Beschreibung:

GRACE DARLING: A RARE VEGETABLE DISH AND COVER FOR THE S.S. FORFARSHIRE, CIRCA 1836 transfer printed with profile of Forfarshire underway and entitled STEAMER FORFARSHIRE, the reverse with company transfer inscribed DUNDEE AND HULL STEAMPACKET COMPANY, together with cover -- 6¾ x 13½ x 10¾in. (17 x 34 x 27.5cm.) The Dundee, Perth & London Shipping Company was one of the oldest firms engaged in the coastal trade of Great Britain and traced its origins back to 1777. Initially reluctant to embrace steam, the company ordered its first paddle packets in 1832 which, entering service in 1834, proved an immediate success. Other steamers followed in quick succession, the most notable of which was the ill-fated Forfarshire, remembered more for the occasion of her loss than for anything she achieved during her short life. Built in Dundee in 1836 and measured at 192 tons burthen, she was 132 feet in length with a 20 foot beam and was paddle-powered from a 190hp. 2-cylinder engine. On 5th September 1838 Forfarshire left Hull, bound for Dundee, carrying both passengers and freight. Early the next morning the starboard boiler sprang a leak and the same afternoon the engines gave out completely in deteriorating weather. Instead of putting into port for repairs, Captain Humble made sail and stubbornly maintained his course until, at about 4 o'clock the following day, the ship ran aground amongst the Farne Islands and broke her back. Six crew were lost immediately in the raging sea and a further thirteen souls were left clinging precariously to the Big Harcar Rock. By dawn only nine remained but, at that point, the most romantic sea rescue of the Victorian era began to unfold. The story of Grace Darling, the local lighthouse-keeper's daughter, is so well-known as to need no re-telling; it is sufficient to record that all nine survivors were saved by the remarkable bravery of Grace and her father and the twenty-two-year-old heroine herself was elevated to celebrity status for the rest of her life.