Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/206

 175 THE THIRD FLEET. 1791 More convicts en route. Ten transports acoom- modate 2,050. From the despatches brought by the vessels of the Second Fleet, Phillip learned with dismay that a thousand more convicts were about to be sent out, and he was directed to make preparations for their reception. For some reason which does not appear (probably a difficulty in obtaining transports), the hulks and gaols in England and Ireland were not '^ cleared" until the early part of 1791, when upwards of two thousand convicts, instead of one thousand, were despatched to Sydney. Writing on the 16th November, 1790,* Grenville informed Phillip that orders had been given to engage a number of vessels which would accommodate at least 1,800 convicts ; but in a despatch of later date (19th February, 1791),t it was stated that the number had been '' increased by clearing the gaols in Ireland to about 2,050." This large number of convicts was sent out in ten vessels, provided by Messrs. Camden, Calvert, and King, under contract with the Commissioners of the Navy. The trans- ports were the Queen (which brought 200 convicts from Ireland), Atlantic,! William and Ann, Britannia, Matilda, • Historicftl Records, vol. i, part 2, p. 415. t lb., p. 461. X Lieutenant Bichard Bowen, one of the naval agents, who was on board the Atlantic, reported on his arrival in Sydney the discovery of a " good harbour on the coast," in latitude 35° 6' south, which he named Jervis Bay. In the Naval Chronicle, vol. xxiii, pp. 368 to 379, a memoir of Lieutenant Bowen is given, in which mention is made of his services under Sir John Jervis, after- wards Earl St. Vincent. There is little doubt that Bowen named the bay after his former commander, to whom be was largely indebted for promotion in the Navy. The county in which the bay is situated was subsequently appropriately named St. Vincent. Bowen furnished Phillip with an eye> draught of the bay, of which the accompanying cb&rt is a reduced copy.