GRACE DARLING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5285, 11 June 1928, Page 1

GRACE DARLING.

HER HISTORICAL FEAT. STORY OF THE ACHIEVEMENT. ’ Few acts of spontaneous achievement ‘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 heroine®.

Her father, was the keeper of the lighthouse on Longstone, one of the smallest of the Marne 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 passed the greater portion of her ijfe 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 rockbound shores of the Fame Islands are regarded as one of the most dangerous spots on the coasts of Britain, for even in the calmest weather the sea rushes with a tremendous: force through the narrow channels between the many islands, and amopg mariners the locality possesses a deservedly evil name. On the night of September 5, 1838, a terrible storm swept the islands, and from the windows of Longstone Lighthouse Grace and her, parents saw a ship dashed upon the rocks. The vessel was the steamer “Forfarshire,” whifih was bound from Hull to Dundee and had on board 63 persons—39 passengers and n 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 he.a.vy seas. Qn the bow were 11 survivors, made up of eight men, one woman, and. two small children, and Grace begged her father to launch ihfs little boat and 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 wrtek, "which, was extremely doubtful, they would be absolutely powerless to undertake the return voyage 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 1 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 boding seas, which threatened every moment to overwhelm them, but at last they succeeded in reaching the wreck without mishap.

Darling sprang on boa,rd' 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 was able to describe exactly what happened, but the woman, the two children, and four of the men somehow found their way into the boat, 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 1 throughout the work}. She was awarded the gold meda.l of the Royal Humane Society and was presented with the sum of seven, hundred pounds, which had been raised by piibljc 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 four years later of consumption at the.age of 27.