Rescue of British Shipwreck Survivors Ended in Betrayal

On the unseasonably hot Friday morning of December 4, 1812, the 193-ton brig Isabella prepared to depart from Port Jackson Harbor in the British convict colony of New South Wales, in what is now Australia. The vessel’s ultimate destination was London, via Cape Horn. Among the 54 people on board were the brig’s captain, George Higton; Scottish Lieutenant Richard Lundin; former convict Joseph Holt, his wife, Hester, and son, Joseph; convict transport ship captain Richard Brooks; former convicts Samuel Breakwell and Henry Browne Hayes; and passengers William Mattinson and Joanna-Ann Durie.