Peter Kenney Hibbs ( – 12 September 1847) was an English mariner and a member of the First Fleet to Australia in 1788.
An able seaman on , Hibbs was also one of few non-convict First Fleet members known to have settled in the new Colony of New South Wales in 1788.
Hibbs also claimed to have come earlier to Australia in 1770 as a crewman on board HMS Endeavour with Captain James Cook, and to have stepped ashore at Botany Bay with Joseph Banks. However no primary independent evidence exists to verify these claims.
Remaining in Australia after 1788, Hibbs played a significant role in the exploration of Tasmania and the eastern seaboard of Australia. In 1798-99, as master (captain) of the colonial built Norfolk, and chosen by his previous master (captain) of HMS Sirius, John Hunter, who was now governor of New South Wales, Hibbs commanded the first vessel to circumnavigate Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania). This voyage proved that Tasmania was an island and proved the existence of Bass Strait. The discovery of the Bass Strait shortened the travel distance from England to Sydney, as previously the ships had sailed to the south of Tasmania. In 1799, as master of the colonial built Norfolk, and chosen by his previous master of HMS Sirius, John Hunter, who was now governor of New South Wales, Hibbs commanded the first vessel to sail north from Port Jackson (Sydney) to explore and chart Moreton Bay and Hervey Bay.
In the 1798-99 voyage around Tasmania, Hibbs had been carrying Matthew Flinders and George Bass aboard the Norfolk, and in the 1799 voyage north Hibbs had been carrying Matthew Finders. Flinders named a cluster of features on the west coast of Tasmania after Hibbs.
Hibbs also claimed to have taken part in an earlier expedition in 1789 led by Governor Arthur Phillip which resulted in the discovery of the Hawkesbury River. Again no primary independent evidence exists to verify this claim.
Named in his honour On 11 December 1798, as the Norfolk sailed south down the west coast during the successful circumnavigation of Tasmania, Matthew Flinders named a number of coastal features after Hibbs: Hibbs Bay, a bay on the western coast of Tasmania south of Macquarie Harbour Hibbs Lagoon, a lagoon on the northern shore of Hibbs Bay Hibbs River, a river flowing into Hibbs Lagoon and then discharging into Hibbs Bay Hibbs Pyramid, a pyramid shaped island in southern Hibbs Bay Point Hibbs, a headland at the southern extremity of Hibbs Bay
"Bass and Flinders named all kinds of geographical features in their own names on their trip around Tasmania. Peter Hibbs was the only other person after whom they named several Tasmanian geographical features - apart from a couple in honour of Peter’s wife, Mary."Allen Maunder (1995), Sailing on...The Hibbs Line, Allen Maunder (publisher), quoted at Peter Hibbs, Australia's unsung mariner . Retrieved 21 February 2013
Birth and baptism Peter, the son of Mary Kenney, was thought to have been born in England in about 1757 at Ramsgate, Kent. Mary Kenney and George Hibbs had married on 25 December 1760, at the parish church of St Laurence-in-Thanet, Ramsgate. Previously Peter was not thought to be a son of George Hibbs,Parish registers for St Lawrence-in-Thantet, Ramsgate, Kent: marriage of Mary Kennie [sic] to George Hibbs, a native of Swanage, a seaside town in Dorset, and that he was raised as George Hibbs' son. However it is now considered that Peter was a biological son of George Hibbs, as DNA test results of his descendants have shown matches with other Hibbs descendants, including in the UK. The family moved the more than 200 miles (320 km) back to Swanage. On 24 January 1762, Peter was baptized at the parish church of St Mary the Virgin, Swanage, as Peter Kennel [sic] Hibbs, the son of George and Mary Hibbs.Parish registers for St Mary the Virgin, Swanage, Dover
Mollie Gillen has suggested that Hibbs was five years younger than this, born about 1762 at Ramsgate, a date which is based upon his baptism at Swanage, after the marriage of Mary Kenney and George Hibbs.
Cabin boy on HMB Endeavour in 1770? Hibbs' gravestone indicates that he was born in about 1757.Photo of gravestone of Peter Hibbs on Freepages, Rootsweb.The original inscription on Peter Hibbs gravestone reads: "Sacred to the memory of Peter Hibbs who departed this life 12 Sepr 1847 Eged [sic] 90Yrs. Pass a few swiftly fleeting yrs and all that now in bodies live shall quit like me the vale of tears their righteous sentence to receive."The plaque that has been added to his headstone reads: "Peter Hibbs was a seaman on Sirius - wrecked on Norfolk Island in 1790. He was Flinders's Sailing Master on the sloop Norfolk during his circumnavigation of Tasmania. Also to Hervey Bay." This would have made him about 11 years of age on 26 August 1768 when HMS Endeavour sailed from England on its voyage of discovery. In the 18th century the Royal Navy encouraged boys as young as nine years of age to enlist as "servants," with the lower age not being raised to thirteen until 1794. Cabin boys performed a variety of functions such as errand boys, servants to officers, mess attendants, and on armed vessels as powder monkeys. However they were also apprentice seamen "learning the ropes" (literally) as they underwent sail training on the rigging. Stephen Yarrow states that since they were under-age, their names were often not recorded.
