Capt George Manby FRS, 1765 - 1854

The Blue Plaque commemorating Captain George Manby on his former home, now 'Manby House', 86 High Road, Gorleston, Norfolk.

 

George William Manby, Fellow of the Royal Society, was born in the village of Denver on the edge of the Norfolk Fens. His parents were Captain Matthew Pepper Manby (1735-1774), lord of the manor of Wood Hall in Hilgay, a former soldier and aide-de-camp to Lord Townshend and barrack-master of Limerick at his death and Mary Woodcock (1741-1783).

Manby went to school at Downham Market followed by the Free Grammar School in King's Lynn.

He volunteered to fight in the American War of Independence, aged 17, but was rejected because of his youth and his small size. Instead, he entered the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. He is listed as one of the Artillery cadets on 31st. March 1784. On 21st. April 1788 he obtained a commission as a Lieutenant in the Cambridgeshire Militia where he gained the rank of Captain. He left the regiment in the Spring of 1793.

He married Jane Preston in December, 1793 the only daughter of Rev. Dr. Preston JP, of Waldingfield and Rougham and inherited his wife's family's estates. He left her in 1801 after being shot by her lover Captain Pogson of the East India Company and moved to Clifton, Bristol. There, he published several books, including The History and Antiquities of St David's (1801), Sketches of the History and Natural Beauties of Clifton (1802), and A Guide from Clifton to the Counties of Monmouth, Glamorgan, etc. (1802). In 1803, his pamphlet An Englishman's Reflexions on the Author of the Present Disturbances, on Napoleon's plans to invade England, came to the attention of the Secretary of War, Robert Hobart, 4th. Earl of Buckinghamshire, who was impressed and recommended Manby to be appointed as Barrack-Master at Great Yarmouth in September, 1803.

On 18th. February 1807, as a helpless onlooker, he witnessed a Royal Navy ship, HMS Snipe carrying French prisoners run aground 50 yards off Gorleston beach during a storm. Several other vessels were wrecked along the Norfolk and Suffolk coast that day and according to some accounts a total of 214 people drowned, including French prisoners of war, women and children. The figure of '67 brave men' for the Snipe was quoted in the House of Commons in June 1808. Following this tragedy, Manby experimented with mortars, and so invented the Manby Mortar, later to be used with the breeches buoy, 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. His successful invention supposedly followed an experiment as a youth in 1783, when he shot a mortar carrying a line over Downham church.

Manby carried out a successful demonstration of his apparatus before the Suffolk Humane Society and a very large assemblage of ladies and gentlemen at Lowestoft, on the 26th. August and 10th. September 1807, on the former John Rous, 1st. Earl of Stradbroke, their President was present.

Sergeant, later Lieutenant, John Bell, Royal Artillery had in 1791 successfully demonstrated the use of a mortar to throw a line to shore and use it to float men to the shore, he had also suggested that these be held in ports to throw a line to a ship, he was awarded 50 Guineas by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. Another earlier, similar design to Manby's invention had been made in the late 18th. century by the French agronomist and inventor Jacques Joseph Ducarne de Blangy. Manby's invention was independently arrived at, and there is no suggestion that he copied de Blangy's idea.

In 1808 the crew of a brig were rescued at Gt. Yarmouth by the use of Manby's device fired from a gun carriage and supervised by Manby.

The following is from page two of the The Ipswich Journal, 27th. February 1808.

"Captain G. Manby's invention of throwing a rope to a ship stranded on a lee shore, for the purpose of saving the crew, proved the certainty of its never-failing success on the Elizabeth of Plymouth, that was wrecked on the beach at Yarmouth in the tremendous gale of the 12th. instant, the master, who is part owner, making so grateful an affidavit before the Mayor of that place, he expressed a desire to see the experiment tried, which took place on Monday last, in the presence of Vice Admiral Douglas, several officers of the navy, the merchants, and many persons from different parts of the coast, the wind was blowing very fresh on shore, and the spot chosen 130 yards from a stranded brig, with all her emblems of distress flying. A galloper carriage, drawn by one horse, brought, with considerable expedition, every requisite for the service, a 5 1/2 inch royal mortar being dismounted, a 1 1/4 inch rope (having a 24 pounder shot appended to it) was staked in its front, about 2 feet from the shot the rope passed through a collar of leather, effectually preventing its burning, being projected by one pound of powder, more than 100 yards over the vessel, part of the rope fell upon the rigging, the persons on board returning a rope by the one sent, hauled off a stout rope, with a smaller one rove through a tailed block, the larger being made fast to the foot of the main top mast, the other end to a long, gun tackle, secured to three iron-shod stakes, driven triangularly in the ground, the tackle being bowsed, kept the rope sufficiently tight, and by persons easing off the fall, as the ship rolled, prevented danger to the rope, or to what it was lashed being carried away; the tailed block was made fast under the large rope, and each end of the small rope to the extremities of a ham-mock, extended by a stretcher of wood, (fitted up like the pole of a tent, for the convenience of a carriage), having gudgeons with forelock pins, through which was rove the great rope. By the assistance of one person from the shore, the hammock travelled to and fro, bringing all the people who were assembled in the main top, one by one, in perfect ease and safety, a service that can always be performed, when it is impossible for any boat to give the least assistance and be done when persons are initiated in the several uses, in a quarter an hour. Every person present testified their highest approbation, and several gave certificates that had a similar system and apparatus been placed at Lowestoft, Yarmouth, Winterton and Happisbro', on the 18th. February 1807 (on which distressing day the idea first suggested itself to the inventor), more than 100 persons would have been saved. It is most earnestly to be hoped it will be generally adopted, being a circumstance of such magnitude to this country, and deeply interesting to the world at large".

