Is there in the field of history, or of fiction even, one instance of female heroism to compare for one moment, with this? wrote The Times in 1838.

The event to which the leading article in the newspaper referred was the rescue on September 7, 1838 of nine survivors of the wreck of a paddle steamer Forfarshire by Grace Darling and her lighthouse keeper father, William Darling. The two rowed through a gale to reach the survivors who were clinging to Big Harcar rock, within sight of the Longstone Lighthouse, on the Fame Islands, Northumberland.

Grace Darling became a national heroine within weeks of the rescue.

Newspapers carried accounts of the heroic act and Longstone Lighthouse was beseiged by visitors; poets, portrait painters, journalists and the curious, all hoping for glimpses of Grace. The story of the rescue expanded in the telling with Grace being portrayed as the instigator of the act, begging her father to help rescue the survivors. The media interest in Grace was so intense that reports appeared in local and national newspapers for some months after the rescue. She was invited to take part in a circus, to appear on the stage and to supply copious quantities of locks of hair. Of a delicate constitution, it is reported, Grace suffered under all this pressure and in 1842 died of tuberculosis.

But what of her life and the rescue itself? To see how Grace became involved, one must go back in time and look briefly at her family history. Grace Horsley Darling was born on November 24, 1815 in her grandfather's Bamburgh cottage. She was the seventh child and fourth daughter of William Darling, principal keeper of the Brownsman Island Lighthouse on the Fame Islands.

William had succeeded his father, as keeper, earlier that year.

William Darling was then 29 and his wife, Thomasin 41. William had been employed by Trinity House in varying capacities all his working life. Brownsman Island was a desolate place and Grace went to live there in 1815. In 1826 the light was discontinued and her father was appointed to the new Longstone light on the outermost Fames.

The family was self-sufficient. Trinity House provided materials for light and basic foodstuffs; flour, dry goods, smoked pork, bacon, etc and to this they added the produce of sheep, goats, rabbits, wild duck, teal, widgeon, fish, birds' eggs and vegetables dearly won from his peaty, walled garden. William's salary was £70 per annum plus a gratuity of £10 for satisfactory service.

This he supplemented by bonuses paid by the Crewe Trustees for reporting wrecks, for saving life and salvaginggoods. Occasionally there were paying guests—bird watchers and naturalists.

By standards of the time the Darling family were reasonably affluent.

However their life on the island was hard, isolated and often uncomfortable.

His family acted as unpaid assistants keeping the light operational and in return were permitted to live with him.

Grace it seems thrived in this environment and although she may have attended school on the mainland, most of her learning was from her parents who taught her to read and write, knit, spin and sew. Her books, she once wrote, were principally Divinity . . .

with a good many of the Religious Tract Society's Publications; geography, history, voyages and travels, with maps, so that Father can show us any part of the world and give us a description of the people, manners and customs, so it is our own blame if we be ignorant of either what is done, or what ought to be done.

It seems by the age of 19 Grace had chosen a life giving support to her parents. All her other brothers and sisters, apart from her younger brother William Brooks, had left the islands.

It was on the morning of September 7, 1838 that Grace Darling became a heroine. Grace, her father and mother were alone in the lighthouse as William Brooks was away visiting friends on the mainland. At about 4am the steamship Forfarshire, on passage from Hull to Dundee, hit Big Harcar rock and broke in two.

The Forfarshire was a very modern craft, a steamship in an age when most vessels were still powered by sail. She was tour years old and the pride of the Dundee, Perth and London Shipping Company. She sailed for Dundee on September 5, with a mixed cargo and some 60 passengers and crew (the exact number has never been established).

The boilers continually gave trouble and eventually a leak could not be controlled, the pumps could not clear the boiling water, steam failed and off St Abbs Head, north of the Tweed, the engines stopped. The Forfarshire began to drift south. Captain Humble made sail and decided to try to reach the shelter of Inner Fame. In tremendous seas and gale force winds he misjudged his course and the ship hit Big Harcar rock, some 300-400 yards from the Longstone light. One quarter before five, William Darling wrote to Trinity House, my daughter observed the vessel on the Harcar rock, but owing to the darkness and spray going over her, could not observe any person on the wreck, although the glass was incessantly applied until near seven o'clock.

At seven the Darlings saw movement on the reef and realised that there were survivors in desperate need of help.

