Image: Sirius Rock and Plaque at Mosman Bay.
This historical episode has been virtually forgotten by modern Australians who, of all people, should remember when their nascent and fragile colony was saved from starvation by the racist Boers..!!
The frigate HMS Sirius was the Royal Naval flagship that escorted the “First Fleet”, departing Portsmouth in August 1787 bound for Botany Bay, NSW, where they arrived in Jan 1788. After depositing their human and animal cargoes, the 11 transport ships returned to England, leaving only the Sirius and the smaller Supply to defend the new penal colony.
After a few months it became clear that the harvest was not going to be sufficient to feed the colony, partly because the land around Sydney Cove was not very productive but also because the convicts did not make good farmers. By October the food supply had become so critical that Sirius, a warship not a transport, was sent on a perilous emergency mission to the nearest reliable wheat growing source. And where was that? It was half-way around the world at the Cape of Good Hope, at that time administered by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), and not yet a British colony.
Sirius circumnavigated the globe via Cape Horn, loading up at Kaapstad with Boer-grown wheat and other Boer produce, returning to Port Jackson 7months later in May 1789 with enough food to keep the colony alive until the next (better) harvest and/or the arrival of the 2nd fleet.
After this epic RTW voyage the Sirius was in a bad state, so she was beached on a remote cove of the largely unexplored north shore of Port Jackson where she was repaired and “careened” of marine growth, etc, before returning to service. Just months later, in March 1790, HMS Sirius was wrecked on the reefs of Norfolk Island. Her anchor was later recovered and is on permanent display in Macquarie Place, close to Circular Quay. The outdoor seating area of the adjacent "Customs House" pub is a good place to sit and appreciate it.
The sheltered bay where Sirius was beached was initially named “Great Sirius Cove”, but later renamed “Mosman Bay” after the owner of the whaling industry that later occupied the bay. (Nearby "Little Sirius Cove" abuts onto the famous Taronga Park Zoo). Today, this beautiful spot only a 20 minute ferry ride from Circular Quay, is surrounded by 1920's mansions and expensive apartments, and packed with yachts, notably the 42m “Nelson” (hopefully named after the naval hero and not the false black “saint”!). It is one of the most expensive Sydney suburbs, expect to pay $A700,000+ (R5 million) for a small 2br apart with good views.
The frigate HMS Sirius was the Royal Naval flagship that escorted the “First Fleet”, departing Portsmouth in August 1787 bound for Botany Bay, NSW, where they arrived in Jan 1788. After depositing their human and animal cargoes, the 11 transport ships returned to England, leaving only the Sirius and the smaller Supply to defend the new penal colony.
After a few months it became clear that the harvest was not going to be sufficient to feed the colony, partly because the land around Sydney Cove was not very productive but also because the convicts did not make good farmers. By October the food supply had become so critical that Sirius, a warship not a transport, was sent on a perilous emergency mission to the nearest reliable wheat growing source. And where was that? It was half-way around the world at the Cape of Good Hope, at that time administered by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), and not yet a British colony.
Sirius circumnavigated the globe via Cape Horn, loading up at Kaapstad with Boer-grown wheat and other Boer produce, returning to Port Jackson 7months later in May 1789 with enough food to keep the colony alive until the next (better) harvest and/or the arrival of the 2nd fleet.
After this epic RTW voyage the Sirius was in a bad state, so she was beached on a remote cove of the largely unexplored north shore of Port Jackson where she was repaired and “careened” of marine growth, etc, before returning to service. Just months later, in March 1790, HMS Sirius was wrecked on the reefs of Norfolk Island. Her anchor was later recovered and is on permanent display in Macquarie Place, close to Circular Quay. The outdoor seating area of the adjacent "Customs House" pub is a good place to sit and appreciate it.
The sheltered bay where Sirius was beached was initially named “Great Sirius Cove”, but later renamed “Mosman Bay” after the owner of the whaling industry that later occupied the bay. (Nearby "Little Sirius Cove" abuts onto the famous Taronga Park Zoo). Today, this beautiful spot only a 20 minute ferry ride from Circular Quay, is surrounded by 1920's mansions and expensive apartments, and packed with yachts, notably the 42m “Nelson” (hopefully named after the naval hero and not the false black “saint”!). It is one of the most expensive Sydney suburbs, expect to pay $A700,000+ (R5 million) for a small 2br apart with good views.
Every Australian child is taught about the first fleet, in fact any Australian who can trace their line to a convict, especially a 1st Fleet arrival, is regarded almost as a national treasure. But very few remember this episode, and even fewer (in fact NONE) have ever thanked the Boers of South Africa for having saved their once fragile colony.
On the contrary todays smugly self-satisfied offspring of petty criminals and ten quid trash who "call Arse-stray-liar home", have done everything politically, economically, and culturally possible to destroy their race relatives in South Africa by cynically conspiring with Black Thugs and Islamo-Fascists and self-hating white neo-Marxists, in the international anti-white "morality" fest that "triumphantly" ended in the undeserved gift of Africa's only civilised nation to Mandela’s moronic (IQ67) and psycopathic Xhosa savages. Meanwhile, in their stupefying self-righteous ignorance, Arse-stray-liars have been led by the nose to believe Mandela's Xhosa savages are the local “Aborigines” whose land it once was..!!! Fact is that, before 1900, when a few hundred black wekkas were imported from the Transkei region to help build Cape Town's new Victoria dock, there were no Bantu settleMUNTS within 1000km of Cape Town.
So, in order that some selfish self-righteous Arse-stray-liars could heal their (IMO, unjustified) guilt-complex about their own worthless indigenous sub-humans, and feel that re-assuring inner glow of goodness that comes from doing supposedly charitable deeds; every year thousands of South African whites are brutally murdered (and frequently tortured) by prowling bands of predatory sub-human psychopaths let loose and virtually sponsored by the gang of criminal psycopaths that unjustly mis-rules a once-great country that they KNOW they could never have built and KNOW they will never be able to maintain. The Afro-Nazi Criminals (ANC).
White South Africans are paying a terrible price for the arrogant selfish hypocrisy displayed by (many) white Australians, especially their political leaders.
“The degree of sympathy whites feel for blacks is in inverse proportion to their actual experience with them”. How true..!
