The museum was the successful bidder for this important piece of our history, acclaimed as ’s first colonial work of art and providing a unique record of the arrival of the . The Medal Curator Kieran Hosty takes us back to the colony’s turbulent birth to tell the story of The .

opposite: The Charlotte Medal, obverse and reverse, shown at 120% of actual size. Photographer A Frolows/ANMM

left: First Fleet storeship Borrowdale, by Francis Holman, UK c. 1786. Oil on canvas, ANMM collection. This formal ship portrait shows the ship from three different angles, and is the only such record of a First Fleet vessel know to exist.

soon see – made a sorrowful mark on Australian history just a few weeks later. As well as that, the story of The Charlotte Medal unfolds as part of a larger historical saga as British power, influence and systems of justice were played out on a global stage. Since the early 1600s European societies had used the overseas transportation of IN EARLY July 2008 the Australian appears to have been sold only four times criminals as a form of punishment. National Maritime Museum became during its 220-year existence – was a When in 18th-century Britain the death aware of the imminent auction of one of figure that would normally have been out penalty came to be regarded as too severe the rarest, and at the same time one of the of our reach. However concerns about for crimes such as robbery and larceny, least-known, items of Australiana, The such a rare item associated with the First which were previously capital offences, Charlotte Medal. This 74-millimetre-wide Fleet being sold and then sent overseas transportation to North America became a silver medallion depicting the First Fleet spurred the museum to dig deep. common sentence. The American War of convict transport Charlotte at anchor in Topping up our budget with a generous Independence (1776–1781) put an end to Bay on the day of her arrival, contribution from the National Cultural this mass export of convicts to America, 20 January 1788, is believed to have been Heritage Account, we acquired the medal and many of the convicts in Britain’s jails were instead housed in the hulks of Material of any sort from the First Fleet is decommissioned naval vessels on the River Thames and at Portsmouth, extremely rare and this piece is a graphic Plymouth, Cork and Dublin. record of the fleet’s arrival Convicts were first to under the Transportation engraved there sometime between 20–26 after some tension-filled bidding by Act of 1784. Between 1788 and 1868 over January by one of the ship’s convicts, the our assistant director (collections and 162,000 men, women and children were thief, mutineer and forger Thomas exhibitions), Michael Crayford. sent to Australia as convicts on board Barrett. It’s thought that it was made for The winning bid was $750,000. more than 1,000 modified merchant ships , the Surgeon-General of the The Charlotte Medal is an immensely that had been converted into convict First Fleet, who also sailed on Charlotte. exciting acquisition. Material of any sort transports. The first such fleet of convict The medal was being auctioned by Noble from the First Fleet is extremely rare and transports bound for the east coast of Numismatics for its owner, the this piece is a graphic record of the fleet’s Australia set sail from Spithead on dentist Dr John Chapman, arrival, providing us with a unique 13 May 1787 and comprised two Royal along with 700 other rare and important portrait of one of the First Fleet vessels. Navy ships, HMS Sirius and HMS Australian, New Zealand and British It may be the first art work made in the Supply, three store ships, Borrowdale, coins and medals from his collection. Australian colony. It is associated with Fishburn and Golden Grove and six The estimate provided by the auction important historical figures, both the convict transports, Alexander, Friendship, house – in reality a guesstimate because principal surgeon of the First Fleet and Lady Penrhyn, Scarborough, Prince of The Charlotte Medal was a one-off and colony, and the convict who – as we shall Wales and Charlotte.

