Manby mortar

Manby mortar, 1842 drawing
John Cantiloe Joy, Going to a Vessel requiring assistance and Thereby preventing Shipwreck (undated), Norfolk Museums Collections

The Manby mortar or Manby apparatus was a maritime lifesaving device originated at the start of the 19th-Century, comprising a mortar capable of throwing a line to a foundering ship within reach of shore, such that heavier hawsers could then be pulled into place and used either to direct a rescue-boat to the ship, or, later, to mount a Breeches buoy.

The apparatus was invented by Captain George William Manby, inspired by his witnessing a ship HMS Snipe (1801) run aground off Great Yarmouth in 1807.[1]

The first recorded rescue using the Manby apparatus was on 18 February 1808, with Manby himself in charge. The crew of seven were brought to safety from the Plymouth Brig Elizabeth, stranded off the shore at Great Yarmouth. It was estimated that by the time of Manby's death nearly 1000 persons had been rescued from stranded ships by means of his apparatus.[2]

It was used by the Sea Fencibles by 1809, Waterguard, and later by H M Coastguard for many years.[3]

The Hilgay village sign features a Manby Mortar.[4]

  1. ^ Gilly Pickup, What the British Invented: From the Great to the Downright Bonkers, Amberley Publishing Limited, 2015 ISBN 1445650282.
  2. ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Manby, George William" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  3. ^ "Yarmouth". Norfolk Chronicle. 27 January 1810. p. 3.
  4. ^ "Hilgay". www.edp24.co.uk. 4 September 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2021.