Famous Women

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19998, 15 November 1927, Page 6

Famous Women

WILY, WILFUL, WONDERFUL

7—GRACE DARLING Few acts of spontaneous achievment have attained a wider and more enduring renown than the courageous feat of Grace Darling, which immortalised her name and placed her in the front rank of the world’s greatest heroines. Her father was the keeper of the lighthouse on Longstone, one of the smallest of th© Fame Islands, which lie off the coast of Northumberland in the north of England, and Grace, who was twenty-three years of age at the time of her famous exploit, had been ed the greater portion of her life in the lonely lighthouse with her parents, and had’only received the simple education which they had been able to give her from their own very limited knowledge. The rock-bound shores of the Fame Islands are regarded as one of the most dangerous spots on the coast of Britain, for even in the calmest weather the sea rushes with a tremendous force through the narrow channels between t.he many islands, and among mariners the locality possesses a deservedly evil name. On the night of September 5, 1838, a terrible storm swept around the islands and, from the windows of the Longstone Lighthouse, Grace and her parents saw a ship dashed upon the rocks. The vessel was the steamer Forfarshire, which was bound from Hull to Dundee and had on board 63 persons, — 39 passengers and a crew of 24. The doomed ship broke in two soon after she had struck, and the stern portion sank almost immediately, carrying to a watery grave the majority of those on board, but the bow remained fast upon the rocks, where it was slowly but surely being pounded to pieces by the heavy seas. On the bow were 11 survivors, made up of eight men, one woman and two small children, and Grace begged her father to launch his little boat r.nc» make an attempt to rescue them. When Darling pointed out to his daughter the impossibility of his being able to row the boat alone across the intervening channel, she volunteered to accompany him, but he still hesitated, for he well knew that if they did succeed in reaching the wreck, which was extremJy doubtful, they would be absolutely powerless to undertake the return journey unless the survivors were able to help them with the oars. Grace persisted in her entreaties, and she finally prevailed upon her father to make the attempt at the break of dawn, when, with the aid of the distracted wife and mother, who felt that her beloved ones were going to certain death, the lighthouse boat was launched into the seething waters. Inch by inch Grace and her father fought their way through the boiling sea, which threatened every moment to overwhelm them, but at last they succeeded in reaching the wreck without mishap. Darling sprang on board to devise some means of removing the survivors, while Grace was left alone in the boat, which she pulled back into the hissing waters of the channel to prevent it from being smashed to splinters on the jagged rocks. None of the actors in that dangerous and desperate rescue were able to describe exactly what happened, but the woman, the two children and four of the men somehow found their way into the fioat, which made the journey back to the lighthouse in safety, and then, with the aid of two of the men, Darling made a second trip to the wreck and saved the other four survivors.

The heroism of the frail and delicate girl was acclaimed throughout the world. She was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Humane Society and was presented with the sum of £7OO, which had been raised by public subscription, while Queen Victoria and many other notable persons made her valuable gifts. She did not live long to enjoy her well-merited fame and prosperity, for she died of consumption four years later at the age of 27. (Copyrighted).