Page 10 SIGNALS 84 September–November 2008 SIGNALS 84 September–November 2008 Page 11 For the First Fleet and for all subsequent it into White’s Journal of a Voyage to Barrett, said to be a ringleader of the convict voyages to the Australian New South Wales, published in mutiny, was quickly recaptured with his colonies the British Government did not in 1790. fellow mutineers and again appeared build specialised convict transports, Containing 65 very fine engravings of before the Old Bailey on the charge of instead chartering suitable ships from plants, birds and animals by the artist being criminally at large in England. private ship owners. The three-masted, T Debrett, based on White’s specimens Again he was sentenced to death, and two-decked, wooden ship Charlotte was and drawings, this volume is considered again he was reprieved, this time because built on the Thames in 1784. It’s recorded the earliest book of Australian natural his intervention had saved the life of the as 105 feet long (32 metres), with a history and one of the first detailed Mercury’s steward, and he had prevented breadth of 28 feet 2½ inches (8.59 metres) accounts of the voyage of the First Fleet. another mutineer from cutting off the and a registered tonnage of 338 tons. It reveals White as intelligent, humane captain’s ear with scissors. He was held Charlotte, along with the other eight and diligent in his work of caring for the in the hulk Dunkirk where he was privately-owned ships destined to become convicts, soldiers and sailors of the First reported to be ‘tolerably well behaved but First Fleet transports, was chartered by Fleet and the colony – not to mention troublesome at times’. In March 1887 he the Admiralty late in 1786 from its extremely well-organised, since getting was sent on board Charlotte for transport owner, Mr Matthews, and was fitted out this work into publication so soon after to . at Deptford, one of the royal dockyards established to build, repair and victual ships of the . After sailing to Off the Devon coast some of the convicts Plymouth in January 1787, Charlotte including mutinied, embarked its complement of crew, marines (one captain, two lieutenants, two overpowered the crew and fled sergeants, three corporals, one drummer and 35 privates) and convicts (89 male the First Fleet’s arrival, and while he During his time imprisoned on hulks, and 20 female). remained in the colony, was an Thomas Barrett would no doubt have extraordinary achievement. observed, and possibly taken part in, the Among those who set sail on 13 May manufacture of a category of convict 1787 was John White, the Surgeon- From a totally different social setting mementos that have come to be known as General of the First Fleet, and the came the convict Thomas Barrett. He had ‘love tokens’. These were metal discs or convicted thief and mutineer been tried by the second Middlesex Jury medals, usually made out of salvaged Thomas Barrett. before Mr Justice Ashhurst at Justice Hall copper alloy or low-denomination copper in the Old Bailey on 11 September 1782 Surgeon John White had joined the Navy coins that were sanded down and then for stealing one silver watch (value three in 1780 and in 1786 was surgeon on inscribed with poems and statements of pounds), a steel chain, one watch key, one a process, gave me a high opinion of their with the necessary silver (the medal Captains Hunter, Collins and Johnston, with board HMS Irresistible, one of the many affection by convict forgers or metal hook, two shirts and one shift from Ann ingenuity, cunning, caution, and address; appears to be made out of a piece of a Governor Phillip, Surgeon White ect. visiting a commands of the influential and well- workers. Such love tokens, examples of Milton on 20 July 1782, and was and I could not help wishing that these surgeon’s silver kidney dish) and tools. distressed female native of New South Wales, connected Sir Andrew Snape Hamond. which appear in the museum’s collection, at a hut near . Copper engraving subsequently found guilty of theft and qualities had been employed to more He would also have provided the details Hamond had been Lieutenant Governor were sold to fellow convicts who gave by Alexr Hogg after J Hunter, published London sentenced to death. Shortly afterwards laudable purposes. and statistics of the voyage that are of Nova Scotia for three years, was a them to loved ones, families or friends as 1793. This art work was an early addition to Barrett’s sentence was commuted to engraved on the medal’s reverse: friend of William Pitt and Horatio Nelson a memento of the soon-to-be transported the ANMM collection. transportation for