Arthur Phillip

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Arthur Phillip

Arthur Phillip (born October 11, 1738 in London , † August 31, 1814 in Bath , Somerset ) was a British naval officer and the first governor of New South Wales .

The son of a Frankfurt bookseller and an Englishwoman joined the Royal Navy at the age of 17 . He is considered to be the real discoverer of Port Jackson , the bay of today's Australian metropolis Sydney , which got its name from James Cook without having explored it himself.

At the end of the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), Phillip quit his service in the British Navy and tried his hand at farming, which ultimately failed. From 1774 to 1778 he entered the service of the Portuguese crown with the permission of the British Admiralty . He carried out the first overseas deportations for the Portuguese Navy . At the beginning of the American War of Independence (1775–1783) he was called back to England .

Camp Cove, 2 miles east of Port Jackson, where Phillip landed in search of a settlement.

After the loss of their 13 colonies in North America due to US independence , the British government began considering where to transport the many prisoners. Before that, they had been brought to America . The Admiralty remembered James Cook's expedition and chose Australia as the prison site. In 1786, Phillip was commissioned with the preparations. In May 1787, eleven ships, which went down in history as the First Fleet, sailed to Botany Bay (south of present-day Sydney). When the fleet anchored there in January 1788, Phillip and his officers found that it was not suitable for settlement because there was no fresh water supply there. So it was decided to follow the coast further north. During a three-day exploration tour through Port Jackson, Captain Arthur Phillip first discovered Manly Cove and one day later on the other side of the natural harbor another bay, which he named Sydney Cove after Thomas Townsend, then British Interior and Colonial Minister . He decided on January 26th, 1788 that this bay was the most suitable place to anchor for the "First Fleet". While crossing Port Jackson, Philipp said that the "... best harbor in the world" had been found.

Until 1792, Phillip managed the fate of the convict colony as governor . After leaving his post, anarchy and chaos reigned until the arrival of the new governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1810 .

During the Napoleonic Wars , in which Phillip was still an active participant, he died as an admiral in 1814.

The bay of Port Phillip off Melbourne and the islands of Phillip Island in Victoria and Phillip Island (Norfolk Islands) are named after him.

Works

  • Commodore Phillip's trip to the Botany Bay on New Holland. In addition to a detailed message from the new English branch in Jacksons-Port and a short history and description of New Holland . Publishing house of the expedition of the observer, Stuttgart 1789.
  • Australia. The establishment of the penal colony . Edited by Rudolf Plischke. Lamuv, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-88977-593-4 .

literature

  • Margaret Steven: Arthur Phillip . Oxford University Press, Melbourne 1962.
  • Alan Frost: Arthur Phillip, 1738-1814. His voyaging . Oxford University Press, Melbourne 1987, ISBN 0-19-554701-2 .

Web links

Commons : Arthur Phillip  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Phillip, Arthur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British navigator and governor of New South Wales
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1738
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH August 31, 1814
Place of death Bath