George William Manby
hello my fellow ]] in Denver, Norfolk, England; died November 18, 1854 in Great Yarmouth) was the inventor of an apparatus for saving life from shipwrecks.
Manby created the Manby Mortar, based on the Congreve rocket, 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 became a member of the Royal Society. He also 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.
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