Scarborough from the timber trade to scurvy and China tea

Scarborough had spent her early career carrying timber from the Baltic and North America, a trade essential to Britain's shipbuilding economy. Imported wood met civilian demand and preserved preferred domestic timber for naval construction. On the First Fleet voyage she carried 208 male convicts and a Marine detachment, while a suspected mutiny led to two alleged ringleaders being flogged and transferred. Scarborough later sailed with Charlotte toward China and became one of the first European vessels to pass through several central Pacific island groups. Both ships suffered such severe scurvy near Tinian that they needed weeks of recovery before continuing. They eventually took East India Company tea cargoes at Whampoa, turning the return passage into a commercial voyage rather than an empty trip home. Scarborough later returned to Australia with the more notorious Second Fleet.