THE LIFEBOAT. The Journal of the Royal National Life-boat Institution. VOL. XXVIII.—No. 304.] NOVEMBER, 1930. [PRICE Gd. THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET Motor Life-boats, 90 :: Pulling & Sailing Life-boats, 104 LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Institution in 1824 to 27th November, 1930 62,443 Grace Darling's Coble. A Permanent Home at Bamburgh. A Maiden gentle, ye!, at duty's call, 1882, London 1883, Liverpool 1886, Firm and unflinching as the Lighthouse Newcastle 1887, and Glasgow 1888. reared In 1924 it was proposed to bring it On the Island-rock, her lonely dwelling- temporarily to London in connexion place.—WORDSWORTH. with the Centenary Celebrations of the Institution, but it was found that Years on years have withered since beside the boat was then too frail for this to be the hearth once thine done without considerable risk. The I, too young to have seen thee, touched thy idea was therefore given up, but it was father's hallowed hand. found possible to move it to Newcastle- Thee and him shall all men see for ever, on-Tyne for the North-East Coast Exhi- stars that shine, bition, which was held there from May While the sea that spared thee girds and to October of last year. The removal glorifies the land.—SWINBURNE. had to be carried out with the greatest The boat in which, ninety-two years care, and the work was entrusted to the ago, Grace Darling performed the deed Crew of the Cullercoats Life-boat. which has made her one of the heroines Through the kindness of the Com- of the English race, came into the pos- mittee and Managers of the Exhibition session of the Institution in 1913. It a free site was provided for the coble in was gene.iously presented by Lady John the Hall of Engineering, and it was a Joicey-Cecil, the only condition attached strange and moving sight to see this to the gift being that it should remain small, frail old boat, placed close by the in the county of Northumberland. latest type of motor railway coach, one Since then the boat has been on of the largest telescopes in the world, a exhibition at the Dove Marine Labora- full-size Diesel engine and one of the tory at Cullercoats. The Institution newest types of out-board motor boat. has no record of the coble before it came into its possession, but we have The Rescue. been informed that it has been shown Though Grace Darling's is a house- at five exhibitions—at Tynemouth in hold name throughout the British race, 166 THE LIFEBOAT. [NOVEMBER, 1930. there are probably few who know the tremendous strain of that night's heroic details of her great effort. Near the work. Four years later, at the age of coble, therefore, was placed a short twenty-seven, she died. But her name, account of it. and the story of her heroism are im- At three in the morning of the 7th perishable. September, 1838, the steamer Forfar- The Coble. shire, with 63 men and women on board, It is hardly possible to appreciate was flung on the terrible Harcar Rocks that story of heroism without seeing the off the coast of Northumberland. Seven boat in which Grace Darling and her of her crew launched a boat at once. By father ventured out. It was a coble, a miracle it kept clear of the rocks, and 21 feet long by 6 feet wide, an open row- twentv-four hours later it was picked ing boat, unprovided with any of those up. contrivances which give exceptional Immediately after the boat got strength, stability and buoyancy to a away, a tremendous sea struck the Life-boat. To see it, after reading the steamer, lifted her and flung her again story, is to understand the danger which on the rocks. She broke in half, and Grace Darling and her father knowingly the after-part was swept away, with faced. the majority of the passengers on board. As soon as it was known that the They all perished. coble would be at the Exhibition, offers The survivors on the fore-part of of the loan of relics of the Darlings and the steamer managed to get on to a the Forfarshire were received from all small rock, and there for the rest of the parts of Northumberland. Unfor- night they lay, numbed with the cold tunately, it was impossible for the In- and swept by the seas, in a gale so fierce stitution to arrange to include these that their clothes were stripped from relics in the exhibit, and the offers had them. Among them was a woman who to be declined. The boat, itself, how- was found, when help at last came, ever, needed no additional relics to still alive, and clasping in each hand attract the public. The first