life. After an arduous voyage of between 250 and had won the king’s favour on account convict. and 252 days, 68 days of which were of his ‘many creditable exploits’ in the Although the former American colonies Although Thomas Barrett was sentenced spent at Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro and American War of Independence. It is had firmly opposed receiving further Sailed the Charlotte of London from Spit Head the 13 of May for theft and does not appear to have been Cape Town resupplying the fleet and believed to have been Hamond’s convicts, in January 1783 the Lordships 1787. Bound for Botany Bay in the Island of arriv’d trained as a metal worker or jeweller, resting the crew, HMS Supply arrived at influence that saw White appointed as of the Treasury declared that Surgeon White’s journal records that he Botany Bay on 18 January 1788 and at Teneriff the 4th June in Lat 28.13N Long 42.38 W depart’d it Surgeon-General to the First Fleet. transportation overseas to the Americas was in fact a gifted and talented forger. Captain and some of his 10 arriv’d at Rio Janeiro 6 of Aug in Lat 22.54 S Long 42.38 W In Rio de Janeiro Barrett had been caught men came ashore at Yarra Bay at 3.00 pm depart’d it the 5 Sept arriv’d at the Cape of Good Hope the White was intelligent, humane and diligent in trying to pass some counterfeit quarter that afternoon. The other ships arrived over the following two days, with the 14 Octr in Lat 34.29 Lon S 18.29 E depart’d it th 13 of Novr and dollars that he had managed to forge out made the South Cape of New Holland the 8 of Jany 1788 in his work of caring for the convicts, soldiers of pewter spoons, old buttons and brass Charlotte arriving on the 20th. Most of and sailors of the First Fleet and colony buckles obtained from the marines. With the First Fleet remained in Botany Bay Lat 43.32 S Long 146.56E arrived Botany Bay the 20 of Jany the a couple of accomplices, he achieved this until 26 January when Phillip, Charlotte in Co in Lat 34.00 South Long 151.00 East distance at sea between Teneriffe and Rio, without unimpressed with the location’s from Great Britain miles 13106. Upon White’s arrival in Botany Bay would re-commence, after an eight-year access to tools, a forge or dies and under suitability for a settlement, moved the Governor Phillip appointed him first interlude caused by the American War of the constant surveillance of the guards. Fleet to Cove in Port Jackson to Surgeon-General of New South Wales. Independence. So in March 1784 Thomas establish the first European settlement on White was clearly impressed, and wrote: On the obverse side is engraved a fully- The ship is a fair representation of its He accompanied Phillip on several Barrett, along with 142 other convicts, the Australian continent. rigged ship at anchor. The sun is near the type, although several details suggest a journeys of exploration during which he found himself on board the convict The impression, milling, character, Knowing very well the extent of Barrett’s horizon line on the lower left while the landsman’s and not a sailor’s eye. It’s collected scores of specimens of the transport Mercury bound for North in a word, the whole was so inimitably skill with metal, it is highly likely that moon and some stars are inscribed above unlikely, for example, that a sailor would colony’s unique flora and fauna. He sent America where they could expect to be executed that had their metal been a Surgeon White commissioned Barrett to the ship. Above the sun in the upper left depict the anchor line defying gravity by some of these specimens, along with assigned to planters to labour alongside little better the fraud, I am convinced, make him a memento of the arrival of the field are inscribed the words: arching upward. With similar artistic notes, drawings and the manuscript of his slaves. Off the Devon coast some of the would have passed undetected … First Fleet at Botany Bay, and that this licence the line attaching the anchor to the journal, back to England on one of the convicts including Thomas Barrett The adroitness, therefore, with which they would have taken place during the six anchor buoy is shown arching out of the returning First Fleet ships, addressed to mutinied, overpowered the crew and fled must have managed, in order to complete days that Charlotte remained in Botany The CHARLOTTE at anchor in water. The ship rides to a considerable his friend Thomas Wilson who edited after putting the ship in at Torbay. a business that required so complicated Bay. White would have provided Barrett Botany Bay Jany. th 20, 1788. swell, which is also a little surprising for

