Alexander left Port Jackson with Friendship and took aboard the other ship's crew after Friendship was scuttled at Batavia. She continued toward Canton and the East India Company shipping network before returning to the Thames. Alexander also carried papers from the French expedition associated with La Perouse back to Britain. A later registry amendment reduced her recorded burden from 650 to 445 tons, prompting the tentative suggestion that she had been overloaded on the outward voyage and that this might have contributed to the bilge trouble.
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Alexander carries Friendship's crew and French papers home
Alexander's return voyage joined Friendship's fate, French expedition records, and an uncertain clue that the transport had sailed outward overloaded.