Grace Darling

Grace Horsley Darling, the archetypal young Victorian heroine of one of the most celebrated sea rescues in British history, was born at Bamburgh, Northumberland, on 24 November 1815. Her father William was the lighthouse keeper on the Farne Islands, off Bamburgh and, in 1823, he had moved his family into the new Longstone tower recently completed to replace the old light on the Brownsman Rock. During the night of 6-7 September 1838, the 192-ton paddle steamer Forfarshire, en route to Dundee from Hull with a full cargo and some sixty passengers, was wrecked on the Big Harcar Rock after becoming unmanageable due to mechanical breakdown and then deteriorating weather. The impact of the stranding broke the Forfarshire's hull in two whereupon the stern section sank rapidly taking most of the passengers with it. The forepart however lodged precariously on the rock where Grace Darling eventually spotted it just before 5.00 am on 7 September. It was a further two hours before she and her father saw any survivors but, as he made ready to launch a boat, William Darling realised that he could not manage the task alone. Looking to Grace for assistance, she did not hestitate and the two of them made the perilous journey out to the Big Harcar Rock and, with the greatest difficulty, rescued a woman, an injured man and three others. Once back at the Longstone lighthouse, Grace and her mother tended the distraught woman and injured man whilst her father and two of the rescued men returned to the wreck for the second time. The bad weather continued for several more days but news of the Darling's exploits soon became known and before long, the plucky twenty-two year old Grace was the toast of the nation. The Darlings, and particularly Grace, were showered with gifts as well as the medals of various lifesaving institutions but, sadly, Grace did not live to enjoy her fame for long and died of tuberculosis in October 1842.