Hibbs maintained during his life-time that he had first come to Australia with Captain Cook in 1770.Explore the Hawkesbury Cemeteries - Wisemans Ferry Cemetery, Hawkesbury City Council, Retrieved 21 February 2013 Hibbs also maintained that on 28 April 1770The date was actually 29 April 1770 according to Joseph Bank's Endeavour Journal , Retrieved 21 February 2013. when Joseph Banks had set off in a boat in Botany Bay in search for water and to explore the coast, that, following the distinguished naturalist, Hibbs had been the second person to jump ashore. These claims were repeated in the newspaper the Windsor and Richmond Gazette of 3 May 1890 on the death of his son Peter Kenney Hibbs Jnr.
No evidence exists to support Hibbs' claim that he was the second person to step ashore in Botany Bay.
Stephen Yarrow maintains, however, that secondary independent evidence does exist to support Hibbs' claim to have been aboard HMS Endeavour. Stephen Yarrow maintains that in a report on the First Fleet, Arthur Phillip recorded that Hibbs had been especially chosen to join the crew of HMS Sirius because Hibbs "had previously visited these shores". The only ship to have "previously visited these shores" was HMS Endeavour.
Able seaman on HMS Sirius 1787–1790 Hibbs naval record commences on 24 August 1786 when he was appointed as an able seaman aboard the 74-gun battleship HMS Goliath. On 25 March 1787Mollie Gillen (1989), The Founders of Australia: a biographical dictionary of the First Fleet, Sydney, Library of Australian History, quoted at George, son of Peter HIBBS & Mary PARDOE, Retrieved 21 February 2013 Hibbs was transferred to the 10-gun HMS Sirius. (HMS Sirius was armed with six carronades, short cannons used to fire large objects to smash ships. She also had four six-pounder guns. There were another ten six-pounder guns in the cargo hold to be used to protect the new settlement.)
HMS Sirius was the flagship of the First Fleet. HMS Sirius was never meant to be the Flagship of the First Fleet bound for Botany Bay. One moment she was the Berwick;, a burnt out hulk bought by the Royal Navy, fitted out "with refuse of the yard", renamed Sirius and next she found herself leading the First Fleet out of Portsmouth Harbour with the newly appointed Governor and Captain of the Flagship - Arthur Phillip., paraphrasing from Allen Maunder (1995), Sailing on...The Hibbs Line, Allen Maunder (publisher) Allen Maunder in his book Sailing on...The Hibbs Line describes the difficulty of the voyage:Imagine going around Cape Horn [sic] on a Sydney Harbour Ferry packed with one hundred and sixty men, bulls, cows, horses, sheep, hogs, goats, fowl, stores, plants and a piano (!) and you have some idea of the voyage to Australia! It is a testament to the bravery and fortitude of the Captain and crews that the Fleet arrived intact and finally gained the shelter of Sydney Cove on 26th January 1788.
HMS Sirius (511 tons, 110 ft 5 in [33.7 m] x 32 ft 9 in [9.98 m]) was one of two naval ships in the First Fleet, the other being the older and smaller, but faster, HMS Supply (175 tons). (In November 1787 at Cape Town Arthur Phillip transferred from HMS Sirius to the faster HMS Supply.) The rest of the fleet was made up of nine privately owned merchant vessels, making eleven vessels in total.
After leaving England with the rest of the fleet on 13 May 1787, stopping at Santa Cruz at Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Cape Town in South Africa, rounding the base of Tasmania and then travelling north up the east coast of Australia, HMS Sirius arrived in Botany Bay on 21 January 1788Botany Bay. Sirius & Convoy going in: Supply & Agents Division in the Bay, 21 January 1788 , by Bradley, William (painting), Retrieved 21 February 2013 to join some of the ships that had arrived just days earlier. The whole fleet then transferred north to Sydney Cove in Port Jackson on 26 January 1788. After completing their duties the nine merchant ships sailed back to England, and only HMS Sirius and HMS Supply remained in the colony.
The next voyage of HMS Sirius, with Hibbs aboard, began on 2 October 1788 and lasted more than seven months until 8 May 1789. This was a voyage to Cape Town to get much needed flour and other supplies for the Colony of New South Wales. Leaving Cape Town in January 1789, this voyage was a complete circumnavigation of the globe in an easterly direction. As a result Hibbs was a crewman aboard the first ship to circumnavigate the globe in Antarctic latitudes. The ship travelled from Sydney, past Cape Horn at the base of South America, over to Cape Town, rounding the Cape of Good Hope near the base of South Africa, rounding the base of Tasmania, and then sailing back to Sydney. This route, taking advantage of the strong westerly winds of the Roaring Forties and the Furious Fifties made faster time in a sailing ship than the more direct, shorter by distance, westerly route from Sydney to Cape Town which fought against the winds. To make the distance travelled as short as possible (the infant Colony of New South Wales was starving and it was imperative that HMS Sirius return with supplies in the shortest possible time) the master, John Hunter, ordered the ship south into Antarctic latitudes, running terrible risks with ice-bergs. Ice-bergs did not endanger the ship, but the trip was not to be without incident. A gale near Tasmania on the last leg of the journey nearly drove the ship ashore, smashed the ship's figurehead and badly damaged the front of the ship. Only the endurance of the master, John Hunter, and his exhausted and scurvy afflicted crew saved the ship from destruction.VHR May (2010),Governor John Hunter, Australia and Flinders , Mosman Library, Retrieved 21 February 2013
As a result of the damage to the ship during the trip to Cape Town, HMS Sirius was careened in Mosman Bay on its return to Sydney.Little Sirius Cove , Mosman Municipal Council, Retrieved 21 February 2013