THE LIFE-BOAT. JOURNAL of the Iro^Al Irattonal %Ife=Boat Jnstitution, (ISSUED QUARTERLY.)
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THE LIFE-BOAT. JOURNAL OF THE IRo^al IRattonal %ife=Boat Jnstitution, (ISSUED QUARTERLY.) VOL. XXII.—No. 248.] JsTMAY, J913. 3d. Grace Darling. THROUGH the generous gift of Lady The story of Grace Darling's exploit John Joicey-Cecil the Royal National has been told a thousand times, but Life-boat Institution has lately come to each new generation it brings an into the possession of a very precious relic example of splendid heroism coupled connected with our Island story, and with modesty and self-effacement, a one singularly appropriate to the message of sweetness and light which humane and heroic purpose for which comes like a whiff of the sea, mingled the Institution exists. We refer to with the scent of primroses and thyme the coble, twenty-one feet long by breathing out their fragrance in the six feet broad, in which Grace Darling sun. And for no one can it have a performed the splendid deed which will greater interest than for the readers of consecrate her memory for all those of the Life-boat Journal who are actively British blood as long as the North Sea helping, either by financial support or thunders on the basalt cliffs of Bam- by actual work in the Life-boat, in the borough, and the lines of Wordsworth great national service which the Institu- and Swinburne enshrine the story in tion is carrying on. We propose, there- imperishable song. fore, to tell the story once more, and to It was the express wish of the donor re-awaken, in connexion with the recent that this frail monument of a gentle gift of the boat, the memory of the and heroic Northumbrian maid should events in which it played a part on that not leave the confines of the county. wild autumn night in 1838. And so, after considerable and anxious The coast of Northumberland consists hesitation as to the most suitable spot of a long series of flat sandy beaches, at which to place the gift, the Com- extending from Tyne to Tweed, and mittee of Management finally decidsd broken only by the outfall of the Rivers to accept the kind offer of the authori- Coquet, Aln, Wansbeck and Blyth, and ties of the Dove Marine Laboratory by the great basalt cliffs which stand at Cullercoats to place it in their out here and there all the more boldly Aquarium, where it can be Been by in that they are isolated features of the hundreds of visitors throughout the landscape. year. It has, therefore, been lent by The southern half of the county is the Institution, and the Committee of blackened and made hideous by the coal- the Marine Laboratory have generously dust of the mines to which it owes its arranged that the Institution shall wealth. It is as if it had paid for the receive a proportion of the fees paid by Nibelungen treasure which is dug from visitors to see the boat, which thus its bowels by the loss of its natural again becomes, by a happy accident, the beauty; although we must not forget means of assisting in the work of rescue that the stern labour of the mines pro- with which it will for ever be associated. duces a magnificent body of men who, VOL. XXII.—No. 248.—LIFE-BOAT JOURNAL. 26 THE LIFE-BOAT. [1ST MAY, 1913. albeit landsmen, are as intrepid Life- in 676 from his priorate of Liudisfarne, boatmen as ever pulled an oar, and or Holy Island, as it was subsequently never shirk any danger, no matter what called, to lead the austere life of a be the weather or the state of the sea. hermit; and here he remained until 685, The northern half of the county, in which when, at the earnest appeal of King coal has not been discovered, still retains Eggfrid and the Archbishop of Canter- its charm and beauty, which is accen- bury, he reluctantly accepted the See of tuated by the stately dignity of many Hexham, only to throw aside his crosier noble castles, some of which date back, and mitre and to return to his hermit at least as regards their earliest and life after two years of active work, ruined portions, to the days of the dying two months later, after enduring Kingdom of Mercia and the conversion greab pain and misery, and without a of its kings and people by St. Aidan and single attendant or friend, although he St. Cuthbert. The survey of 1468 received the last sacraments from Abbot mentions thirty-seven of these castles, Herefrid. most of which were built in such Cyclo- A little beyond the Fame are the pean strength that they still remain, Wideopens, or Wedums and the Noxes, though in many cases as only