The museum was the successful bidder for this important piece of our history, acclaimed as Australia’s first colonial work of art and providing a unique record of the arrival of the First Fleet. The Charlotte Medal Curator Kieran Hosty takes us back to the colony’s turbulent birth to tell the story of The Charlotte Medal. 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 Botany 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 transported to New South Wales 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 John White, 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 Melbourne 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 London 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 Botany Bay. at Deptford, one of the royal dockyards established to build, repair and victual ships of the Royal Navy. After sailing to Off the Devon coast some of the convicts Plymouth in January 1787, Charlotte including Thomas Barrett 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 Port Jackson. 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.