The Borrowdale seal of Captain Hobson Reed, 1787
The Borrowdale was the youngest of the three storeships of the First Fleet, which consisted of 11 ships, the other two store ships being the Fishburn and the Golden Grove. The First Fleet set sail from Portsmouth, England on Sunday 13 May 1787, under the command of Commander-in-Chief Arthur Phillip, with a total of 1 787 people on board, embarking on an epic voyage of over 13 000 miles (24 000 km), establishing the nation of Australia. On the afternoon of Friday 18 January 1788, 252 days after leaving Portsmouth, the brig HMS Supply led the rest of the fleet to Botany Bay, which had been suggested by Captain James Cook as a suitable place to establish a settlement in Australia.
Having found Botany Bay unsuitable for settlement, Commander Phillip and Second Lieutenant Philip Gidley King decided on 21 January to use three longboats to explore Port Jackson, which had been discovered by Captain Cook in 1770 while sailing past. Needless to say, they found paradise. Philip, King and their crew arrived back at Botany Bay on the evening of 23 January and spent the next day packing their belongings and preparing for the voyage to Port Jackson, which began at dawn the next morning. On 25 January, a strong south-easterly wind delayed the departure and only HMS Supply managed to get through Botany Bay. Around 7pm she dropped anchor in Sydney Cove. The rest of the fleet anchored there on the afternoon of 26 January, bringing this epic voyage to a close.
A celebration was held in the evening, with most crew members agreeing that this was the most beautiful and safest harbour in the world.