Ships of the Great Expedition to Found the City of Halifax

May 14th 1749 Captain General Edward Cornwallis and his staff left England in the sloop of war Sphinx.

The Transports left some days later, slowly making their way down the Channel, calling at Portsmouth, and finally setting forth on the long voyage to Halifax, Nova Scotia. A land almost as unknown as the dark side of the moon.

They carried 2576 passengers for Chebucto, distributed as follows:

Charlton          395 tons      213 passengers
Cannon            342  "         190       "            Michael DeBruhl family
Winchelsea      559             303
Merry Jacks     378             230
Alexander        320             172
Beaufort           541             287
Rockhampton  232             77
Everly              351             186
London            550              315
Brotherhood     --                27
Baltimore         411             226
Fair Lady          --                10

In addition to these transports there was the Sphinx with Cornwallis and his suite, the transport Sarah, which sailed later from Liverpool with the hospital stores and staff, the small vessel Union, and other store ships.  All in all, the first fleet probably carried three thousand people to Chebucto.

The Sphinx steered for Cape Race, that famous landmark on the way to the New World, and met head winds.  The transports took a more southerly course and had better weather, so that despite their tubish hulls they arrived on the coast only a few days behind the captain-general.
The Sphinx sighted the coast of Nova Scotia on June 14: but as nobody on board had ever seen it before, and there was no chart worthy of the name, she stood offshore until she met by good fortune a Yankee sloop carrying two pilots to the British garrison at Louisburg.  With these she
headed for the land, touched at Merliguish (the site of Lunenburg), and entered Chebucto on June 21, 1749 a date celebrated by Haligonians ever since.

The command of this venture into the wilds was given to Colonel Edward Cornwallis, a handsome military bachelor of thirty-six who had fought at Fontenoy, commanded a regiment in the Highlands against Prince Charlie, and now was anxious to distinguish himself in Nova Scotia.

He had turned over his regiment in the Highlands to a Major Wolf, who would distinguish himself in Nova Scotia later on.  Horace Walpole speaks of Cornwallis as "a brave sensible young man of great temper and good nature"-a perfect picture of the man- and Wolfe afterwards mentioned Cornwallis' "approved courage and fidelity".

More than this, Cornwallis was incorruptible- a very rare quality in colonial governors of his time.  He was slender, somewhat over middle height, an aristocrat to his fingertips, conscious of his dignity and inclined to be cool and ceremonious except when the "great temper" took charge.  We are told he had a pleasant voice, fine eyes, and a winning expression.  Later on his voice acquired a rasp, and so did his pen, as troubles mounted and the harsh winters of the new colony destroyed his health.

His aide and right-hand man was a young army bachelor like himself, Richard Bulkeley, tall, handsome, Irish, wealthy, a former king's messenger and captain of dragoons whose equipment for the wilderness included a valet,groom, a butler, three blood horses and a vast amount of baggage.  Another aide was Captain Horatio Gates son of the Duke of Leeds on the wrong side of the blanket, a capable young officer who in later years was to make his name famous on the wrong side of the field in the American Revolution.

Raddell  Warden of North