The paddlesteamer ran aground on the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland in northeast England; eight members of the crew and one passenger, Sarah Dawson, were saved.

Her father ran the lighthouse (built in 1795) for Trinity House, and earned a salary of £70 per year (equivalent to £6,500 in 2023[3]) with a bonus of £10 for satisfactory service.

[4] Longstone Lighthouse had better accommodation, but the island itself was slightly less hospitable, so William would row back to Brownsman to gather vegetables from their former garden and to feed the animals.

[5] In the early hours of 7 September 1838, Darling, looking from an upstairs window, spotted the wreck and survivors of the Forfarshire on Big Harcar, a nearby low, rocky island.

Darling and her father, William, determined that the weather was too rough for the lifeboat to put out from Seahouses (then North Sunderland), so they took a rowing boat (a 21 ft (6.4 m), four-man Northumberland coble) across to the survivors, taking a long route that kept to the lee side of the islands, a distance of nearly a mile (about 1.5 km).

Meanwhile, the lifeboat had set out from Seahouses, but arrived at Big Harcar rock after Darling and her father had completed their rescue operation; all they found were the bodies of Mrs Dawson's children and of a clergyman.

[8] Subscriptions and donations totaling over £700 (equivalent to about £79,600 in 2023) were raised for her, including £50 from Queen Victoria; more than a dozen portrait painters sailed to her island home to capture her likeness, and hundreds of gifts, letters, and even marriage proposals were delivered to her.

According to letters at Northumberland Archives, Grace stayed with the Shields family in Wooler during late August and early September in an attempt to improve her health.

It represents a sleeping effigy of her holding an oar, and lies to the north of her grave at the western edge of the churchyard so it would be visible to passing seafarers.

[citation needed] One of a series of Victorian paintings by William Bell Scott at Wallington Hall in Northumberland depicts her rescue efforts.

The McManus Galleries in Dundee includes three paintings by Thomas Musgrave Joy that celebrate Grace Darling's deeds with the Forfarshire.