prize8-10, Exercise 2: Testing an anecdote

Model answer (check the details), using Grace Darling's rescue (1838):

Evidence that supports it: reports in the newspapers of the time, the testimony of survivors, official records, and the log of the Longstone lighthouse. The shipwreck of the Forfarshire is well documented as an event (check).

Who told it and when: the earliest reports appeared within days and made Grace a national figure. Later tellings, in books, poems and paintings, added drama, such as the size of the waves and her part in the rowing. The roles of Grace and her father William are told differently in different accounts (check).

What to want to see: the official log and reports, accounts written by the survivors, the first newspaper reports and the later versions, to see what was added. Information about who rowed and who steered would help.

Conclusion: the rescue is well documented and there is no reason to doubt its main facts, but the heroic details of the individual roles should be treated as reported. The fame of the story is a subject in itself: it shows how the Victorian press made a heroine.

Care: a story repeated in many books may come from a few early accounts. The same method applies to Winstanley's wish and the Smalls.