From Rock and Tempest - the life of Captain George William Manby

London: Geoffrey Bles, 1971. Illustrated, pp 175, clean internally, blue cloth very slightly worn and slightly bowed, still a good copy in a dustwrapper which is a bit torn and soiled. [On 18 February 1807, as a helpless onlooker, Manby witnessed a Naval ship, the Snipe, run aground 60 yards off Great Yarmouth during a storm, with (according to some accounts) a total of 214 people drowned, including French prisoners of war, women and children. Following this tragedy, Manby experimented with mortars, and so invented the Manby Mortar, later developed into 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 followed an experiment as a youth in 1783, when he shot a mortar carrying a line over Downham church. His 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 1000 persons had been rescued from stranded ships by means of his apparatus. 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 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 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. He was the first to advocate a national fire brigade, and is considered by some to be a true founder of the RNLI. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1831 in recognition of his many accomplishments. In later life Manby became obsessed with Nelson, turning his house into a Nelson museum filled with memorabilia and living in the basement.]. First Edition. Cloth. Good/Slightly worn and browned.