imposing and a channel a mile wide divides this ruins. group from the Staples, which are famous The finest castle of all is Bamborough : for the thousands of sea-birds which cover " King Ida's castle huge and square," their surface, and which include, beside guillemots, the dotterel, the oyster- as it is described in " Marmion." Impos- catcher, the gull, the cormorant, the ing in its massive character and majestic eider duck, the puffin, and the razor-bill. outlines it is rendered truly superb by Slightly to the north are the its position " throned on a huge triangu- Wawmses, and to the east the Big and lar rock, which is crested with its walls Little Harcar, the west side of the Big and towers, while from the centre rises Harcar being the spot where the For- the massive tower of the keep, with its farshire was wrecked. Finally, to the flagstaff and banner." The castle has north-east of this spot lies the Long- been admirably restored, first by Arch- stone, "a bare and fissured reef, not deacon Sharpe, and lately by the present 4 ft. above high-water mark, and con- Lord Armstrong, with perfect regard sequently, during storms swept over by for the spirit of the original fortress. drifts of foam." On its eastern side The seaward wall looks sheer down to stands the lighthouse, 85 ft. high. the sea, 150 ft. below, although the It was erected in 1826, and has a vast accumulations of sand on the east revolving light on the dioptric or re- side diminish the effect of the lofty fracting system, visible eighteen miles. cliff of sandstone and shale. To quote In this tower, around which the waves Tomlinson's " Guide to Northumber- incessantly leap and roar, often driving land " :—" A more impregnable strong- the keepers and their families to the hold could not well be imagined. For higher chambers for shelter, Grace rugged strength and barbaric grandeur Darling lived the greater part of her it is the king of Northumbrian Castles. life. She was born in November, 1815, To the mariner plying between the Elbe and was the daughter of William and the Tyne it is the most conspicuous Darling, the keeper of the lighthouse. landmark on the north-east coast." She was a girl of a very modest and A little to the north-east of Bam- retiring disposition, with nothing of the borough lie the Fame Islands, which were masculine qualities which might have the scene of the wreck of the Forfarshire. been expected in one who carried out so The largest island, Fame or House heroic an exploit. She is described by Island, is two and a quarter miles from one who visited her soon after the wreck the little harbour at Seahouses. It has of the Forfarshire as " a little, simple, two lighthouses, one with a revolving, modest young woman . neither tall the other with a fixed light. The island nor handsome, but she has the most is full of associations with St. Aidan gentle, quiet, amiable look, and the and St. Cuthbert. The latter retired sweetest smile that I ever saw in a IST MAY, 1913.] THE LIFE-BOAT. 27 person of her station and appearance." Almost as soon as the boat was out She had received a good education for of sight a tremendous sea struck the her station in life, and was chiefly vessel, raised her off the rock, and then occupied in assisting her mother in dashed her down upon it, completely managing the little household. At the breaking her in half. The after part, same time, living in the midst of the sea with the quarter-deck and cabin, upon she was used to boats and knew how to which were the majority of passengers handle an oar. She was twenty-two and crew, was swept away through a years of age at the time when the powerful current called the Piper Gut, following events occurred. whilst the fore part remained fast on The Forfarshire, a steamer of about the rock, below which, to this day, lies 300 tons, John Humble, Master, sailed the half of one of the vessel's beams. from Hull for Dundee on the 5th Sep- Shortly after, the captain was washed tember, 1838, with forty-one passengers, overboard with his wife in his arms, the Master and his wife and a crew of and both were drowned. The sur- twenty men. Although she was a new vivors managed to get on to a small vessel there had evidently been some rock, where they were exposed to the deplorably bad workmanship or super- most terrible sufferings ; numbed with vision, for her boilers were in a very cold, with heavy seas breaking over bad state. A small leak had been them at intervals, and the gale so fierce discovered before leaving Hull, and it as to strip their clothes from them.