Page two of Grace darling
Datec 1838
Object number00036385
NameSheet music
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsOverall: 340 x 257 mm
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection
Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds
DescriptionThis ballad was written to honour Grace Darling, who with her father rescued nine passengers from the sinking paddlesteamer FORFARSHIRE off the Farne Islands on 7 September 1838. A second ballad known as the 'Wrecker's Daughter' was also produced after the event. Grace became a national English celebrity and heroine in the 19th century. With her father she received the Royal National Lifeboat Institution medal in 1838 and the Gold medal of the Royal Humane Society.HistorySheet music offers an insight into popular culture and social values at the time of their production. The widely distributed pieces were sold fairly cheaply, making them popular purchases with the general public. Music was an integral part of people's social life in the home and at public events such as balls, recitals, concerts and theatre shows.
The SS FORFARSHIRE was a 1238 ton paddlesteamer built in 1838 and was broken in two when it strcuk rocks near the Fasrne Islands on 7 September 1838. The ship was commissioned by the Dundee & Hull Shipping line to carry passengers bewteen Dundee and Hull. Only a small number of crew managed to escape the sinkning ship in a row boat while nine others were rescued by Grace and William Darling.
Grace Horlsey Darling was born at Northumberland, England in 1815. Grace's father William Darling was a lighthouse keeper and the Darling fanily lived on two lighthouses. In the morning of of 7 September 1838 Grace Darling spotted the shipwreck of SS FORFARESHIRE near Longstone Lighthouse, Farne Islands and encourged her father to row out in gale conditrions to rescue a number of stranded passengers. Grace's actions during the Victorian era in Britain were seen as heroic and especially remarkable for a woman. She became celebarted and the subject of newsapaper articles, paintings, sheet music, stories and poems.
Significance'Grace Darling' illustrates the commemoration of maritime events and heros through the production of sheet music. Sheet music was relativly cheap and widly distributed in the 19th century, helping spread the celebrity status of heroes such as Grace Darling.
![The HENRI GRACE A DIEU, built in the reign of Henry 7th [1485-1509]: The SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS, built 1637](/internal/media/dispatcher/173984/thumbnail)
