~The Book Of Wonder Encyclopaedia~
~Grace Horsley Darling~
~1814 - 1852~
[Detail from an antique silk postcard by stevengraphs.com]
Grace Darling was born on the 24th November 1815 at Bamburgh, Northumberland, she won her claim to immortality on the 7th September 1838 becoming a heroine in the history books.
On the 5th September the steamer SS Forfarshire, journeying from Hull to Dundee, was having problems with her boilers. There was a raging storm on the night of the 6th and, floundering in the heavy seas and battered by the storm, the steamer, with around 60 people aboard her, 39 of them passengers, struck the rocks at Big Harcar of the Outer Farne Islands a mile away from Longstone Lighthouse where Grace's father William was lighthouse keeper.
Most of her passengers were drowned and only 10 people escaped in the lifeboat but Grace had seen survivors clinging to the rocks and with her father took a coble to their rescue. They made two trips and saved the 9 people who they cared for at the lighthouse until the weather was clear enough to reach the mainland.
Grace was awarded the RNLI silver medal along with many other gifts of thanks from the rescued people, the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, and the company who owned the steamer. She refused many proposals of marriage and offers to appear on the stage in a London theatre. As a person Grace Darling was said to have been a quiet woman, she hated being in the limelight.
On 20th October 1842 Grace died from tuberculosis, said to have been contracted while visiting her brother who was lighthouse keeper on Coquet Island.
She was buried on the 24th October in the churchyard at Bamburgh where a canopied memorial was erected that could be seen from the sea.
The memorial holds a stone figure of Grace lying with an oar beside her.
In the Grace Darling Museum in the village, erected on Grace's centenery, the coble used in the rescue is it's most precious relic.
The coble is an open rowing-boat 21' long by 6' wide, built at Tweedmouth. It continued to be used at Longstone until it was sold in 1873 when it was used on an ornamental lake.
The RNLI was given the coble in 1913 - it was installed in the museum.
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The Grace Darling Museum is on Radcliffe Road, Bamburgh, Northumberland.
OPEN: Apr-Oct, Mon-Sat, 1000-1700; Sun,1200-1700
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