Grace Darling

Mild-mannered Grace Darling persuaded her father to let her help him rescue the survivors of a shipwreck.

1838-1842

Queen Victoria 1837-1901

Introduction

Grace Darling was just 22 when she helped her father rescue the survivors of a shipwreck on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast. It was a moment of instinctive heroism that would change her life forever.

by Clay Lane

IN the early hours of 7th September, 1838, the Forfarshire, a paddlesteamer laden with cotton, broke apart on Big Harcar, a rocky outcrop of the island of Outer Farne.

Distress flags flew and signal guns fired at Bamburgh Castle, but no lifeboat could escape the shore in the raging storm.

As grey dawn spread in the sky, Grace Darling, daughter of the keeper of Longstone Lighthouse on Outer Farne, anxiously scanned the rocks through her telescope.

Shortly before seven, she spotted nine of the sixty-one passengers and crew still clinging onto the rocks: Mr Donovan with a smashed leg, Mrs Dawson still holding her two dead children by the hand, and Mr Ritchie who had watched as his uncle and aunt were swept away.

The lighthouse coble was too big for her father William to handle alone, but during breakfast Grace overruled his misgivings and insisted on accompanying him on the dangerous, two-hour rescue, bringing all nine survivors to safety.

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Précis

Grace Darling was the daughter of a lighthouse-keeper on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast. On 7th September 1838, she spotted survivors from the wreck of the ‘Forfarshire’, and insisted on helping her father, anxious for her safety, to put to sea in the storm and save them.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

How did Grace manage to spot the shipwrecked passengers and crew?

Clay Lane The Copybook