Thomas Telford

This famous engineer, not renowned for spending time on the south coast, built two buildings in Portsmouth Dockyard while he was employed as Admiralty Clerk of Works. These buildings, Short Row (officer housing for those indispensable at all times to the running of the Yard) and Admiralty House, were erected in and 1787 respectively 1789 respectively.

Province of Freedom

1787 did not just see one fleet filled with convicts sailing for the first time from Portsmouth to set up a new colony in an unknown place. In the minds of many contemporaries the famous sailing of the first fleet to Australia was irrevocably linked with another, now forgotten, destined for Cline Town in Sierra Leone. This less famous fleet was to remove many of the freed but poverty stuck ex slaves and convicts in London to form a utopian new colony, the Province of Freedom, in Africa. It was initially expected that these two fleets would sail together for part of the journey and both waited around Portsmouth for notification to sail. As the Daily Universal Register reported from Portsmouth in January 1787: 'The Naulitus, with the two transports and the Blacks, intended for the new settlement on the Coast of Guinea is expected to sail today.' In fact a series of delays affected both ventures. An epidemic of fever was followed by a small mutiny and the Naulitus finally sailed without those destined for Australia in mid February. Interestingly along with the 'poor blacks' were white women and some British merchants. They arrived in this Province of Freedom in May 1787. Although Sierra Leone sounded pleasant being described as 'there is plenty of wood, water and every necessity of life sufficient for the support of more than 1000 inhabitants', this new colony initally struggled. In 1808 the British took it over as its base for anti slavery naval patrols. Most of the residents stayed however, took over some British culture and language and formed the basis of the flourishing merchant Creole peoples of the area. To find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sierra_Leone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_Freedom Portsmouth Paper No 50: Portsmouth and the First Fleet 1786-1787

Settling a whole continent

For centuries ships have been leaving Portsmouth for all parts of the world. However one of the most notable departures must be that of the First Fleet to Australia on 13 May 1787. Looking for a solution to rising crime, the British Government fitted out 6 convict ships, 3 store ships and 2 naval vessels to carry 756 convicts (both male and female), their Marine guards (some with families) and a few civil officers to the ‘land beyond the seas’. The ships had arrived in Portsmouth on 16 March 1787 where convicts and marines embarked and awaited orders to depart. The Fleet sailed under the command of Captain Arthur Philip and made stops at Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town to take on supplies. It arrived in Botany Bay, the first people to visit since Captain Cook had discovered it in 1770, in January 1788. After a difficult start, the new colony began to expand and flourish providing the foundation stone for a new country. A colourful series of events were held in Portsmouth to celebrate the bicentenary of this event in 1987. Perhaps the most memorable was in Guildhall Square where the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh joined a huge crowd to watch, among other things, a display of aboriginal dancing.