AT THE FERN LIGHTHOUSE. 65 



a rush was made by eight of the crew to a boat, which they lowered successfully, 

 one almost naked and frenzied passenger jumping into it after them. The ship was now 



at her last extremity. 



"Then some leaped overboard with dreadful yell, 



As eager to anticipate their grave ; 

 And the sea yawned around her like a hell, 



And down she sucked with her the whirling wave, 

 Like one who grapples with his enemy, 

 And strives to strangle him before he die." 



A moment or two after the first shock, another great sea struck her, raising her high 

 in the air and then bringing her down with a terrific crash on the jagged reef, and with 

 a shock so tremendous that she literally broke in two. The whole of the upper part of 

 the vessel, including the chief cabin, filled with passengers, was swept away, and sank 

 almost immediately. Every soul on that part of the vessel was engulfed in an ocean 

 grave. Good George Herbert says truly, " He that will learn to pray, let him go to sea." 



The fore part of the vessel remained spitted on a rocky projection ; and had the 

 Forfarshire drifted a few yards further to the south-west she would have escaped her 

 terrible fate, as the rock there descends almost precipitously into deep water. Meantime, 

 at the Fern Lighthouse, a mile off, nothing had been seen of the actual occurrence, but at 

 seven o'clock the vessel was noticed lying on the rock. The weather was so bad that the 

 lighthouse-keeper, Mr. Darling, doubted the possibility of rendering assistance. But his 

 daughter Grace entreated her father to go off in the boat at all risks, and offered herself 

 to take one oar. Mr. Darling, thus urged, though knowing the danger of the attempt, 

 agreed, and mother and daughter aided him in launching the boat. After a hard pul) 

 through the boiling foam, they reached the rock, where they found nine persons shivering 

 in the cold and wet, and trembling for their lives. As illustrative of the heroism 

 displayed in this rescue, it may be mentioned that had it not been ebb tide the boat 

 could not have passed between the islands ; and Darling and his daughter knew that the 

 tide would be flowing on their return, and that their united strength would have been 

 quite insufficient to pull back to the lighthouse. But for the assistance of the survivors all 

 would have bad to remain on the fatal rock. The joy of the rescued people may well be 

 imagined, and their surprise, and indeed amazement, at finding that one of their deliverers 

 was a young girl. At the lighthouse food and warmth soon restored their exhausted powers. 

 Among those rescued was a bereaved mother, who had seen her two only children perish 

 before her eyes. 



Grace Darling's name and fame are historic; she lived but a short time after the 

 tragic event just recorded, but long enough to receive the honours due to her for an act of 

 unparalleled heroism, even receiving the acknowledgments of the Queen and a handsome 

 sum of money from the public. 



" She who amid the tempest shone, 

 The angel of the wave," 



was not, as might be supposed, a robust girl, but, on the contrary, quite delicate. Her 

 spirit peacefully passed away a few months after the event above recorded. 

 129 



