A history from a shell souvenir

This story is based on a roundel, to commemorate Grace Darling (1815-1842) a lighthouse keepers daughter, handed to me by Stanley Francis a member of the BSCC. The name Grace Darling is familiar to many people and has become a semi-folklore character, akin to Queen Boadicea or Lady Godiva whose existances have some basis in historical fact but whose legends have far out stripped reality.

To anyone who has heard of her story they probably have an image of a young Victorian beauty, her long hair flowing behind her as she rows through mountainous seas towards a shipwreck dimly discerned in the background. And this is exactly what the Victorian leaders of the time wanted people to think. It was in fact victorian exaggeration intended to foster the virtues of industriousness, obedience, modesty, piety and bravery in the girls of the age.

During the night of the 7th September 1938 the 400 ton luxury paddle steamer Forfarshire sailed from Hull for Dundee at midnight even though a storm was blowing up. She was described as a splendid and powerful steam vessel of ‘great propulsive force, as high if not higher than that of any steamer of the size now afloat’ but still carrying sail. There were private staterooms for the very grand; a ladies cabin and one for gentlemen; a deck for steerage passengers and excellent accommodation for horses, livestock, carriages, etc.. Murals by a well known artist of the day, Horatio Mc’Cullock, adorned the saloons. Lavish meals were served on giltscrolled China, huge dinner plates inscribed with a likeness of the vessel.

When she left the port she was carrying approx. sixty crew and passengers and a cargo of superfine cloths, hardware, soap, boiler plate and spinning gear. In the early hours of the morning while sailing northwards off Berwick the paddles stopped and so sail was raised. Unfortunately the paddles, when in good working order are as safe and efficient method of propulsion as any other but when they are no longer working become insuperable barriers to a ship making any headway under canvas, leaving her at the mercy of the elements especially in the violent storm that had blown up. At 4am she drifted onto the Big Harcar Rock in the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland and broke in half. The stern sank immediately taking many passengers, who were asleep, with her while the bow remained wedged on the rock. Eight crew members and a male passenger got away in the ships boat before the Forfarshire foundered, 43 were instantly drowned but 12 others (2 firemen, a carpenter, a cook, a woman- Mrs Dawson, and 4 steerage passengers) held onto the rocks next to the wrecked bow. Unfortunately Mrs Dawson’s children and a Revd.Cobb died of exposure and injuries during the night before the Darlings could rescue them.

At 7 a.m. when it grew light enough to see, William Darling, keeper of the Longstone lighthouse and his twenty-two-year-old daughter Grace, saw the bow of the Forfarshire and the people moving about on the rocks three quarters of a mile away. When the tide seemed favourable and with the help of Mrs Darling, Grace and her father launched their coble (A short flat-bottomed rowing boat used chiefly on the NE coast of England) and rowed out to Big Harcar. On arrival Mr Darling leapt out of the coble onto the rocks while Grace stayed on the oars, rowing back and forth to prevent the boat being dashed to pieces on the treacherous reef. As there was no room in the boat for all nine, Mr Darling took on board Mrs Dawson, an injured crew member and three able-bodied men who would help row while Grace attended to the injured. They successfully returned to the Longstone where Grace, Mrs Dawson, the injured crewman and one male passenger disembarked. Mr Darling and two of the Forfarshire crew then rowed back to the big Harcar and brought off the remaining four. The primary source for these events was Mr.Darling’s Log Book a record of what went on, on a day to day basis, at the lighthouse. The first account of the sinking of the Forfarshire was printed in the Dundee Courier on the 11th September, 4 days after the event. No mention of the Darlings was included. On the same day an inquest was set up to investigate the cause of the deaths. It found that the boilers were leaking so badly that in the words of James Kelly, a passenger: ‘the vessel was quite unseaworthy and should have turned back immediately to Hull’. The jury returned a verdict on the cause of death: ‘wrecked on board the Forfarshire steampacket by the imperfections of the boilers and culpable negligence of the captain in not putting back to port’.

