A small vessel, the H.M.S. Supply was 170 tonnes in weight and 70 feet long. Despite her size the ship was actually rather fast. According to which story you believe, she was either built on the
Thames river in 1759 or in
America in the same year and soon moved to
England. The naval
tender was chosen to replace the position of the
Grantham in the
First Fleet, as the Grantham was considered to be too rotten to make the eight month journey. Soon after departing
Portsmouth, England in 1787, the vessel lost one of her masts in huge swell.
After arriving in Botany bay in 1788 she stayed with the newly formed penal colony until 1791. Sailing to Batavia on April 17, 1790 , she collected provisions and delivered them to the colony during their second famine. It was in 1791 that she returned to England, needing repairs that were impossible to carry out in the colony. Sold in England for £500, H.M.S Supply spent the rest of her years carrying coals on the Thames.