HMS Supply as the colony's lifeline

The first Australian settlement might have died without HMS Supply. The ship had been built to move material among Royal Navy dockyards, a role that made her a maritime equivalent of a road or rail freight vehicle in an era before either system could move heavy goods nationally. The comparison also shows a British geographic advantage: coastal shipping could move heavy stores between home dockyards under the shelter of friendly ports, whereas French traffic between northern and Mediterranean bases faced long overland routes or a sea passage around Iberia and Gibraltar. Her speed and modest size suited repeated local journeys after the transports departed. Under Henry Lidgbird Ball she became the first ship into Port Jackson and made ten passages between the main settlement and Norfolk Island. When shortages became acute, Supply sailed to Batavia in 1790 and arranged for a Dutch-chartered vessel to follow with additional stores. One small logistics vessel had become strategically decisive because the colony had almost no redundancy.