Calcutta, the convict ship named after the city, arrived at Plymouth in England on this day. It was to sail to Port Phillip in Victoria, Australia, to establish a settlement.

The ship was expecting convicts from prisons of Bodmin, Exeter or Plymouth, after which it would go to Portsmouth, to receive more convicts. At Portsmouth, the ship received from the Duke of Northumberland a number of sheep with two rams of a particular breed as it was thought they would prove beneficial to the new colony.

The ship left Spithead on April 28, 1803, carrying 307 male convicts. It reached Port Phillip on October 12. Eight convicts had died on the way, one of them having drowned trying to escape at the Cape.

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