The first account of Grace Darling and her father’s exploits was in the Warder of Berwick-on-Tweed in its edition of September 15th 1838. And I quote: ‘We cannot close these remarks without alluding to the noble feelings, and heroic conduct of Grace Darling and her father, standing in bold relief, as they do, to the craven and unseamanlike desertion of a part of the crew….The humanity and fortitude of these two respectable individuals is beyond all praise, and cannot fail to bring down upon them warm thanks and blessings, if not more substantial marks of approbation’. And so the story begins and grows. The first account to be seen by Londoners of Grace Darling’s heroic exploit was in The Times of September 19th 1838, twelve days after the rescue. Again I quote: ‘Connected with this (the wreck of the Forfarshire), the most calamitous case of shipwreck perhaps that has occurred since the loss of the Rothsay Castle off the Isle of Anglesea, is an instance of heroism and intrepidity on the part of a female unequalled perhaps, certainly not surpassed, by any on record. I allude to the heroic conduct of Miss Grace Horsley Darling…It is impossible to speak in adequate terms of the unparalled bravery and disinterestedness shown on this occasion by Mr Darling and his truly heroic daughter, especially so with regard to the latter. Surely such unexampled heroism will not go unrewarded ? ’. The article goes on: ‘Surely, imagination in its loftiest creations never invested the female character with such a degree of fortitude as has been evinced by Miss Grace Horsley Darling on this occasion. Is there in the whole field of history, or of fiction even, one instance of female heroism to compare for one moment with this’. And so the story was introduced to the nation as a whole.

And so it was through The Times that Queen Victoria read about the heroic exploits of Grace Darling. On November 24th 1838 a letter from the Queen via the Treasury Chambers was sent which included fifty pounds. Grace Darling was now a National heroine. Poets, artists, writers, souvenir hunters and sightseers came to the Longstone Lighthouse in their hundreds to see Grace and where her exploits were carried out to both the annoyance of her father and Grace herself. Numerous souvenirs, pictures, articles and poems were made and written about her and the sinking of the Forfarshire. Even after her death from a chill (probably consumption caught on one of her visits to the mainland) four years later on October 20th 1842 her name continued to be remembered and still is today. In 1987 Royal Dalton produced a porcelain statuette of her with shoulder length black hair and looking like a composite of Elizabeth Taylor and Snow White!. A memorial fund was set up to which Queen Victoria contributed £20 and Wordsworth wrote a hundred-line poem of which seventeen lines were chosen for a memorial stone in St.Cuthbert’s Chapel on the Inner Farne Island. Another monument was built in the churchyard in Bamburgh overlooking the sea. It was a canopied tomb with a full-length recumbent Grace complete with oar at her side, fashioned from Portland stone which has had to be replaced over the years.

There is a Grace Darling museum in Bamburgh which has two rooms containing the Coble, a chart showing the ‘Farne Island Wrecks’, Darling memorabilia, portraits of Grace and her family, pictures of the rescue, her clothes, locks of her hair, books about her written over the last 150 years, mementoes, mass produced souvenirs and relics from the Forfarshire etc. It is a fascinating record of a heroine and Victorian superstar.

I finish by saying that Grace Darling was unremarkable as a personality-- pious, obedient, hard-working, modest, there was nothing to distinguish her from countless other English country girls – except for her fortuitous assistance in the Forfarshire rescue. This single act of great courage was, in a sense, the sum total of her. And thus she was a blank slate for the artists, writers, newspapers and politicians of her age who made good use of her heroic act. And so it was that this roundel was made, remembering a girl who was only helping her father but became a heroine of the Victorian age .

A few of the books written about her life. Grace Darling, or the heroine of the Farne Islands by G.M.Reynolds 1839 • Grace Darling, or the Maid of the Isles by Jerrold Vernon 1839 • Grace Darling, heroine of the Farne Islands. Her Life and its Lessons by Eva Hope 1875 • Grace Darling and Her times by Constance Smedley 1932 • Grace darling: Maid and Myth by Richard Armstrong 1965 • Grace Darling; a Play by Peter Dillon 1984 • Grace had an English heart by Jessica Mitford 1988

Fig 1 Roundel to commemorate Grace Darlng. (Photo John Llewellyn-Jones)

Roundel details: Size: 20 cms x 20 cms. Registered Design Number: 274529 Date 1896. Company: S.Homan and Son, 93 Charrington Street, Cambden Town, London.