A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay

by Watkin Tench

This book has been deemed as a classic and has stood the test of time. The book has been considered by academicians and scholars of great significance and value to literature. This forms a part of the knowledge base for future generations.

Genres: History, Travel

78 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1789

About the author

Lieutenant-General Watkin Tench was a British Marine officer who is best known for publishing two books describing his experiences in the First Fleet, which established the first settlement in Australia in 1788. His two accounts, "Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay" and "Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson" provide a fascinating and entertaining account of the arrival and first four years of the colony. Little is known of Tench apart from what he writes in his three books and his service record.

Reviews

[Janet Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s always a wonder to me when I can read a first-hand account of a momentous event. And Watkin Tench does not disappoint.

Based on diaries he kept during the voyage and after his arrival with the first fleet in Australia his account is short, succinct and direct. He doesn’t mince words and while some of them are hard to take in our current era, they nevertheless reflect the attitudes and expectations of his own time.

Taken all in all he’s remarkably tolerant and considerate of the convict element and seems genuinely interested in the way in which they cope with their new surroundings and way of life. Likewise his fellow marines as they begin to form new relationships and see other possibilities opening for them in a new world.

You sense his thrill and enjoyment as he describes the landscapes, colors, the birds, animals and flowers. It’s really quite special.

[Valentina Markasović · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insight into how Europeans thought about Australia when they first settled it.

[Thom Swennes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Watkin Tench is no Bill Bryson. This said, I still think that his account of one of the early settlement voyages to Australia has many interesting and redeeming qualities. The fact that this trip was taken more than two hundred years after Bill Bryson’s memorable trip “Down Under” may account for the many differences in the works. The voyage zigzagged it way down to Botany Bay. After leaving England the fleet of ships crossed the Atlantic and visited the ports in Brazil. From there they continued their trip southward and re-crossed the Atlantic and called at the port of Cape Town. 1788 was apparently a very time for the British Empire as the possession of South Africa and Australia were both being transferred from the Dutch. I have read many accounts of the British penal voyages, from both sides of this spectrum, and I must say this one seems very lenient and favorable. I am further very surprised at how ill supplied and prepared these first voyages were. One would think they would have learned something from history. It is well worth the time and effort and I recommend it to all that are interested in how it all began “Down Under”.

[Matt Fone · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really felt that leaving the text in its original 18th century English and not translating it adds to the immersion. I mean, it does take some getting used to, as it uses the long s, which looks like an f without the cross bar. Though it gives me hope that if I time travelled to the 18th century, I'd be able to communicate.

Great to hear from the horses mouth about the first fleet, without any modern bias diluting it.

[Jim KABLE · Rating 3 out of 5]

Report on going to and being in New South Wales

It’s an observer’s viewpoint with few of the actors or events actually named - more an impression prettily described. It needed more human colour… Had I not already known the story i might have been satisfied with it - so while it is historically significant - I was actually disappointed.

[Carol Spears · Rating 4 out of 5]

These old journals of voyages/expeditions from the 1700's are great to listen to. This was the boat that took the first batch of "criminals" to Australia (the American religious zealots left England by their own choice).