Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1877 — An Australian Heroine. [ARTICLE]

An Australian Heroine.

The bravest girl in Australia is Grace Vernon Bussell. The steamer Georgette was wrecked off the west , coast, near Perth; a small boat had been capsized in the surf, and women and children were struggling in the water. On tlie crest of a precipitous clitf appeared the figure of a youug lady on horseback. To the sailors on the stranded vessel it seemed utteriv impossible that a horse and its rider shohlil ise able to descend that precipice. But the young lady never faltered. She plunged down at full speed, and, reaching the shore, spurred her horse into the boiling surf. There were two lines of roaring breakers. With splendid pluck she dashed through them and reached the boat, to which the affrighted women and children were clinging. Her horse stumbled over a hawser which stretched between tlie wreck and the small boat; but she clung to the saddle, and brought the women and children to land. There was still a man left on board the boat. She plunged into tbe breakers again and brought him safe to the shore. While those whtm she had saved were rescuing those who remained on the wreck, the heroic girl drenched with the sea-foam and half fainting with fatigue, galloped a dozen mile 9 hoire to have relief sent to the half-drowned, halfnaked folks whom she ifed left on the Deach. Her sister, Mrs. Brockman, took horse, galloped that night through the woods to the shore, taking tea, milk, sugar and flour for the destitute people; and the next day the rescued were brought to Mr. Brockman’s house and cared for. The anxiety and excitement proved fatal to Mrs. Brockman, wbo took a severe cold, and died eventually of brain fever. Grace Vernon Bussell still lives.