William judged that neither the North Sunderland nor Bamburgh lifeboats could put out in such a storm and therefore help could come only from him. But this time he did not have his sons to help him, only his daughter Grace. That Grace was the driving force in the decision to make the attempt has had much airing. Her sister Thomasin dismisses it. The romanticists who, in the affair of the Forfarshire, made the entreaties of his daughter overrule his judgement, did not know about whomthey wrote. It is very likely that the proposal to aid her father in the boat first came from Grace, but had he not himself thought the attempt practicable, he was not the man to endanger her life and his own in weak concession to girlish importunity.

Clearly he was not that sort of man.

He had attempted many rescues before and after that night with the help of his sons. However Grace could row well enough, for their livestock and gardens were on Brownsman Island and Grace often rowed there to tend them. The deciding factor was that it was possible to approach the wreck from the south, a course which would provide shelter nearly all the way, although the distance would be doubled. The return against tide and gale would be possible only if the survivors were capable of manning the oars.

On the strength of such reasoning William Darling, aged 52, and his 22 year-old daughter launched their 21ft long coble into the roaring seas.

They found nine survivors on the reef, one a woman, Mrs Dawson, holding the bodies of her two dead children in her arms. William Darling leapt onto the rock and left Grace alone to steady the coble. They took five in that first trip, including Mrs Dawson and an injured man. William Darling and two crewmen made the return trip and by 9am all nine were safe in the Longstone; Mrs Dawson and three other passengers and five crew.

By 11am seven lifeboatmen from North Sunderland sought shelter in the lighthouse. Contrary to William Darling's expectations the North Sunderland lifeboat crew had put out in an act of great courage and supreme seamanship.

They had reached the wreck half an hour after the survivors had been rescued.

Unable to regain North Sunderland they sought shelter in the Longstone.

Among the crew was William Brooks, Grace's brother, who had volunteered to help. The Forfarshire had been spotted aground from the turret of Bamburgh Castle and a gun fired as a signal. The lifeboat could not put out but a fishing coble, under the command of William Robson, the lifeboat cox-swain, was launched. With him went his two brothers, James and Michael, William Brooks Darling and two fishermen. It took them two and a half hours to reach Big Harcar and the return was impossible. They were marooned at Longstone until the evening of September 9.

Meanwhile, one boat, which had managed to get away from the wreck of the Forfarshire, drifted helplessly southward.

Miraculously a sloop spotted her and rescued the survivors, nine in all, including the steamship's mate. Thus 18 survived the wreck of the Forfarshire but over 40 passengers and crew were drowned.

At the inquest which followed, the Dundee Shipping Company was attacked by hostile witnesses and found to be negligent. However, a second inquest some weeks later heard more substantial, objective evidence and it was concluded that the Forfarshire was wrecked in consequence of tempestuous weather.

During the weeks following the disaster the story of Grace Darling's participation spread far and wide and became increasingly elaborate in the telling. Local feelings ran high bothagainst the Shipping Company and some against Grace herself. Jealousy of her growing fame caused some locals to deny that the rescue was in any way hazardous. Both sides, the hype of the media reports and the antagonism of the local fishermen must have upset Grace enormously. Gone was her quiet existence surrounded by only her family. Longstone lighthouse became a focal point for souvenir hunters, sightseers, poets and painters anxious to make their mark. Grace was like a goldfish in a bowl.

Gifts poured in until both she and her father were bemused. The Duke of Northumberland, seeing their plight, stepped into the fracas and set himself up as Grace's guardian. He invested their money and tried to keep the pestering curious away.

It is not surprising that in 1841, only three years later, Grace fell ill. Despite attention from the Duchess of Northumberland's physician, she died on October 20, 1842.

However great the fiction surrounding the rescue, it cannot be disputed that Grace and William Darling exemplify the finest traditions of lifesaving and should be remembered for their selflessness and courage.

In order to mark the 150th anniversary of the rescue the Royal National Lifeboat Institution is launching the Grace Darling Appeal in January 1988. The aim of the appeal is to fund a new lifeboat for North Sunderland lifeboat station, to be called Grace Darling. A special exhibition trailer with a replica of the coble will tour the country throughout 1988 and other events and celebrations are planned.

If media interest in the anniversary were half as strong as that in the event in 1838 the appeal would quickly reach its target of £350,000. For further information and to send donations please write to: Grace Darling Appeal, RNLI, West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset BH15 1HZ. Telephone 0202*671133..