The First Fleet ship Lady Penrhyn, in…
May 1788 CE
The First Fleet ship Lady Penrhyn, in an attempt to put into execution one of the reasons given for founding the Botany Bay colony—that is, to use the colony as a base to develop the fur trade of the North West Coast of America and for trade with China, Korea and Japan—sails on from Port Jackson on May 5, 1788, under a contract with George Mackenzie McCaulay, an alderman of the City of London, to go to the "North West Coast of America to Trade for furrs & after that to proceed to China & barter the Furrs &ca for Teas or other such Goods..." (Arthur Bowes Smythe, A Voyage to Botany Bay & Oteheite, 1787, by A.B.S. Surgeon, Lady Penrhyn", National Library of Australia MS 4568.Cf. G. Fidlon and R.J. Ryan (eds.), The Journal of Arthur Bowes Smyth: Surgeon, Lady Penrhyn, 1787-1789, Sydney, Australian Documents Library, 1979, p.86.)
Her owners, Timothy and William Curtis (merchants and, in William’s case, like McCaulay, a London alderman), had obtained a license to sail to the North West coast from the South Sea Company, which still maintains its ancient monopoly rights over British trade to the eastern Pacific.
The poor condition of the ship and sickness among her crew compels the Lady Penrhyn to turn back from this voyage when she had gone only as far as Tahiti from where, after the crew had recovered and the ship been repaired, she proceeds to Canton (Guangzhou) on the China coast to take on a cargo of tea.