Today’s #LentArt "The Rescue of the Crew and Passengers of the SS Forfarshire" by Robert F Watson is one of a number of paintings commemorating the most memorable event in the life of Grace Darling. Born in 1815 Grace was the seventh of nine children born to William and Thomasin Darling, and when only a few weeks old she was taken to live on Brownsman Island, one of the Farne Islands, off the coast of Northumberland, where her father ran the lighthouse. That lighthouse was not in the best position to guide shipping to safety, so in 1826 the family moved to a the newly constructed lighthouse on Longstone Island. In the early hours of 7 September 1838, Grace, looking from an upstairs window, spotted the wreck and survivors of what turned out to be the Forfarshire on Big Harcar, a nearby low rocky island where she had foundered and broken in half with one of the halves having sunk during the night. She and her father William determined reckoned that the weather was too rough for the lifeboat make its way out from Seahouses, the nearest village onshore (it was then known as North Sunderland), so they took a 21 foot 4 man rowing boat across to the survivors, taking a long route that kept to the lee side of the islands, a distance of nearly a mile. Grace kept the boat steady while her father helped four men and the lone surviving woman, Sarah Dawson, into the boat. Although she survived the sinking, Mrs. Dawson had lost her two children James, 7, and Matilda, 5 during the night. William and three of the rescued men then rowed the boat back to the lighthouse. Darling then remained at the lighthouse while William and three of the rescued crew members rowed back and recovered four more survivors. Meanwhile, the lifeboat had eventually set out from Seahouses but arrived at Big Harcar rock after Darling and her father had completed their rescue operation: all they found were the bodies of Mrs Dawson's children and of a clergyman. The Forfarshire had been carrying 62 people. Those rescued by the Darlings had been at the front of the ship. 9 other passengers and crew had managed to float off a lifeboat from the stern section before it too sank, and were picked up in the night by a passing sloop and brought into ashore that same night.
As news of her role in the rescue reached the public, her combination of bravery elevated her to the status of national heroine. Grace and her father were awarded the Silver Medal for bravery by the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, later given the slightly less wordy Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Subscriptions and donations totaling over £700 (equivalent to about £63,500 in 2019) were raised for her, including £50 from Queen Victoria; more than a dozen portrait painters sailed to her island home to capture her likeness, and paint scenes such as the painting I posted this morning, and hundreds of gifts, letters, and even marriage proposals were delivered to her. Sadly 4 years later in 1842, Grace fell ill with tuberculosis while visiting the mainland and declined rapidly, dying in the place of her birth, in Bamburgh aged 26. She is buried in the churchyard of St Aidan's Church, Bamburgh, with a canopied monument of her sleeping effigy holding an oar in the churchyard and a stained glass window in her memory.
I shared the painting of this event and her story because a couple of years ago when I and our family were visiting Seahouses for a few days we took a tour around the Farne Islands and visited St. Aidan’s Church, and the Bible on the lectern that day was opened to the Psalm from the past few days in the Daily lectionary, one that seems very appropriate both for her story and the present moment:
Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.
Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you.
The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in the darkness
like those long dead.
So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed.
I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works
and consider what your hands have done.
I spread out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land.[a]
Answer me quickly, Lord; my spirit fails.
Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit.
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.
Rescue me from my enemies, Lord, for I hide myself in you.
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God;
may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
For your name’s sake, Lord, preserve my life; in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble.
In your unfailing love, silence my enemies; destroy all my foes, for I am your servant.
Psalm 143 (NIVUK)
Grace saw the need of those shipwrecked on Big Harcar Rock and became the answer to their prayers, prayers in similar vein to this Psalm, prayers in similar vein to those that will be offered up by many in this current covid-19 crisis… And there are many many young Graces and not so young Graces putting themselves in harms way today in the NHS and other health services around the world to be the answer to those prayers…
A few minutes applause at 8pm on a Wednesday night is insufficient… A memorial after their passing would be an insult What is needed are adequate resources and a population determined to do all they can to make sure their efforts are not overwhelmed.
PRAYER (based on a prayer written by David Adam in “Flame in My Heart: St Aidan for Today”)
You are the caller, you are the poor,
You are the stranger at my door.
You are the wanderer, the unfed,
You are the homeless with no bed.
You are the woman driven insane,
You are the child crying with pain.
You are the man fighting for breath
You are the nurse facing down death.
You are the old man, alone and afraid
You are the one to whom they all prayed.
AMEN
Shalom
Comments