George William Manby
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Captain George William Manby (born November 28, 1765 in Denver, Norfolk; died November 18, 1854 in Great Yarmouth) was an English inventor of an apparatus for saving life from shipwrecks.
Manby created the Manby Mortar that fired a thin rope from shore into the rigging of a ship in distress. A strong rope, attached to the thin one, could be pulled aboard the ship.
Manby also built an "unsinkable" ship. The first test indeed proved it to be floating when mostly filled with water; however, the seamen (who disliked Manby for some reason) rocked the boat back and forth, so that it eventually turned over.
Manby is also credited with invention of the portable fire extinguisher.
Manby was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1831 in recognition of his accomplishments.
Manby became a Godfather of Augustus Onslow Manby Gibbes (1828-1897), the son of the Collector of Customs for Great Yarmouth, Colonel John George Nathaniel Gibbes.[citation needed]
[edit] Further reading
From Rock and Tempest - The Life of George William Manby, Kenneth Walthew, 1971, SBN: 713802871
