The ship Robert Watson was quartermaster on was one of how many ships in the flotilla that founded England's Australian penal colony?
First Fleet The First Fleet is the name given to the 11 ships that left England on 13 May 1787 to found the penal colony that became the first European settlement in Australia. The Fleet consisted of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports, carrying between 1,000 and 1,500 convicts, marines, seamen, civil officers and free people (accounts differ on the numbers), and a vast quantity of stores. From England, the Fleet sailed southwest to Rio de Janeiro, then east to Cape Town and via the Great Southern Ocean to Botany Bay, arriving over the period of 18 to 20 January 1788, taking 250 to 252 days from departure to final arrival.
HM Colonial brig Kangaroo (1812) HM Colonial brig "Kangaroo" was a brig built at Bideford, England in 1811 or 1812. She belonged to the British Royal Navy's Transport Board and was based at Port Jackson. There she made voyages for the colonial government along the east coast of Australia with goods and troops. She made one voyage to Ceylon for merchandise and transporting military convicts from Ceylon to Australia. She returned to England in 1817 and was last listed in "Lloyd's Register" in 1819.