The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1893-10-27
A Story Which Does Not Die,

London news.
"She is not like any of the por-
traits of her." wrote William Hewitt
of Grace Darling shortly after his visit
to the Darlings at the Longstone
Light. "Shc is a little simple, mod
est young woman, | should say of
about five or six and twenty" Let
us I'll in the particulars with a little
more precision. Grace Darling was
not yet three and twenty when she
performed the deed which gave her
place among the heroes. Her hight
was just five feet two and half
inches. She was not like the accepted
portraits of her for the best OF rca-
sons, for these were not portraits OF
Grace Darling herself, but of Grace
Darlng's cousin, who, living on the
mainland, was more easily reached by
artists in a hurry. Those were days
when no great amount of exactness
was insisted upon. In considering
the event which made Grace Darling
famous, one wonders why the FOrfur-
shire was permitted to put out to sea,
5 and wonders still more why the skip
: per- discovering his vessels unsea-
wortiness, did not put into one of the
! numerous ports between the Humber
and the Tweed. She was a paddle
steamer of 800 tons burdens. At Hull
0 from whence she sailed, a leakage had
been found in her boilers. This was
D merely "faked up" as the shipyard
expression has 1t, There were 80 pas
sengers on board, and crew of %
o hands, besides the captain and his
G wife, and this freight of human be-
n ings was lntrusted to vessel whose
boilers had been so carelessly cObbled
!. that by the time Marlborough had
= been rcached-the voyage being from
Hull to Dundee-the leakage was
: putting the engine fires out, BY re-
e sort to desperate means the Forfur-
u shire made her way as far as st. Abbs
Head, the most easterly point OF
= Scotland. There the engines ceased
DO to work, the fires were finally damped
"a out. and caught in raging storm,t the
vessel drifted back over her course
aud leavingIIoly Island behind, struck
on the Harcar rocks near the Long
stone Light at 3 O'Clock on most ter
rible morning. OF the crew and pas
IN sengers nine made their escape in q
., n boat and were picked up by slool
10 from Shields. mine persons held OF
by the wreck" the lighthouse keepe
$ wrote in his log book, "and were say
he ed by the Darlings." All the other
es were drowned. OF his own ant
~ Gracc's heroisn William Darling
no log book contained no other rccor'
mn than the words just quoted.
lie Even on calm days at the Farnes !
ct is not easy to land from boat. Tb
water says downward in an astonish
Nv - ing way, ami he who is about to ste
IT'S to land finds himself sucked down
I'd, dozen feet or more. 1t was this sag
he ging of the water, rather than the fur.
of the storm, which broke the Forfur
@@O @ SHIRE to pieces. She parted amid
nc nc ships, and the stern, with quarter
i'd deck and cabin, were instantly swer
'ch away. The fore part was wedged 0
rock, on which it was scarcely pO
lar M sible to stand, and which goes dow
mt sheer into the sea for hundred fatl
one oms or more. Every wave carried @
ne some OF the survivors When the b0;
containing Grace Darling and her +;
M Miol ther hove in sight there RENAME
! to four passengers and fveof the crev
an One broken-hearted woman was hol
ass. ing two children to her breast. The
an both had been beaten to death by ii
waves.
'eat To Grace Darling belongs the who
avn avn glory of that rescue. Her first ta'
one was to prevail upon her fathers relll
'ent tance and her mothers tears. W
tlon liam Darling who died at Rambt
ough in 1865, had the reputation
I'M being of the most morose and dogg
's"s '"" men on the whole coast Of Northul
,ent berland, and he believed that resc
nss. was not only dangerous but impos'
,ous h,o Novortheless when Grace lea
''" ed into the boat the father followe
II shall blame you for a. this, Grac,
.an - =" said the mother, convinced that s
old, would see her husband and child
uses more. There was half a mile Of Il
New ribly hard rowing between the llgf
.orN .'n, house and the wreck. Many yes
her. aftcrwardWilliam Darling said TO 0