Botany Bay is a 1953 American adventure film directed by John Farrow and starring Alan Ladd, James Mason and Patricia Medina. It was based on a novel of the same name by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall.
While the story includes characters loosely based on real figures (Gilbert and Phillips) and the ship Charlotte, it is a largely fictional telling of the First Fleet's arrival in Australia in 1788.
Plot
In 1787 a group of prisoners lodged in Newgate Jail receive notice that their death sentences are commuted to life imprisonment in New South Wales. They are boarded onto the Charlotte and joined by a smaller group of female prisoners. Gilbert, the captain, offers one pretty female prisoner, Sally, free run of the ship on certain conditions. He eventually approaches her romantically, but she keeps rebuffing him.
Gilbert is cruel to prisoners and crew alike. A young boy in a small cell dies of hypothermia when the cell floods with cold water, and is buried at sea. His mother tries to stab the captain, and he fatally shoots her. Tallant and the first mate, Spencer, escape in a row boat, but are found and sentenced to be keel hauled. The crew carries out the sentence, but both prisoners survive. Upset, the captain orders a second haul; Spencer dies on the second haul, but Tallant survives. Rev. Thynne threatens to inform Governor Philip of the barbarity when they arrive at Botany Bay.
