Twelve days out of Cape Town, Captain Phillip transferred to the 'Supply', and took the three fastest transports with him, in an effort to beat the rest of the fleet to Botany Bay, and give him a chance to examine the proposed settlement site.
However, adverse winds and currents on the New South Wales coast, slowed down the advance group, and Phillip had only been in the bay for a couple of days, when the rest of the fleet started to arrive. The voyage of 15,000 miles had taken just over eight months. Despite the overcrowded conditions, and the otherwise poor health of many on board, only thirty people had died,not a bad effort in this era.
In the meantime though, Phillip had realized that Botany Bay was not the ideal place for a colony at all. The water was too shallow for sea going ships, and they had to be anchored well off shore. There was little fresh water, and the soil was too wet and sandy for cultivation. Phillip wanted to find something better.
In one of Australian history's great ironies, Captain Cook had named an inlet-'Port Jackson'. He had however, not entered it The great navigator had missed the discovery of one of the world's great harbours. Captain Phillip sailed North to it in three boats, and found it Phillip wrote "and had the satisfaction of finding the finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in perfect security".
After exploring the various bays and coves, he found, on the southern shore, a supply of fresh water, now called the 'tank stream', (it still runs through pipes, under the modern city today) and a deep-water anchorage. He named it 'Sydney', after Lord Sydney, the Home Secretary.
Captain Phillip returned to Botany Bay, and gave orders for the fleet to transfer to Port Jackson. Phillip returned the next day, in the 'Supply', cleared some ground, erected a flagpole, and hauled the Union Jack. With a toast and a volley of musket fire, the British colony in Australia was officially founded.
