was bound for Adelaide via Bunbury, Busselton and Albany. Shortly after midnight on 1 December, when Georgette was about midway between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Hamelin, a leak developed, and the ship's pumps would not work. By 4 a.m., the water was rising so fast that her Captain, John Godfrey, had all the passengers and crew bailing with buckets while he steered for the coast. At 6 p.m. the rising water extinguished the engine's fires, leaving Georgette drifting still some kilometres from shore. Godfrey then gave the orders to man the lifeboats, but the first lifeboat to be lowered was thrown against the ship's side by a big wave, and snapped in half. Some of the occupants were rescued by a second lifeboat, but twelve people died.Georgette continued to drift until she drifted into the surf at Calgardup Bay, where she was seen by the Bussell family's Aboriginal stockman, Sam Isaacs. Isaacs travelled to the Bussell homestead to raise the alarm, where Alfred Bussell gave him some ropes and gear for the rescue. His 16-year-old daughter Grace insisted on accompanying Isaacs on the return trip to the scene on horseback. Meanwhile, Georgette had grounded and begun to break up. On arriving at the scene, Grace Bussell immediately rode down the cliffs and into the surf, swimming her horse out until it was alongside one of the swamped lifeboats. With as many people as possible clinging to her and her horse, she returned to shore and landed them. One man was left on the boat, and Isaacs was sent to collect him. Godfrey continued to launch lifeboats, but every one was swamped or capsized in the surf. Bussell and Isaacs continued their rescuing efforts, taking over four hours to land all the passengers. According to an account by a family friend of Isaacs, he returned to the water with his horse several times but Bussell went back to the beach, having been advised to do so by Isaacs because he felt she could not sufficiently control her horse. Grace Bussell's role in the rescue was widely and enthusiastically reported, with newspapers around the world picking up the story. Bussell was touted as "Western Australia's Grace Darling", and was awarded the Royal Humane Society's silver medal. Isaacs received a bronze and was granted of land by the Western Australian government, becoming the first Aboriginal person to receive a land grant in Western