SS Georgette
Encyclopedia
SS Georgette was a steamship
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
built in 1872. She is best known, especially in Irish-American circles for the part played in the story of the Catalpa rescue
Catalpa rescue
The Catalpa rescue was the escape, in 1876, of six Irish Fenian prisoners from what was then the British penal colony of Western Australia.-Fenians and plans to escape:...
in April 1876. While the events surrounding her shipwreck
Shipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
ing eight months later are dramatic and did capture the imagination of the local press, the ship itself had little effect on the coastal trade. Though heralding the way forward in the change from sail to steam on the long Western Australian coast, like its predecessor the SS Xantho, Georgette had a short and ill-starred career and sank soon after its arrival there.
SS Georgette was built in 1872 at Dumbarton. She was a 211-ton iron screw-steamer, 46.2 metres long, 6.9 metres wide and 3.4 metres deep. Intended as a collier
Collier (ship type)
Collier is a historical term used to describe a bulk cargo ship designed to carry coal, especially for naval use by coal-fired warships. In the late 18th century a number of wooden-hulled sailing colliers gained fame after being adapted for use in voyages of exploration in the South Pacific, for...
, she had a capacity of 460 tons deadweight
Deadweight
Deadweight may refer to:* Deadweight loss, an economics concept* Deadweight tonnage, a ship's carrying capacity with crew and supplies* "Deadweight" , a song on Beck's 1997 album A Life Less Ordinary...
, and her two engines produced 48 horsepower
Horsepower
Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...
. She also carried two masts
Mast (sailing)
The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall, vertical, or near vertical, spar, or arrangement of spars, which supports the sails. Large ships have several masts, with the size and configuration depending on the style of ship...
with a schooner rig.
While still nearly new, Georgette was sold in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
n buyers for £14,000. She arrived at Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...
in September 1873, and was put to work as a coastal trading and passenger service between Fremantle, Albany
Albany, Western Australia
Albany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, some 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. As of 2009, Albany's population was estimated at 33,600, making it the 6th-largest city in the state....
and Champion Bay. In October 1873, she was stranded on the Murray Reef, and had to be sent to Adelaide, South Australia for an overhaul. She resumed service in March 1874.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
Catalpa
Catalpa
Catalpa, commonly called catalpa or catawba, is a genus of flowering plants in the trumpet vine family, Bignoniaceae, native to warm temperate regions of North America, the Caribbean, and East Asia....
rescued a group of Fenian
Fenian
The Fenians , both the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood , were fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19th and early 20th century. The name "Fenians" was first applied by John O'Mahony to the members of the Irish republican...
political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s from Fremantle. Catalpa had dropped anchor
Anchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, that is used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the vessel from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ancora, which itself comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα .Anchors can either be temporary or permanent...
in international waters
International waters
The terms international waters or trans-boundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regional seas and estuaries, rivers, lakes, groundwater systems , and wetlands.Oceans,...
, and despatched a whaleboat
Whaleboat
A whaleboat is a type of open boat that is relatively narrow and pointed at both ends, enabling it to move either forwards or backwards equally well. It was originally developed for whaling, and later became popular for work along beaches, since it does not need to be turned around for beaching or...
to shore to collect the escapees. The escape was detected while the escapees were still rowing back to the Catalpa, and Georgette, who was in Fremantle at the time, was sent with a water police
Water police
Water police, also called harbour patrols, port police, marine/maritime police, nautical patrols, bay constables or river police, are police officers, usually a department of a larger police organisation, who patrol in water craft...
cutter to intercept them. However the prisoners successfully reached the Catalpa, and having no official orders to board the Catalpa, Georgette and the police cutter withdrew. The following morning, Georgette returned and demanded the return of the prisoners. The Catalpas captain, George Anthony, denied that he had the prisoners on board, and pointed out that he was in international waters. Georgette then fired a warning shot with its 12 pounder (5 kg) cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
, but Anthony pointed at his ship's US flag
Flag of the United States
The national flag of the United States of America consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars alternating with rows...
and sailed away. Georgette pursued until it was low on fuel, then returned to Fremantle.
On 29 November 1876, SS Georgette left Fremantle on what would be her last voyage. She was carrying fifty passengers and a cargo of jarrah, and was bound for Adelaide via Bunbury
Bunbury, Western Australia
The port city of Bunbury is the third largest city in Western Australia after the State Capital Perth and Mandurah. It is situated south of Perth's central business district...
, Busselton
Busselton, Western Australia
-Growth and development:According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the Shire had a permanent resident population of 25,950 in 2004 with the town of Busselton accounting for 67% or 17,400 of the total. The Shire's permanent population is expected to continue to increase significantly to...
and Albany
Albany, Western Australia
Albany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, some 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. As of 2009, Albany's population was estimated at 33,600, making it the 6th-largest city in the state....
. Shortly after midnight on 1 December, when Georgette was about midway between Cape Naturaliste
Cape Naturaliste
Cape Naturaliste is a headland in the south western region of Western Australia at the western edge of the Geographe Bay. It is the northernmost point of the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge which was named after the cape...
and Cape Hamelin
Hamelin Bay, Western Australia
Hamelin Bay is a bay and a locality on the south west coast of Western Australia between Cape Leeuwin and Cape Naturaliste. It is named after French explorer Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin who sailed through the area in about 1801...
, 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 lives were lost.
Georgette continued to drift until she drifted into the surf at Calgardup Bay, where she was seen by the Bussell family
Bussell family
The Bussell family were a family of early settlers in colonial Western Australia. Four members of the Bussell family emigrated from England to Western Australia in 1831, with more members following in the next few years...
's Aboriginal stockman, Sam Isaacs. Isaacs ran for the Bussell's homestead to raise the alarm, where he found only Ellen Bussell and her 16-year-old daughter Grace
Grace Bussell
Grace Vernon Bussell , later Grace Drake-Brockman, was the 16-year-old heroine of the SS Georgette disaster in Western Australia on 1 December 1876. Bussell, along with Aboriginal stockman Sam Isaacs, helped save the lives of around 50 people with a quick thinking rescue from shore...
. Grace Bussell and Isaacs then returned 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.
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
Grace Darling
Grace Horsley Darling was an English Victorian heroine who in 1838, along with her father, saved 13 people from the wreck of the SS Forfarshire.-Biography:...
", and was awarded the Royal Humane Society
Royal Humane Society
The Royal Humane Society is a British charity which promotes lifesaving intervention. It was founded in England in 1774 as the Society for the Recovery of Persons Apparently Drowned, for the purpose of rendering first aid in cases of near drowning....
's silver medal. Isaacs received a bronze. Godfrey, on the other hand, received much of the blame for the shipwreck. He was found not guilty on five counts of negligence
Negligence
Negligence is a failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances. The area of tort law known as negligence involves harm caused by carelessness, not intentional harm.According to Jay M...
, but his captain's certificate was still revoked.
Georgettes hull was sold for £40. Today the wreck lies in 5 metres of water, about 90 metres off Redgate Beach. The site is protected under the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976
Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976
The Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 is an Australian Act of Parliament designed to legally protect historic shipwrecks and any relics or artifacts from those wrecks...
.