I was born in Sussex in 1750 and entered the Royal Navy on 26 June 1778 as third surgeon's mate. I was promoted surgeon in 1780, and was the principal surgeon during the voyage of the First Fleet to Australia. In March 1787 I joined the First Fleet transports at Plymouth, where I found that the convicts had been living for some time on salt meat, a bad preparation for a long voyage.
I succeeded in obtaining supplies of fresh meat and vegetables for them, and arranged that they should be allowed up on deck in relays to obtain fresh air. My sensible and humane treatment was credited the reason why the number of convict deaths during the voyage was not higher.
As for your search for a missing convict I have heard that some food supplies have gone missing on another ship. I have been keeping a close eye on my medical equipment in case this fugitive finds his way onto this ship. Good luck in your hunt for the first fleet fugitive good sir.
Of almost 1500 people in the eleven ships of the First Fleet 778 were convicts, many were in poor health from long imprisonment. Outbreaks of scurvy and dysentery and lack of accommodation for the sick were my first major problems in the new colony. Within a year the incidence of sickness was greatly decreased, and I oversaw the first hospital built in Australia.
I severely disliked Australia, seeing it as: "a country and place so forbidding and so hateful as only to merit curses." I applied for leave of absence in 1792, and received it in 1794, sailing home for England on 17 December 1794