Cook's Voyages and the Second Fleet to Australia

Cook's Voyages, Botany Bay & the second Fleet the London Chronicle, November 5-7, 1789: This edition includes a long (almost full page) commentary on a new book published by Captain Nathaniel Portlock, who had previously accompanied Captain James Cook on his Third Pacific Voyage, also, a small reference to 'The fleet, with convicts for the new settlement at South Wales' being prepared for departure from Portsmouth 'before the conclusion of the month.' This is a reference to the second Fleet, Surprize, Neptune, and Scarborough were contracted from the firm Camden, Calvert & King, which undertook to transport, clothe and feed the convicts for a flat fee of £17 7s. 6d per head, whether they landed alive or not. This firm had previously been involved in transporting slaves to North America. The three vessels left England on 19 January 1790, with 1,006 convicts (928 male and 78 female) on board. They made only one stop on the way, at the Cape of Good Hope. Here 20 male convicts, survivors from HMS Guardian, were taken on board. The three vessels made a faster trip than the First Fleet, arriving at Port Jackson in the last week of June 1790, three weeks after Lady Juliana, and one week after the storeship Justinian. The passage was relatively fast, but the mortality rate was the highest in the history of transportation to Australia. Of the 1,026 convicts embarked, 267 (256 men and 11 women) died during the voyage.