Australia v Australie: a photo finish

My reasons

I have a number of reasons for suggesting England belatedly realized it risked losing New South Wales to the French. First, I think Phillip received some very confidential intelligence about La Perouse at Cape Town that made him think fit to race ahead of the fleet and take a detachment of marines with him.

Second, French informers were good at their job, so when La Perouse sailed from France in 1785, nearly two years before the First Fleet sailed, their admiralty would have known there was no settlement in Botany Bay - that possibility was then only being talked of in London.

Third, Phillip was commodore of the fleet and, as such, did not need permission to make or alter any sailing arrangement - at sea he was supreme.

Fourth, Phillip, who suffered seasickness, did not change ships in the relative calm of Table Bay, where the Fleet had spent nearly a month. He did so only after "leaving the Cape of Good Hope"; clearly, it was intended that the activity should not take place where members of any other nationality might witness it. (The southern Indian Ocean was a lonely place at that time.)

Fifth, the commandant of marines, Major Robert Ross, was also transferred to be with his troops, because, as Phillip himself stated, they would be the first to go ashore. On this point, who was Ross expected to fight? Cook had no problem with the native population while his people explored Botany Bay and leisurely sketched flora and fauna. Cook even buried one of his men, Forby Sutherland, without being challenged by Australia's natives.

Finally, and perhaps most telling, it was only when the First Fleet was some 400km or so eastward of Cape Town, Phillip divided the ships into two flotillas - a vanguard of four to be led by himself and seven to follow under the command of Captain John Hunter. This was no simple maritime exercise; it involved a considerable movement of provisions and persons between ships, in which Phillip transferred from the flagship, Sirius, to the much smaller Supply. The operation, carried through in the unreliable weather of the southern Indian Ocean, was by any standard a dangerous undertaking that took about a week to complete. (It speaks volumes for the skills of the British tar that there were no accidents.)

The outcome

We now know the result - Phillip won the race (assuming there ever was one) by the barest of margins. Even so, in the race to the finish, HMS Supply, was to prove herself as unfit for the job as Phillip's friend, Lt King, had said from the outset: "...her size is much too small for so long a voyage which added to her not being able to carry any quantity of Provisions and her sailing very ill renders her a very improper Vessell for this service". Phillip learned that this was only too true as he battled up the New South Wales coast to his landfall. He later wrote to Lord Sydney reporting that he sighted the coast on January 3^rd 1788 but "we did not arrive in Botany Bay before the 18^th".

Thus, Phillip continued: "The Supply, sailing very badly, had not permitted my gaining the advantage I hoped for". But he gained just enough advantage over La Perouse, who had also run into some bad weather after sighting Nouvelles-Galles-du-Sud, to pip him at the post.

And so, now, on Australia Day we sing "Advance Australia Fair" and not "La Marsellaise".