num_pages: 512
description: The first fleet - the creation of a nation. Bestselling Maritme Biographer Rob Mundle is back on the ocean with a blockbuster. First Fleet tells the extraordinary story of the eighteenth century convoy of eleven ships that left England on 13th May 1787 for the 'land beyond the seas'. Aboard were seafarers convicts marines and a few good citizens - some 1300 hundred in all - who had been consigned to a virtually unknown land on the opposite side of the world where they would establish a penal colony and a nation. The fleet stopped at Tenerife Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town before sailing across the notorious and challenging Southern ocean bound for Botany bay. Somehow all 11 ships arrived safely between 18 and 20 January 1788. But it's what happened during 252 days at sea while sailing halfway around the world and subsequently on land that is almost beyond belief. No nation has ever been founded in such a courageous and dangerous manner. It's the basis for one hell of an adventure
language: English
title: The First Fleet
publisher: ABC Books