person to her children, a boy of eight and a inspect it was the Prince of Wales, the girl of eleven, who had died hours Institution's President, when he came before. to open the Exhibition, and from then There, about seven in the morning, onwards, through the six months, there they were seen from the Longstone was a constant stream of visitors to the Lighthouse—a mile away—and Grace Institution's stand. The Exhibition Darling, the daughter of the Lighthouse- Authorities themselves were astonished keeper, was determined that an effort to see how greatly it attracted the should be made to save them. She and public, but it is hardly surprising when her father, William Darling, launched it is remembered that Grace Darling is bheir boat, and after a tremendous and Northumberland's special heroine, and perilous struggle, which tried their that every Northumbrian child knows courage and strength to the utmost, her story. they reached the rock. There were only Parties of school children from all nine sxirvivors of the passengers and over the North of England went to see crew. Five were taken into the boat the boat, and one schoolmistress said and brought in safety to the Light- that of all the wonderful things which house. Then William Darling, with two tier children had seen at the Exhibition, of the rescued men, put off again and this would be the greatest and most last- the other four were saved. For this ing memory. Children were continually heroic service Grace Darling and her to be seen crowding round the boat and father were each awarded the Silver listening to the story, and many of them Medal of the Institution. afterwards put their pennies and half- Grace Darling was only twenty- pennies in the Life-boat Collecting Box. three years old at the time. She was not These were gifts out of the little sums strong. Her health was already giving saved to be spent at the Exhibition, and way. Her illness was hastened by the more than one tragic mistake was made. NOVEMBER, 1930.) THE LIFEBOAT. 167 GRACE DARLING. From a painting by Thomas Musgrave Joy in the Municipal Art Galleries, Dundee. Reproduced by permission of the Fraternity of Masters and Seamen of Dundee. GRACE DARLING'S COBLE AT THE NORTH-EAST COAST EXHIBITION. 168 THE LIFEBOAT. [NOVEMBER, 1930. Thus the Organizing Secretary received of having it strengthened and repaired, a letter from a schoolmaster to say that, so that it might last for another 100 by mistake, one of the boys had put years. This generous offer was grate- 2s. (jd. in the collecting-box : " this fully accepted by the Institution, the half-crown has been the accumulated boat was surveyed by one of the Insti- amount of several weeks' saving in anti- tution's own Life-boat surveyors, and cipation of the visit." The half-crown she has now been put in as thorough a was at once returned. state of repair as is possible without The exhibition of the boat at New- altering her appearance. castle attracted attention far beyond Meanwhile, steps were taken to find the North of England. The Dundee, a permanent home for the boat. More Perth and London Shipping Company— than one placs on the Northumbrian the line to which the Forfarshire be- coast claimed ths honour, and it was longed—asked for the loan of the coble finally decided that no more suitable in connexion with the help which it waa spot could be found than Bamburgh. giving the Dundee Branch on Life-boat The Longstone Lighthouse on the Farne Day.* The request had, with regret, to Islands lies four miles off the Bamburgh be refused owing to the fear of damaging cliffs. Grace Darling is buried in Bam- the boat. From the Captain of a Girls' burgh Church, and above the tomb is School in Kent came a request for full her memorial window. It was thought particulars about Grace Darling, as each at first that the boat might be placed in house in the school had its own heroine the Church itself, but as this was not and she was one of them. The particu- found to be possible the Institution lars were sent and the school made a gratefully accepted a generous offer donation to the Institution. from Lord Armstrong, the owner of Bam- burgh Castle, of a piece of land on his Two Generous Gifts. estate overlooking the sea. Here a house Towards the end of ths Exhibition will be erected in which the boat will be Messrs. Wailes Dove Bitumastic, Ltd.. placed, and Lord Armstrong has headed Newcastle-on-Tyne, the manufacturers the subscription list of an appeal which of Bitumastic Enamels, who had he is making to provide the house.