71 - GRACE DARLING: A RARE MEAT DISH FOR THE P.S. FORFARSHIRE, CIRCA 1838

GRACE DARLING: A RARE MEAT DISH FOR THE P.S. FORFARSHIRE, CIRCA 1838 the oval dish with green transfer design including a profile portrait of the vessel over a swag of flags flanking a gatehouse within a hop pattern border inscribed STEAMER / FORFARSHIRE, the reverse with secondary transfer device for the Dundee & Hull Steam Packet Company and impressed maker's marks for 'Brameld & Co' -- 21¼in. (54cm.) diam. Literature: Cox and Cox: Rockingham Pottery & Porcelain 1745-1842, Faber, 1983, p.105. Provenance: Christie's South Kensington: Maritime Models, 25th May 2005, lot 118. 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, 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 retelling; it is sufficient to record that Grace and her father's remarkable bravery saved all nine survivors, and the twenty-two year old heroine was elevated to celebrity status for the rest of her life.