Amazing Grace still has power to inspire lifesavers

IT was a maritime tragedy that sparked one of the most celebrated rescues of the Victorian era.
Crew member Jamie White, a relative of both Grace Darling and the Robson family who provided three of the crew of the Seahouses lifeboat, lays the wreath.Crew member Jamie White, a relative of both Grace Darling and the Robson family who provided three of the crew of the Seahouses lifeboat, lays the wreath.
Crew member Jamie White, a relative of both Grace Darling and the Robson family who provided three of the crew of the Seahouses lifeboat, lays the wreath.

And yesterday the 175th anniversary of the final journey of the paddle steamship SS Forfarshire was marked with a wreath-laying ceremony in the water off Hull Marina.

The ship, owned by the Dundee and Hull Steam Packet Company, set off from Hull for the Tay estuaries in Scotland with about 60 crew and passengers on board, but began to have trouble with her boilers off Flamborough Head.

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Captain John Humble continued through the next day with the assistance of sail until just after reaching St Abbs Head, north of Berwick on Tweed, where, in a severe northerly gale, the boilers failed completely and she began drifting south.

Crew member Jamie White, a relative of both Grace Darling and the Robson family who provided three of the crew of the Seahouses lifeboat, lays the wreath.Crew member Jamie White, a relative of both Grace Darling and the Robson family who provided three of the crew of the Seahouses lifeboat, lays the wreath.
Crew member Jamie White, a relative of both Grace Darling and the Robson family who provided three of the crew of the Seahouses lifeboat, lays the wreath.

The captain tried to put into the lee of the Farne Islands, but the ship foundered on Big Harcar Rock, about a mile from Longstone Lighthouse, at about 4am on the morning of September 7, 1838.

She broke up and 42 people drowned, but up in the lighthouse, the keeper’s 22-year-old daughter Grace Darling, was on watch and saw survivors on the rocks.

Fearing the local lifeboat – which included Grace’s brother William Brooks Darling in the seven-man crew – would not reach them in time, Grace and her father William set off in stormy seas in their coble, an open rowing boat, putting their own lives at risk.

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Father and daughter rowed for nearly a mile into the tide, and while Grace fought to keep the coble from smashing on the rocks, William got off three men, an injured man, and a woman who was holding two dead children in her arms.

After another perilous journey back to the lighthouse, Grace stayed to look after the survivors with her mother, while William and two of the rescued men went back to get the remaining four men stranded on the rocks.

Nine others had escaped in a lifeboat from the ship.

The seven members of the North Sunderland (Seahouses) lifeboat crew arrived on the scene half an hour after Mr Darling had left with the remaining survivors.

They had also used a coble, believing their lifeboat would not be able to get close enough to the rocks, and had battled for several hours to get there.

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Conditions were so treacherous that they too sought sanctuary at the lighthouse, and were astonished to see the survivors when they arrived.

All had to stay at the lighthouse for three days until the storm abated, leaving their families on shore fearing the worst.

When news of the rescue did emerge, Grace’s deeds captured the imagination of early Victorian society. She and her father were awarded the Silver Medal for Gallantry by the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, the forerunner of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, making her the first woman in history to be so honoured.

Grace also received a Gold Medal from the Royal Humane Society, plus financial awards totalling £200, a substantial sum at the time, which included £50 from Queen Victoria.

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Although the young heroine died three years later from tuberculosis, she inspired William Wordsworth in his poem Grace Darling. He wrote:

Together they put forth, Father and Child!

Each grasps an oar, and struggling on they go -

Rivals in effort; and, alike intent

The sinking and rescue were remembered when the RNLI Humber lifeboat The Pride of the Humber stopped off the marina and gave the wreath-laying honour to crew member Jamie White – a relative of both Grace Darling and the Robson family, which provided three of the crew of the Seahouses lifeboat.

Coxswain Dave Steenvoorden said: “Myself and the crew of the Humber lifeboat wanted to mark this historic occasion and at the same time make people more aware of Hull’s connection with what became one of the most notable events in early Victorian England, as Grace Darling became famous overnight.

“Grace is very special and a real inspiration to the RNLI crews, who like Grace volunteer to go out to help others in sometimes horrendous sea and weather conditions.”

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