a detailed painting of the third storeship, the Borrowdale, but this is the only known representation of these two ships.

George Raper, Detail of ‘His Majesty’s Ship Sirius in Sidney Cove, 1789’, Natural History Museum, London, Raper Drawing, No.4