Name Robert Forbes Siblings John Murray Forbes | Parents Ralph Bennet Forbes Role Writer Grandparents John Forbes | |
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Books Life-Boats, Projectiles And Other Means For Saving Life | ||
Captain Robert Bennet Forbes (1804 – November 23, 1889), was a sea captain, China merchant, ship owner, and writer. He was active in ship construction, maritime safety, the opium trade, and charitable activities, including food aid to Ireland, which became known as America’s first major disaster relief effort. "As a member of the Forbes family of Boston, much of his wealth was derived from the opium and China Trade and he played a prominent role in the outbreak of the Opium War. Despite the ethical problems of dealing in opium, he was known to engage in humanitarian activities, such as commandeering the USS Jamestown to send food to Irish famine sufferers in 1847."
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Biography
He was born in 1804 in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts, son of Ralph Bennet Forbes and Margaret Perkins, and brother of John Murray Forbes.
On October 19, 1817 at age 13 he joined the crew of the Canton Packet and made his first voyage to China. He arrived in Canton, China in March 1818 using the eastern route. In June 1818, he returned to Boston.
In 1819 he made a second voyage aboard the Canton Packet. On his next voyage he was promoted to third mate, he became second mate in 1821, and in 1825 was promoted to ship's master.
Aboard the Nile he sailed for Manila. Previous to this time he had been ship's master of the Levant. He became a full captain before he was 20 years old. From Manila the Nile went to China, then to California, and from there to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In 1828 he sailed the Danube for Sturgis & Perkins on a trading voyage to Smyrna, Turkey, and other European ports. He later was captain of the Niantic.
About 1832 he made his last voyage to China and in 1840 became head of Russell & Company, the largest American commercial house in China. Of his large means he made generous provision for his mother and younger brother. He visited China several times and became the American vice consul at Canton.
In 1834 he married Rose Greene Smith and they had three children: Robert Bennet Forbes (1837-1891), Edith Forbes who married Charles Eliot Perkins, and James Murray Forbes (1845-1885).
In 1841 he witnessed the Battle of Kowloon between the Qing Dynasty and the British Empire from aboard his rowboat.
He died on November 23, 1889 in Milton, Massachusetts.
Ships
Captain Forbes owned or was involved in the construction of approximately seventy vessels.
His first ship was the Lintin, a 390-ton bark built by Sprague and James in Medford, Mass., in 1830. Forbes owned the Lintin from 1830–1832, after which time she sailed in Chinese waters. Forbes also owned the Paul Jones, which took the first cargo of ice to China. "During the Civil War he was employed as a volunteer by the government to inspect the building of nine gunboats and at the same time built for himself and others the Meteor, of 1500 tons."
Forbes rig
The clipper ship Great Republic was originally rigged with Forbes' double topsail yards.
The Forbes rig was also well received on the Mermaid, as this 1852 excerpt from the "Boston Atlas" transcribed by Bruzelius shows:
THE CLIPPER BARQUE MERMAID, Captain Smith, recently arrived, made the passage from Canton to New York in 87 days. The telegraph, when she arrived, reported Capt. Forbes as her commander, instead, no doubt of stating that she had Forbes's rig. This rig is working its way slowly into favor with ship-owners, and when its advantages are known, it will soon be universally adopted. It is the proper rig for large clippers ... The Mermaid ... has tested it in a voyage around the world, and like other vessels with it, has sailed with less men, than if she had been rigged in the usual style.
However, the Forbes rig was publicly rejected by the captain of the N.B. Palmer in 1855, in favor of the Howe rig.
Legacy
He built a Greek Revival mansion for his mother in Milton, Massachusetts, designed by Isaiah Rogers (1833), that is now the Captain Robert Bennet Forbes House Museum.
Captain Forbes was a member and an officer of the Massachusetts Humane Society, one of the Boston pilot commissioners, member of the government of the Board of Trade, one of the vestry of King's Chapel, member of the Boston Port Society, and at one time and another a director of various railroad and insurance companies.
Captain Forbes was awarded the medal of the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society in 1849 for gallant conduct. The Cunard steamship Europa, on which Forbes was a passenger, ran down and sank an emigrant ship, Charles Bartlett. Forbes jumped from the bulwarks of the Europa into the water and rescued first a woman and child, and then a man.
In 1852 he was one of the founders and first president of the Sailors' Snug Harbor of Boston, a retirement home for "decrepit, infirm or aged sailors".
Writings
Forbes' writings, most of them pamphlets, include: