Critical mass, skilled settlers, and the missing engineers

The colony survived, but the closing question asks what population and skill mix a settlement at the end of a supply line actually needed. Convicts provided essential numbers but could not by themselves supply all the trades required to build, farm, administer, and defend a new community. A land-grant militia could have attracted skilled settlers while supplying periodic guard and expedition service. A separate Marine detachment could then secure the governor, naval stores, weapons, and magazines without controlling every part of civil government. The later Rum Rebellion shows the danger of concentrating political, commercial, and coercive power in a single colonial corps. Phillip's inability to answer Robert Ross's demands for fortifications because the expedition had no engineer becomes the sharpest example of a missing capability. The audience is invited to use those constraints to design a founding force rather than treat the historical fleet list as inevitable.