E. Cobham Brewer
Grace Darling, daughter of William Darling, lighthouse-keeper on Longstone, one of the Farne Islands. On the morning of 7 September 1838, Grace and her father saved nine of the crew of the Forfarshire steamer, wrecked among the Farne Isles, opposite Bamborough Castle (1815–1842). Wordsworth has a poem on the subject.
The Grace Darling of America. Ida Lewis (afterwards Mrs. W. H. Wilson, of Black Rock, Connecticut). Her father kept the Limerock lighthouse in Newport harbour. At the age of eighteen she saved four young men whose boat had upset in the harbour. A little later she saved the life of a drunken sailor whose boat had sunk. In 1867 she rescued three men; and in 1868 a small boy who had clung to the mast of a sailboat from midnight till morning. In 1869 she and her brother Hosea rescued two sailors whose boat had capsized in a squall. Soon after this she married, and her career at the lighthouse ended. (Born 1841.)
Grace Darling
William Wordsworth
’Twas on a lonesome lighthouse,
There dwelt an English maid,
Pure as the air around her,
Of dangers ne’er afraid.
One morning just at daybreak,
A storm-tossed wreck she spied,
Said Grace “Come help me father,
And launch the boat” she cried.
Her father cried “Tis madness
To face that raging sea,”
Then up spoke brave Grace Darling,
“Alone I’ll brave the sea.”
To the rock men were clinging,
The crew of nine all told,
Between them and the lighthouse,
The seas like mountains rolled.
One moment prayer, Heaven guide her,
She reached the rock at length,
She saved the storm tossed sailors,
In heaven alone her strength.
Go tell the wide world over
What the English pluck can do,
And sing of brave Grace Darling,
Who nobly saved the crew.
Chorus
She pulled away o’er the raging main,
Over the waters blue,
“Help! Help!” she could hear the cries
Of the shipwrecked crew
Bold Grace had an English heart,
And the raging seas she braved,
She pulled away with the dashing spray,
And the crew she saved.