Phillip’s successor, Captain John Hunter, was appointed in February 1794. He had been Phillip’s second in command, the captain of "HMS Sirius" that had provided a naval escort for the First Fleet. He was to return to the Colony on "HMS Reliance", but after she was thrown ashore at Plymouth in wild weather, it was another year before he sailed. After an anxious voyage through French infested waters, Governor Hunter arrived in Sydney Town on 7 September 1795, nearly three years after Phillip’s departure.