1787 – Overview

For a couple of all too brief but exciting months during the autumn the Navy mobilised to meet the threat of a French involvement in Dutch affairs, but following sound diplomacy the so-called Dutch Armament petered out and the disappointed officers returned to the beach to face several more years of unemployment.

On 31 May the subsequently famous First Fleet set out from home waters under the command of Commodore Arthur Phillip to colonise New South Wales with a mixture of seamen, soldiers and convicts.