From Rock and Tempest : The Life of Captain George William Manby Tapa dura - 1971

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… Leer más

Hardback. Acceptable.

Hardback. Very Good.