GRACE DARLING'S BOAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20454, 4 January 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

GRACE DARLING'S BOAT.

PRESERVATION FOR EVER

SPOT NEAR HEROINE'S GRAVE

Grace Darling's coble 'will never rot on the shore or be broken up for firewood. The humble little boat is to be preserved forever, on a spot near the famous heroine's grave.

Grace Darling was born at Bamborough in Waterloo year, and was 23 when the Forfarshire was wrecked on the Fame Islands. Next day, Grace's father, keeper of the Longstone Lighthouse, a mile away, could see a few survivors clinging to the wreck.

There was a terrible storm raging, and it was at the greatest peril to themselves that Grace and her father left the lighthouse and rowed to the rescue. The gale was so severe that it was three days before the mainland could communicate with the lighthouse, where Grace and her father had the nine sailors safe.

All England rang with the story, and people honoured her the more when they found this hero, as it was supposed, was a shy, delicate girl. She died of consumption when she was only 27, through sleeping in a room with no fresh air and a window that would not, open. The coble in which the gallant rescue was made is now in the North-East Coast Exhibition. What will happen to it after the exhibition closes? It was hoped to place the coble in Bamborough Church, because many people felt that the humble boat had been hallowed by the selfless courage of two humble people, and that it was a more Christian monument than many a pompous marble to be found in places of worship. But the bishop saw objections, so Lord Armstrong offered a, site near the church where a boatbouse is being specially built for it. When this news was told to a conference of lifeboat workers at Harrogate the other day there was an outburst of cheering.