 

Manby was one of those to receive an honorary award at the Annual Festival of the Royal Humane Society in the May following the rescue. In June 1808 Manby received a gold medal from The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, via the hands of Henry Howard, 13th. Duke of Norfolk, for forming a communication with ships by means of a rope thrown over the vessel from a mortar gun on the shore. In August 1808 Manby received a medallion from the Suffolk Humane Society. Following the awards he later made a demonstration to the armed forces of the use of his apparatus. The following is from page 3 of the Sun (London), 7th. October 1808.

"SHIPWRECKED MARINERS.

On Tuesday last a most interesting and highly important experiment was made at Woolwich, by Captain MANBY, of Yarmouth, on a Vessel at anchor in the Thames, upwards of 100 yards from the shore, before a Committee of General Officers of Artillery, Commissioner CUNNINGHAM, Admiral LOSACK and several Officers of the Royal Navy, for the purpose of effecting a communication with a Ship stranded on a lee shore, and to bring the crew in perfect safety from the wreck. A rope was projected from a Royal Mortar across the Ship supposed to be stranded, by which was hauled on board by the crew a large rope, to be made fast to the mast-head, and kept at a proper degree of tension for a cot to travel on it, by a tackle purchase, that likewise admitted of the vessel's rolling : at the same time was sent to the ship a tailed block, with a small rope rove through it; each end of the small rope was made fast to the ends of the cot, that conveyed it to the Ship, and brought a person in perfect safety to the shore. The whole service was performed in a quarter of an hour, to the utmost gratification and highest approbation of every one present, particularly several eminent naval characters, who were heard to congratulate and express their warmest encomiums to the inventor for his very ingenious and laudable contrivance".

 

The device was successfully used in rescues by Sea Fencibles from Great Yarmouth and Winterton in 1810.

The Official Copy of a Report from the Committee of Field Officers of Artillery, containing an Account of the Experiments made at Woolwich on the 18th. and 20th. May 1811 alluded to the work of Lieutenant Bell, RA and his successful demonstration of a mortar to shoot a line in 1791.

Manby's invention was officially adopted in 1814, and a series of mortar stations were established around the coast. It was estimated that by the time of his death nearly 1,000 persons had been rescued from stranded ships by means of his apparatus.

Manby also built an 'unsinkable' boat. The first test indeed proved it to be floating when mostly filled with water, however, the seamen (who disliked Manby) rocked the boat back and forth, so that it eventually turned over. The boatmen depended on the cargo left over from shipwrecks, and may have thought Manby's mortar a threat to their livelihood.

The property that Manby owned in Yarmouth Denes was advertised in an auction notice in 1812 as he was leaving Yarmouth.

In February 1813 Manby gave a lecture to the Highland Society of Edinburgh followed by a demonstration on Bruntsfield links, Edinburgh. The gun was fired by use of a chemical to set off the charge, to overcome the problems caused by gunpowder getting damp in the storm conditions, often experienced when carrying out rescues.

In 1813 Manby invented the 'Extincteur', the first portable pressurised fire extinguisher. This consisted of a copper vessel of 3 gallons of pearl ash (potassium carbonate) solution contained within compressed air. He also invented a device intended to save people who had fallen through ice.

In July 1813 Manby's profile was increased when his portrait featured in the European Magazine.

On Friday 30th. August 1816 a committee of the Board of Ordnance and Lords of the Admiralty observed a demonstration of Manby's fire extinguisher and other equipment.

On 10th. March 1818 he married Sophia Gooch, daughter of Sir Thomas Gooch, 4th. Baronet.

In 1821 he sailed to Greenland with William Scoresby, for the purpose of testing a new type of harpoon for whaling, based on the same principles as his mortar. However, his device was sabotaged by the whalers. He published his account in 1822 as 'Journal of a Voyage to Greenland', containing observations on the flora and fauna of the Arctic regions as well as the practice of whale hunting. As a result of that voyage, Manby espoused three ideas: 1 - that there might still be Norse survivors in the so-called ‘Lost Colony’ in East Greenland, 2 - that Britain should claim the area of East Greenland north of the area claimed by Denmark, 3 - and that this area should be developed as a penal colony.