Page 12 SIGNALS 84 September–November 2008 SIGNALS 84 September–November 2008 Page 13 left: Sketch of , Port Jackson, in the County of Cumberland, New South Wales July 1788. Coastline by W Dawes; soundings by Capt Hunter. Published by I Stockdale, London 1789. ANMM collection

right: View of the settlement on Sydney Cove, Port Jackson 20th August, 1788, engraving by E Dayes from a sketch by T Hunter, published by I Stockdale, London 1792. ANMM collection

below: Arthur Phillip Esq. Captain General and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Territory of New South Wales. Stipple engraving by W Sherwin engraver, after F Wheatley Engraving, 1789. Publisher I Stockdale, London. ANMM collection so well-sheltered an anchorage as Botany heat of summer after a lengthy voyage stealing pease and beef from the public the strongest message – and, having made Viscount Lewisham, the Lord Bishop of into the collection of Princess Victoria Bay. In a simplified composition of the and food, along with all other supplies, store. With two accomplices, Henry an example of Barrett, was then able to London, the Earl of Oxford, Sir William (daughter of Queen Victoria) and her sky, no constellation is identifiable. was scarce and rationed from the start. Lovell (or Lavell) and Joseph Hall, he exercise his humanity and spare the other Molesworth, Sir Mathew White Ridley husband Prince Louis of Battenberg, later The threats of starvation, illness, rebellion was sentenced to death – for the third accomplices the noose. and the Second Earl Spencer – The First Admiral Louis Alexander Mountbatten, The depiction of both sun and moon or attack, in an unknown and unfamiliar time in his life. But for Thomas Barrett, Lord of the Admiralty, later Home Marquess of Milford Haven and First Sea together is intriguing. If we interpret the There seems little doubt that Barrett was environment, created a situation that there would be no new reprieve. Secretary – along with notable academics, Lord of the Admiralty. moon as a waxing new crescent moon singled out as a persistent troublemaker. called on all of Governor Arthur Phillip’s As Surgeon White relates: botanical collectors, members of high in the western sky as the sun sets, We can only speculate what kind of parliament, the Royal Society and The Charlotte Medal was sold by we are looking at the sky as it would have colonist such an independent and They were, about six o’clock the same aristocracy. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge in 1919, appeared at sunset about 12 January, evening, taken to the fatal tree, where proactive spirit would have made had he on behalf of the Marquess, to Albert a good week before the voyage’s end. Barrett was launched into eternity, after survived. A plaque commemorating his White also sent additional specimens, Henry Baldwin, a well-known British Alternatively, if we interpret the dark having confessed to the Rev. Mr. Johnson, execution stands on the north-eastern drawings and field notes to prominent numismatist who operated the firm crescent that the artist depicts as who attended him, that he was guilty of corner of the junction of Harrington and botanists including Thomas Wilson, Baldwin and Sons in London up until representing the occulted portion of the the crime, and had long merited the 1967. It was later sold to John J Ford, moon, then we have the waxing gibbous ignominious death which he was about to Phillip had been delegated powers that one of America’s best-known coin and moon that occurred on 20 January 1788 suffer, and to which he said he had been numismatic dealers, before being sold in – although its position in the sky and its brought by bad company and evil were close to absolute, with complete turn to Dr John Chapman in 1981. orientation are inaccurate. Not that one example. Lovel and Hall were respited authority over all in his charge Dr Chapman’s research, published as would expect that degree of accuracy in until six o’clock the next evening. ‘The solution of the Charlotte enigma’ such a depiction, worked, perhaps, from When that awful hour arrived, they were Essex Streets in Sydney. Now, if we’re James Edward Smith and Aylmer Bourke in the Journal of the Numismatics memory on the following days. led to the place of execution, and, just as right to ascribe The Charlotte Medal to Lambert. His extensive collection of New Association of Australia, Vol 9, pages they were on the point of ascending the Whether Thomas Barrett was that artist Thomas Barrett, he has a far more South Wales plant specimens eventually 28–33, has thrown further light on ladder, the judge advocate arrived with we can probably never be entirely sure. original and interesting memorial to his found their way into various institutions Surgeon-General John White’s the governor’s pardon, on condition A leading authority on Australian medals troubled life and times, which will go on around the world including the Academy connection with The Charlotte Medal. of their being banished to some – Leslie J Carlisle of the Australiana display shortly here at the Australian of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, the In part this comes through the existence uninhabited place. Society, author of Australian Historical National Maritime Museum. Gray Herbarium at Harvard University, of a smaller copper medallion, held in Medals 1788–1988 and Australian J E Smith Herbarium of the Linnean Barrett had the dubious honour of being Surgeon John White remained in New a private collection, that also Commemorative Medals and Medalets Society of London, and the Delssert the first person in the colony to be South Wales until 1794, attending to the commemorates Charlotte’s arival in from 1788 – has attributed the medal to considerable abilities as an administrator. Herbarium, Conservatoire et Jardin executed, and indeed was the first health of the convicts, guards and Botany Bay. Evidently based on The Barrett since he was the only known To meet these challenges he had been Botaniques in Geneva, Switzerland. European hung on Australia’s east coast government establishment, when he Charlotte Medal, it includes an abridged forger on Charlotte, with the skills to delegated powers that were close to (the Dutch having executed some of the received permission to return home It is not known if White presented his inscription, sun, moon and stars, but no produce such a beautiful work of art using absolute, with complete authority over Batavia mutineers on the Abroholos temporarily to England on account of his medal, along with his specimens and ship. It bears the stamped initials WB and the minimal resources available. all in his charge. Islands off Western Australia in 1629). ill health. White’s publication Journal of notes, to one of these individuals or was found at the site of the homestead of Unfortunately for everyone, On 27 February 1788, only one month The execution took place in front of all a Voyage to New South Wales had societies, or if the medal remained in his William Broughton, storekeeper, circumstances at Sydney Cove when the after arriving at Port Jackson, Thomas 750 convicts, attended by the entire become a noted success and copies were family’s possession until after his death in magistrate and former servant to First Fleet relocated there were far from Barrett was arrested, charged, tried and garrison with bayonets fixed. Without presented to Sir Joseph Banks, The Earl 1832. What is known is that some time John White while on board the convict desirable. They had arrived during the convicted on the clearest evidence of doubt Governor Phillip intended to send of Donegal, the Earl of Inchiquin, prior to 1919 The Charlotte Medal came transport Charlotte in January 1788. 

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