An address to the British public : with suggestions for the recovering property from sunken vessels; also, for the means for rescuing the lives of sailors from stranded vessels; and for the prevention of shipwreck; likewise, on the extinction and prevention of destructive fires; and for rescuing persons from houses enveloped in flames: and for saving from drowning persons who break through the ice. With a description and representation of apparatus used for those purposes, and instructions for their application / By G.W. Manby.

  • Manby, George William, 1765-1854.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address to the British public : with suggestions for the recovering property from sunken vessels; also, for the means for rescuing the lives of sailors from stranded vessels; and for the prevention of shipwreck; likewise, on the extinction and prevention of destructive fires; and for rescuing persons from houses enveloped in flames: and for saving from drowning persons who break through the ice. With a description and representation of apparatus used for those purposes, and instructions for their application / By G.W. Manby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Spithead, to ascertain the practicability of her removal, from the dan- gers and injuries represented it gave to the roadstead. This I have been enabled to do, from the extreme stilliness of the weather, with the greatest accuracy; and to discover the difficulties that would attend such an undertaking. A considerable bank of soil I found sloping from her sides, and nearly one-third of her original height em- bedded in it, which, with the accumulated weight she is loaded with, may fairly be estimated at many times greater than her original weight. The length of time this ship has lain in the water, all the floating properties of the wood must consequently, be much decayed; a confirmation of which I have seen by a piece broken from her. These considerations have induced me to be of opinion, that her being bodily raised or removed is utterly impossible, as no part can be sufficiently strong to bear the purchases that necessarily would be required ; her upper works might be separated by a powerful mechanical application; but it appears to me, that would only tend to increase the evils of her present situation. The only method'to effect a dislodgment would be by a powerful concussion of gunpowder, which would be desirable, if extreme fine weather succeeded the explosion, to fish up the separated parts with tongs, &c., but if rough weather occurred, those separated parts might be liable to be driven about the anchorage, and thereby multiply the injuries to the roadstead of Spithead.” My object in the above letter was to prevent speculative adventurers from robbing the credulous by their fraudulent and specious misrepre- sentations, which my opinion materialy tended to effect, and caused the artful authors to decamp with their ill-gotten wealth. A few years since, Messrs. Deane and Bell visited Yarmouth to re- cover the property in the Guernsey Lilly Ordnance transport, that was sunk in the roads in the year 1799, in eleven fathom water. I deeply interested myself in their success, and was a daily attendant whenever they were at work, with their air-tight helmet and dress that was im- pervious to water. This was the first time I ever witnessed that pro- cess ; and my conviction was, and still is, that it was a most important auxiliary to the diving-bell, and in some cases, its superior, from its great simplicity, its facility of application and employment where the labour of one person at a time was required. At that period they used to descend by a rope ladder, a method I saw at once to be dangerous from its