In June 1823 a House of Commons committee of supply voted Manby £2,000 for his lifesaving apparatus.

Manby was present at the London Tavern on 4th. March 1824 for the foundation of the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, later to become the RNLI. He was one of the first five persons to receive their gold medal in 1825. Manby is considered by some to be a true founder of the RNLI.

In 1825 the King of Sweden (via the mayor of Gt. Yarmouth) presented Manby with a splendid medallion in token of his Majesty's approbation of the Captain's humane merit, and inventions. In 1828 the King of Denmark (via his consul) presented Manby with a gold medal "accompanied with a letter, communicating His Majesty's gracious approbation of his philanthopic and arduous exertions in saving the crews of shipwrecked vessels."

On 4th. August 1830 he attended court and presented King William IV with a Treatise on the Preservation of Mariners from Stranded Vessels, and the Prevention of Shipwreck, with a Statement of the number of subjects of different nations saved by that plan, by Sir Robert Peel.

Manby was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1831 in recognition of his many accomplishments.

Manby was the first to advocate a national fire brigade. In April 1838 Charles Wood, aged 17, a drummer in the 1st. Battalion Grenadier Guards was killed by a fall caused by a faulty component when carrying out a trial of Manby's apparatus for fire rescues from buildings. Manby received a silver medal from the Society for the Protection of Life from Fire in May 1838.

In March 1842, Manby received a belated Queen Victoria Gold Coronation Medal.

In October 1843 Sophia died. When Manby retired his post as Barrack-master was terminated and he was required to moved out of his accommodation. Manby, obsessed with Nelson, later turned his home 'Pedestal House' into a Nelson museum filled with memorabilia, even having an internal wall knocked down to create a Nelson Gallery, and living in the basement.

A letter to the local paper in 1845 describes Manby as a Freeman of Yarmouth.

Following a meeting chaired by Yarmouth's mayor in 1849, Manby's apparatus was exhibited at the Great Exhibition in 1851 and was awarded a medal.

In 1852 it was reported Manby had donated part of his collection, the 'Nelson Cabinet' to King's Lynn museum.

Queen Victoria presented Manby with the sum of £100 from the Royal Bounty Fund in December 1852.

Ten days short of his eighty-nine birthday, Manby died on 18th. November 1854 at his home in Gorleston and he was buried at All Saints church in Hilgay on the 24th. A plaque in the church reads;

IN THE CHURCHYARD NEAR THIS SPOT REST THE BONES OF GEORGE WILLIAM MANBY CAPTAIN. F.R.S. A NAME TO BE REMEMBERED AS LONG AS THERE CAN BE A STRANDED SHIP. HE DIED NOV'R 18. 1854, AGED 88 years. OUT OF HIS EIGHT BROTHERS AND SISTERS, THE LARGE MARBLE STONE ALSO RECORDED THE DEATHS OF MARY JANE AUGUST 3rd 1772 AGED 10 YEARS. JOHN MAY 20th 1783 AGED 10 YEARS, AND OF TWO INFANTS.

An inscription underneath reads 'The public should have paid this tribute.

The contents of Pedestal House were auctioned on Tuesday 19th. December 1854. Pedestal House and the 'Manby Crest' public house were auctioned on 28th. May 1855 at the Star Inn.

 

Awards

No.1 - Queen's Gold Coronation Medal "as a mark of the sense she entertains of the usefulness of his inventions in the Preservation of Lives from Shipwreck."

No.2 - A gold medal from Charles X, King of the French, 1828.

No.3 - Gold medal from William, King of the Netherlands, 1830. No.4 - Gold medal from Frederick, King of Denmark.

No.5 - Gold medal from Charles. XIV, King of Sweden and Norway.

No.6 - Gold medal from the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, (London), voted 15th Dec. 1830.

No.7 - Gold medal from the Society of Arts, Adelphi, London. No.8 - Gold medal from the Highland Society of Scotland

No.9 - Silver medal from the Royal Humane Society, London. No.10 - Silver medal from the Suffolk Humane Society.

No.11 - Silver medal from the Norfolk Association for saving Lives from Shipwreck, 1824.

No.12 - Silver medal from the Society for the Protection of Life from Fire.

 

A lifeboat at Boulogne-sur-Mer, France was named the Captain George Manby. The Lifeboat was presented to the Society Humaine by the City of Boulogne.

The Hilgay village sign features a Manby Mortar.

Denver Historical Society had a Blue Plaque erected on the property he was born in, 'Easthall Manor', Sluice Road, Denver.

His former home, now two houses called 'Manby House' (No. 86) and 'Ahoy' (No. 87) High Road, Gorleston are now Grade: II listed buildings.

 

Done