May 13

On the 13th in 1787, Captain (later Admiral) Arthur Phillip of His Majesty’s Royal Navy pointed the bows of his small fleet of eleven ships into the English Channel, left Portsmouth’s harbor and headed for New South Wales. The voyage gave a very new meaning to the word transportation. The ships, with 11 boatloads of convicts were bound for Australia. Phillip would establish the first European colony on the Australian continent. The site would eventually become the city of Sydney. In the meantime, it would serve as a place to stick all the criminals who were crowding English jails. Following the successful start of the colony, judges could sentence the poor souls appearing in the criminal courts to ‘transportation’ to Australia. Surprisingly, the addition of this sentencing option was probably rather well received because the English jails, particularly London’s notorious Bridewell prison, were not really known for being particularly nice and those being sentenced to serve a term of imprisonment more than half a world away from home actually endured improved conditions of confinement. Bridewell Prison, in an earlier incarnation, was Bridewell Palace and was a residence used by England’s King Henry VIII.