GRACE DARLING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 September 1938, Page 4

GRACE DARLING

CENTENARY OF FAMOUS DEED One hundred years ago today Grace Darling performed the marvellous feat of endurance and courage which enshrined her for ever in the hearts of British people. On September 7, 1838, she and her father rowed fully a mile from the Longstone lighthouse, on one of the Fame Islands, to the Harker Rocks through a raging storms to rescue the five survivors of the wreck of the steamer Forfarshire. The tremendous storm —said to be unparalled on that coast—and exceptionally high tide had given much concern to the lighthouse occupants, William Darling, the keeper, his wife, and his daughter, Grace, aged 22. It was four a.m. on September 7 when Grace Darling, wet through and tired out, climbed the stair to her bedroom. Just before going to sleep she glanced out of the window and saw dimly the , wreck of the Forfarshire on the Harker Rocks. About 7 a.m., when dawn was breaking, the occupants of the lighthouse saw through a telescope signs of human movement on the reef immediately below the wreck, Although William Darling was a brave man, he hesitated about setting out in the raging sea to rescue the unfortunate people. Then his daughter threatened to make the venture single-handed if her father held back. Eventually the father was persuaded to make the journey.