Prince of Wales was a transport ship in the First Fleet, assigned to transport convicts for the European colonisation of Australia. Accounts differ regarding her origins; she may have been built and launched in 1779 at Sidmouth, or in 1786 on the River Thames. Her First Fleet voyage commenced in 1787, with 47 female convicts aboard, and she arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788. On a difficult return voyage in 17881789 she became separated from her convoy and was found drifting helplessly off Rio de Janeiro with her crew incapacitated by scurvy. After Prince of Wales return to Britain her owners deployed her as a whaler in the South Seas fisheries. She was later used as a privateer under a letter of marque, before performing a voyage as a slave ship. After a period under French control, she returned to Britain and was used to carry trade goods between London, the West Indies and the Mediterranean. The last records of her existence date to 1810; her fate thereafter is unknown. Origins Prince of Wales was a square-sterned barque measuring between 300 and 350 tons burthen, being long and wide and with a height between decks of amidships and fore and aft. Sources vary as to her origins. By one account, she was built in 1779 at Sidmouth, as a West Indiaman under the command of ship's master James Johnston. By another account, she was built on the River Thames in 1786, by the firm Christopher Watson and Company of Rotherhithe, which had also built . Both accounts give her initial owner as Cornhill merchant John Mather, who had previously purchased and disposed of Captain Cook's Endeavour after that vessel had returned from Botany Bay. A Lloyd's Register entry from 1787 also records that Mather owned a vessel named Hannibal, which had been renamed from Prince of Wales. Voyage to Australia The South London shipbroker William Richards contracted Prince of Wales in 1787 for the First Fleet voyage. Richards selected her after consultation with Royal Marine officers Watkin Tench and David Collins. Both officers would sail with the Fleet to Australia, Tench as a captain of marines, and Collins as judge-advocate for the new colony. She was the second-smallest of the First Fleet transports after Friendship, and the last to be contracted to join the voyage. The Navy Board assigned Prince of Wales to the First Fleet on 2 March