Alexander (1783)

Alexander was a First Fleet transport of 452 tons, barque-built with quarterdeck, built at Hull in 1783. She was the largest transport ship in the First Fleet at 452 tons and 114 feet (35m) in length. Her master was Duncan Sinclair, and her surgeon was William Balmain.

Alexander's convict cargo were drawn from prison hulks on the Thames and directly from Newgate Prison and loaded aboard at Woolwich Docks in early 1787. The ship then sailed to Portsmouth alongside Lady Penrhyn to meet the remainder of the Fleet.

Sickness
Before leaving Portsmouth, fever broke out on board, and sixteen men died. She left Portsmouth on 13 May 1787, carrying 195 male convicts. Fifteen more convicts died on the journey, the most for any ship in the fleet. The cause of the fever was likely inadequate management of the bilge, as reported by John White, the surgeon aboard HMS Sirius in June 1787: — "The illness complained of was wholly occasioned by the bilge water which had by some means or other risen to so great a height that the panels of the cabin and the buttons on the clothes of the officers were turned nearly black by the noxious effluvia. When the hatches were taken off the stench was so powerful it was scarcely possible to stand over them."

Complaints by Surgeons White and Balmain to First Fleet captain Arthur Phillip led to regular pumping of Alexander's bilge thereafter, with a corresponding improvement in convict health.

Mutiny
An attempted mutiny aboard the vessel was thwarted in October 1787, when a band of five convicts and a number of able seamen were narrowly prevented from seizing the helm. The convicts had armed themselves with iron bars, intending to overpower the guard and sail the vessel to the nearest landfall. Master Sinclair, aware of the plot through an informer, had crew and convicts locked below decks while the conspirators were identified. The ringleader, a convict named John Powers, was transferred to Sirius where he spent the remainder of the voyage chained to the decking. The others were flogged, while Sinclair's informer was transferred to Scarborough for his own protection.

Arrival in Botany Bay
Alexander arrived at Port Jackson, Sydney, Australia, on 26 January 1788 to unload her human cargo. She left Port Jackson on 14 July 1788 in company with the Friendship, whose crew she picked up when that ship was scuttled. She reached England on 3 June 1789.

Little is known about her return journey but in 1808 she disappeared from records.