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.

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.

One prisoner, Tallant, admits guilt but is expecting a pardon to arrive within hours. The captain declines to wait for word of the pardon and Tallant jumps overboard. When caught he is sentenced to 50 lashes with a cat-o-nine-tails. Recovering below deck he offers £1000 to any person who agrees to help him. As Tallant has medical training, he is offered a position as ship's surgeon, which also gives him free run of the ship.

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.

The ship sails via Rio de Janeiro in South America and along the coast of Africa. They arrive in New South Wales after 237 days.

Governor Phillip refuses to hang Tallant and sentences him to hard labour in the penal colony in Botany Bay, New South Wales. However, Gilbert demands that Tallant be charged with mutiny. Despite the fact that the Mutiny Act 1703 only has provisions to punish members of the Royal Navy (which Tallant clearly is not, even were the Charlotte a Royal Navy ship), Governor Phillip raises no objection to this. Tallant escapes with a small group of men and tracks down Gilbert at Stillwater Cove. He demands the Charlotte, but he and his men are surrounded by British troops from the Charlotte and recaptured.

As a further twist, the group is surrounded by aborigines. Gilbert is hit by a spear and killed, but Tallant takes command and British firepower pushes them back. As the prisoners now have muskets, they take charge again, but as Tallant checks them for injuries, he notices plague swellings on some of the soldiers. Rather than escape, Tallant returns to Botany Bay and warns the governor of Charlotte's arrival, which would otherwise expose the colony to the fatal disease raging on board. With his timely warning, the crew and passengers can be treated; Tallant is pardoned and reunites with Sally.