Captain Robert Bennet Forbes (September 18, 1804 – November 23, 1889), was an American

sea captain A sea captain, ship's captain, captain, master, or shipmaster, is a high-grade licensed mariner who holds ultimate command and responsibility of a merchant vessel.Aragon and Messner, 2001, p.3. The captain is responsible for the safe and efficie ...

, China merchant and ship owner. He was active in ship construction,

maritime safety Maritime safety as part of and overlapping with water safety is concerned with the protection of life (search and rescue) and property through regulation, management and technology development of all forms of waterborne transportation. The execut ...

, the

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

trade, and charitable activities, including food aid to Ireland, which became known as America's first major disaster relief effort. William John Huggins - The opium ships at Lintin, China, 1824

William John Huggins - The opium ships at Lintin, China, 1824

Early life

'Canton Packet' - Some Ships of the Clipper Ship Era 0014

He was born in 1804 in

Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The comm ...

, son of Ralph Bennet Forbes and Margaret Perkins, sister of the trader in

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

and China

, Thomas Perkins. His brothers were Thomas Tunno and John Murray. On October 19, 1817, at age 13, he joined the crew on his uncle Thomas' ''Canton Packet'' and made his first voyage to China, the first of the three brothers to do so. He arrived in

Canton, China Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kong ...

in March 1818 via the eastern route. He returned to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

three months later. In 1819, he made a second voyage aboard ''Canton Packet''. On this voyage, he was promoted to third mate. He became second mate in 1821.

Ships' command and Far East trade

Aboard ''Nile'' he sailed for

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

. He had been ship's master of ''Levant''. He became a full captain in 1825. From Manila ''Nile'' went to China, then to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, and from there to

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. In 1828 he sailed ''Danube'' for Sturgis & Perkins on a trading voyage to

Smyrna, Turkey Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...

, and other European ports. He later was captain of . When

Russell & Company Russell & Company () was the largest American trading house of the mid-19th century in China. The firm specialised in trading tea, silk and opium and was eventually involved in the shipping trade. Foundation In 1818, Samuel Russell was approached ...

were merged with his uncle's Turkish opium trading firm in 1830, Forbes was placed in command of their opium storehouse vessel ''Lintin'' which was moored permanently at the

Pearl River The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-all ...

estuary island after which it was named. His work in supervising the repacking of the opium and negotiating trades with drug smugglers made him his first fortune. From his ample means he made generous provision for his mother and younger brother. He visited China several times and became the American vice-consul at

Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ent ...

. 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 The Battle of Kowloon () was a skirmish between British and Chinese vessels off the Kowloon Peninsula, China, on 4 September 1839, located in Hong Kong, although Kowloon was then part of the Guangdong province. The skirmish was the first arme ...

between the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

and the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

from aboard his rowboat. He died on November 23, 1889 in

Milton, Massachusetts Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and an affluent suburb of Boston. The population was 28,630 at the 2020 census. Milton is the birthplace of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and architect Buckminster Fuller. ...

Ships

Forbes owned or was involved in the construction of approximately seventy vessels. His first ship was ''Lintin'', a 390-ton bark built by Sprague and James in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1830. Forbes owned ''Lintin'' from 1830–1832, after which time she sailed in Chinese waters. Forbes also owned , 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." The ''Sylph'', yacht and pilot-boat, built in Boston in 1834 by Whitmore & Holbrook. was owned by Forbes. Her construction was overseen by Forbes.

Forbes rig

The

clipper ship A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century Merchant ship, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had ...

was originally rigged with Forbes' double

topsail A topsail ("tops'l") is a sail set above another sail; on square-rigged vessels further sails may be set above topsails. Square rig On a square rigged vessel, a topsail is a typically trapezoidal shaped sail rigged above the course sail and ...

yards The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly 0.914 ...

. The Forbes rig was also well received on ''Mermaid'', as this 1852 excerpt from the "Boston Atlas" transcribed by Bruzelius shows: The Forbes rig was publicly rejected, however, by the captain of in 1855, in favor of the Howe rig.

Legacy

He built a

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

mansion for his mother in

, designed by

Isaiah Rogers Isaiah Rogers (August 17, 1800 – April 13, 1869) was an American architect from Massachusetts who eventually moved his practice south, where he was based in Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio. He completed numerous designs for hotels, ...

(1833), that is now the

Captain Robert Bennet Forbes House The Captain Robert Bennet Forbes House, also known as the R. B. Forbes House and Forbes House Museum (and formerly as the American China Trade Museum), is a house museum located at 215 Adams Street, Milton, Massachusetts. It is now a National Hi ...

Museum. Forbes was awarded the medal of the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society in 1849 for gallant conduct. The Cunard steamship

Europa Europa may refer to: Places * Europe * Europa (Roman province), a province within the Diocese of Thrace * Europa (Seville Metro), Seville, Spain; a station on the Seville Metro * Europa City, Paris, France; a planned development * Europa Cliff ...

'', 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".Sailors' Snug Harbor of Boston Records, 1852-1975
at the Massachusetts Historical Society

Writings

Forbes' writings, most of them pamphlets, include: * * * *On the Establishment of a Line of Mail Steamers ... to China (1855) *Remarks on Ocean Steam Navigation (1855) *The Forbes Rig (1862) *Means for Making the Highways of the Ocean more Safe (1867) *Remarks on

Magnetism Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particles ...

and Local Attraction (1875) * *The

Lifeboat Lifeboat may refer to: Rescue vessels * Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape * Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues * Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen A ...

and other Life-saving Inventions (1880) *New Rig for Steamers (1883) *Notes on Navigation (1884) *Loss of Life and Property in the Fisheries (1884) *

References

External links

Website of the Captain Forbes House Museum

1855

ship '' N.B. Palmer'', New York, 1855
A Letter from Geo. H. Bradbury to R.B. Forbes
1855
Forbes biography, Answers.com

The Warship Of Peace That Fed Famine-Stricken Ireland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forbes, Robert Bennet 1804 births 1889 deaths

Robert Bennet Forbes Captain Robert Bennet Forbes (September 18, 1804 – November 23, 1889), was an American sea captain, China merchant and ship owner. He was active in ship construction, maritime safety, the opium trade, and charitable activities, including food ...

Writers from Boston Businesspeople from Boston 19th-century American businesspeople American consuls American expatriates in China Sea captains American merchants 19th-century American diplomats People from Jamaica Plain